Amazon has announced it's expanding the reach of AmazonFresh, its fresh food delivery service which had only been available in some US cities until now.
For a standing fee of £6.99 per month, Amazon Prime members that live in central London can now put one of 130,000 different grocery items into their basket ready for checkout alongside that rotary sander and patio furniture.
The ranges include "Britain's best-loved brands and offerings from local food producers and shops based in world-famous locations including Borough Market and Notting Hill," Amazon said.
However, while branded goods will be on offer, it's only Morrisons' own products (from the big UK supermarket chain) that will be available to buy, following the deal announced earlier in the year.
In the UK, it is an expansion of Amazon's 'Pantry' service, which lets shoppers buy food, drink and other household items. Deliveries for fresh and frozen food were extremely limited by location and stock choice, however. Now, there's the whole gamut to choose from, including fresh meat and other perishables.
Customers who order before 1pm can have their orders delivered from 5pm the same day - or can choose a one-hour delivery slot between 7am and 11pm. Perhaps the biggest detractor for the service is that £6.99 per month standing fee for AmazonFresh; this fee does include free delivery on orders over £40 though.
While AmazonFresh is only available to Prime subscribers in central London for now, the company said it plans to expand it into new areas and beyond the capital as soon as is viable.
The move is unlikely to be welcomed by entrenched industry leaders Tesco and Sainsbury's - and is it will directly rival online-only supermarket Ocado - but with a majority of the UK still buying groceries in-store, it’ll take a shift in consumer behaviours and attitudes before they really need to worry.
Amazon's launch is more likely to impact other smaller services paddling in the same pool, however. Caper, for example, offers delivery of groceries within 60 minutes from local stores with no price mark-up and a flat delivery fee of £4.95.
Available on iOS, Android and iPad it currently services areas around Chelsea, South Kensington, Pimlico, Notting Hill and Marylebone.
With such a similar proposition, it's a race to scale - and Amazon has some significant weight to throw behind it.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
