One hour delivery from Amazon competes with UK supermarket chains

Thursday, October 1, 2015 - 10:33 by Graham Miller

Amazon has just started to offer its customers in the UK the opportunity to place orders via safe shopping online and have them delivered to their doorsteps within 60 minutes, with a focus on offering fresh and frozen food - which could cause problems for established supermarkets, according to the Guardian.

The trial of Prime Now which got underway in Birmingham this week is currently limited to a small range of around 60 different products, with the intention being that it will provide a quick way for people to get access to food items which are easy to prepare.

Frozen pizzas and ice cream are among the products on offer, suggesting that Amazon is hoping to appeal to customers who are sitting at home on the sofa and do not feel like heading out to the shops themselves.

As well as posing a threat to the market share of companies like Tesco and Sainsbury’s, this one hour delivery service from Amazon will surely be problematic for takeaways in the UK, especially once the rollout has extended to London in the next month or two.

Prime Now has been operating in select parts of the UK for a short period already, but its switch to frozen and chilled food items marks a new stage of its development. And it could only be a matter of time before Amazon Fresh, the firm’s fully fledged grocery delivery service, migrates from the US to appease British customers.

The cost of delivery will be key to determining whether or not Amazon is really a contender in the grocery delivery market, although with free, same day distribution available in America for Amazon Fresh customers, it could soon be mastering the art of selling food via safe shopping online in the UK.