Amazon Expands Grocery Delivery In The UK

Amazon Inc. is planning to expand Amazon Fresh, its grocery delivery service, to millions of members in the United Kingdom (U.K.) by year’s end, the company announced.

Starting Tuesday (July 28) in more than 40 communities including Bracknell, Guildford, Maidenhead, Runnymede, Surrey Heath, Windsor, Woking, Wokingham and Guildford, customers can choose meat, seafood, produce, snacks and household essentials for fast, same-day delivery. The service will be rolled out to millions of members across the U.K. by year’s end, Amazon said.

The eCommerce retailer promises free delivery within two hours for Prime members on orders of 40 pounds ($52) or more. Prime members in the area can get a one-hour delivery on all orders over 40 pounds for a delivery fee of 3.99 pounds ($5).

New members can try Prime for 30 days for free. An annual Prime membership costs 79 pounds ($102) or 7.99 pounds ($10) a month.

“Prime was designed to make our customers’ lives better every single day and was built on the foundation of unlimited fast delivery,” Amazon said in a statement.

Amazon launched its grocery store a decade ago with hundreds of thousands of products.

In 2016, Amazon Fresh debuted — customers across London, Surrey, Hampshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire can select from major brands including Booths, Pepsi, Danone, Arla, Warburtons, Britvic, Whole Foods Market and more. Amazon Fresh customers are also promised a selection of premium products from artisan and home-grown producers, including Gail’s Artisan Bakery, C.Lidgate and Paxton & Whitfield.

Earlier this month, PYMNTS reported online grocery sales growth continued in June as COVID-19 continued to shape the way people shopped for necessities like food, according to a new survey by Brick Meets Click.

In the last 30 days, the survey found that the number of online sales grew over 9 percent, hitting a record of $7.2 billion. That’s up from $6.6 billion in May.

Household reach increased by 35 percent in June, with the number of customers ordering groceries online for delivery or pickup reaching 45.6 million in June, up from 43 million in May. Purchase frequency was up 9 percent from May as households made an average 1.9 online grocery orders for either delivery or pickup, an increase from May’s 1.7.