Amazon Opens Fresh Grocery Deliveries to Business Customers

Amazon has begun offering same-day delivery of perishable groceries to its business customers.

The new service, long available for consumer customers, is being rolled out in 2,300 communities around the U.S. in response to what the company says was a top customer request, Amazon said in a news release Tuesday (May 5).

“Our customers have been asking for an easier way to order fresh groceries alongside the everyday business essentials they rely on to run their operations,” said Shelley Salomon, vice president, Amazon Business.

“By adding fresh groceries to the already expansive selection Amazon Business offers, organizations can now combine items like copy paper and printer ink with milk, fruit, and other breakroom staples—check out with a single cart, and have everything delivered to their workplace within hours.”

The program makes deliveries of items like dairy products, produce, baked goods and frozen foods available to businesses such as offices, gyms or schools, Amazon said in a news release.

Orders are delivered within set hours, the release added, “whether it’s bagels for a client meeting, milk and cream to keep the coffee bar stocked, or fresh fruit for a board meeting.”

“As business customers look to simplify their buying, Amazon Business is focused on offering a wide selection of national and local brands, including organic and natural options, at an incredible value,” the company added.

The announcement comes one day after Amazon said it would expand its supply chain offering beyond its own retail/merchant operations, offering freight, distribution, fulfillment and parcel shipping tools to outside businesses.

As PYMNTS wrote last month, Amazon’s delivery speed is a “shiny lure” in a “want-or-need-it-now world,” with products arriving quicker than ever. By rolling out new one- and three-hour delivery options, the Seattle-based company has created “a Trojan horse service” that could help ingrain it into people’s everyday consumption habits, the report added.

“This is less about faster shipping and more about increasing purchase frequency, capturing impulse demand and embedding Amazon deeper into the fabric of daily consumption,” Shauna Bowen, chief digital and transformation officer at Radial, said in an interview with PYMNTS.

“As Amazon expands automated, purpose-built local fulfillment, Walmart will need to invest in automation and operating model changes or absorb higher costs to stay competitive.”