Amazon Fresh is gearing up for a festive fight for customer spend, with discounts across hundreds of items in stores and online, Christmas own-label product launches and an improved delivery slot booking experience.
The e-commerce giant’s UK grocery arm has introduced price cuts of up to 40% off everyday items such as fruit & vegetables, as well as branded seasonal favourites, in what Amazon Fresh UK director Matt Birch called “the biggest price cuts campaign we’ve ever done”.
While the Amazon Fresh online offering has price matched against Tesco Clubcard for the past year, it is the first time online shoppers will be able to shop discounted Fresh items, denoted by a red symbol and a percentage figure of the saving.
“Particularly running up to Christmas, which we know is a super expensive time for people, we wanted to show them we’re bringing lots of value through Amazon Fresh as they’ve come to expect from Amazon elsewhere,” Birch told The Grocer.
Amazon has also improved its delivery slot booking system, allowing online shoppers to select a slot up to three days in advance before they begin building their baskets. Previously, delivery slot options would be given after an order was put together.
Customers will now be able to “reserve the slot, build that really important basket right up to Christmas, and know that they’re going to have that super-fast delivery speed right the way up to Christmas, even though we’re already reading about the shortage of availability of slots”, Birch said. Grocery deliveries will run up until Christmas Eve.
Amazon’s own label By Amazon range – the first advertising campaign for which was launched last month, featuring the tagline ‘Food too, who knew?’ – has also been expanded, to include a “specialty Christmas range”.
Much of the Christmas NPD is for grab and go items such as a Turkey Feast Sandwich; Pulled Turkey, Smoked Salmon & Cream Cheese Sandwich; Brie & Cranberry Baguette; and No Turkey Feast Sandwich.
Ahead of Christmas, Amazon Fresh will be launching its 20th store, in Notting Hill Gate on 29 November. The store will feature the same Just Walk Out checkout-free technology as previous openings.
Additional stores will also be available to order from via Deliveroo, following the addition of Amazon Fresh Hoxton to the app in September. Birch said he expected one major draw of Amazon Fresh stores this Christmas to be the pick up and return counters, allowing customers to collect and return items purchased online.
“There’s nothing worse than having the magic of Christmas morning spoiled by an untimely delivery but with Amazon Fresh stores, that’s not an issue,” he said.
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