- The Herald -
Online retailer Amazon has launched its own internet grocery store in a bid to rival the delivery services of major supermarkets. Among the brands sold also Kraft, Kenco, Carte Noir.
Online retailer Amazon has launched its own internet grocery store in a bid to rival the delivery services of major supermarkets.
The website, which last year launched its own MP3 download service, is now setting itself up in competition with superstores such as Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s by offering customers a range of 22,000 household items.
The Amazon grocery store, which launched yesterday, will sell leading brands including Pampers, Ariel, Uncle Ben’s, Dolmio, Kraft, Schwartz, Kenco, Carte Noir, Walkers and Oreo, as well as Bakers and Purina One pet foods.
A large selection of international and specialist items from organic, vegan, kosher, gluten-free and sugar-free ranges is also available.
Customers can pay a £49 annual membership fee for unlimited one-day delivery or choose from Amazon’s standard range of delivery options.
However, the site will not offer the one or two-hour delivery time slots provided by its supermarket rivals.
Amazon’s grocery director James Leeson said: “Amazon.co.uk’s aim is to be the place where customers can find and discover any product they want to buy online. ”
Online sales of groceries are booming in Britain and, although they account for only a small percentage of the overall market, grocery specialists IGD forecast they will almost double to £7.2 billion by 2014.
Amazon, which began as an online bookshop, already sells groceries online in the US and has launched its supermarket service in Germany.
RBS Securities analyst Justin Scarborough said the launch would not pose an immediate threat to existing delivery services, but that Amazon was likely to improve its offering and that its arrival underscored the difficulties of forecasting the future performance of Ocado, the British online-only grocery retailer.
He said: “With Amazon joining the fray, with Waitrose Deliver able to sell inside the M25 from next July, let alone what plans say M&S or even Morrisons have in this space over coming years, forecasting Ocado’s sales and profits many years out is fraught with danger and uncertainties."