'Same Day Delivery Of Grocery At Doorstep' – Amazon Yet Again Makes Headlines

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Oct 18, 2014

Without any doubt, this year has been the year for the ecommerce giant Amazon (AMZN, Financial). It has been in the headlines almost throughout the year- from denting Walmart’s (WMT, Financial) business to locking horn with Google (GOOG, Financial) over acquisition to stepping into the smartphone arena to cementing its presence in the Indian subcontinent. Amazon has been creating news across the globe.

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Jeff Bezos has successfully diverted the attention of all the spotlights on Amazon. The company has managed to grab the world attention to such an extent that kids now answer in their text book question that Amazon is an online shopping site, giving a total miss to the textbook answer that Amazon is one of the largest rivers of the world. Such has become the aura of brand Amazon. Yet again it has managed to capture the news headline with the launch of the new service – ‘same day grocery delivery at doorstep’. Let us look into the details of this new news.

Ecommerce in daily life needs

Amazon's free, same-day grocery delivery service is rolling into New York City. The bright green truck will now reach select Brooklyn residents. Whether you need to stock up for the winter or are ill-equipped for the night's dinner party, AmazonFresh makes free, same-day and early-morning deliveries for orders over $35. This is the report doing the rounds in New York.

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After delighting customers worldwide with amazing online deals on smartphones, laptops, consumer durables and so on and using their express delivery system to deliver products at the doorsteps at a lightning fast speed, it is now foraying into the grocery segment with same day delivery promise, sure to bring joy in the busy lives of millions across the world, New York to start with.

Going by the Amazon site, more than 500,000 items from local shops and restaurants will be available on Amazon for their prime members in select ZIP code areas, and going by the ZIP codes under this category it essentially means Park Slope area, in northwest Brooklyn, New York City.

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Amazon has set its eyes on the trendy Brooklyn neighborhood to start with before expanding its reach. The obvious speculation behind the spot selection is the lifestyle of people dwelling in the neighborhood. The crowd here is mostly the self-indulgent youth segment who would often run short of their supplies during that weekend party or often on a Monday after the weekend party mood has just began sinking and Monday blues started taking its toll on their lives. This is where Amazon cleverly steps into their life saving them from at least one of the blues of dotting at the nearest departmental store, instead get them delivered at your doorstep while you get over with the hangover sipping coffee.

An Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment on when the service will reach other parts of the city, including Manhattan. As of now, residents of Park Slope can place orders online or via the mobile app by 10 a.m. for a before-dinner arrival, or by 10 p.m. to have it by breakfast the next day.

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Customers can choose prepared meals or easy-to-make fare like live lobster from The Lobster Place, charcuterie from Dickson's Farmstand Meats, salad kits from Gotham Greens, and fresh-baked bread from Amy's Bread.

So what’s the new deal???

Amazon has made the service free of any extra charge or delivery charges for their prime members through the end of the year. But the catch is that you will need to upgrade your subscription to a Prime Fresh Membership by shelling out $299 as subscription fee which will include the benefits of the $99 Prime Membership, like two-day shipping and access to the instant video library and continue using the service till 2015.So it’s not exactly free, as the management books state – “there is nothing called free lunch.”

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To start shopping, visit AmazonFresh.com, enter your ZIP code, and sign in using a Prime account. Once you are signed in, you'll be able to view past purchases and save shopping lists, as well as find recipes and product reviews.

Amazon game plan

Amazon has been running this line of business on an experiment basis in Seattle since 2007 and further reached out to Los Angeles in the summers of 2013 and further expanded its reach to the San Francisco Bay area towards the end of last year. Though unconfirmed, yet the buzz is that the ecommerce honcho is eyeing 20 other urban settlements which include some beyond the U.S. soils.

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The Brooklyn addition happened to keep pace in the run with one of its closest competitors Google in the segment. This week Google extended its same-day shopping service, now known as Google Express, to Chicago, Boston and Washington, D.C.

Final take on Amazon’s new strategy

It looks like Amazon is all set to capture the entire shopping zone across the world and put it on their versatile shopping web portal. It won’t be a surprise if in the recent future the phrase ‘going shopping’ gets replaced by ‘going Amazon-ing’. Amazon is giving a run for their money to all the retail world players. From global retail giants like Walmart to Local retail heroes like Flipkart in India- all have gone into a tizzy with the advent of Amazon. This further reinforces our claim of taking investment position in the ecommerce giant that we have propounded in every article on Amazon. So for now, happy shopping should continue not just on the Amazon shopping site but also on shares of the ecommerce bigwig.