Look out Chicago and Dallas, here comes Amazon. The giant company recently announced it is expanding grocery delivery service into these cities. This is the latest in a line of expansions for the service in recent times.
Originally launched in 2007 in Mercer Island, WA, AmazonFresh has gradually expanded over the past eight years into Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, New York City, Philadelphia, and Sacramento, among other areas of the U.S. This year, Amazon has ramped up its market launches, bringing the service to Boston, Northern Virginia, Baltimore, and to London. The latter is its first international launch. The service has also expanded within other markets where it was already available.
To sum it up, AmazonFresh promises to deliver a range of “home” goods — such as fruit and vegetables, and meat — on the same day or the next day, depending on when they are ordered. The service is available to $99/year Prime members, who must also pay an extra $14.99 per month to access AmazonFresh. This add-on monthly fee was recently slashed from a eye opening $300 per year.
Amazon has long been looking to push beyond its ecommerce platform roots and into the broader services realm. More recently, the company has been aggressively expanding its restaurant delivery service that was started in Seattle last year, and it is now available in many cities across the U.S., as well as London. The online company has also been expanding its consumer goods-ordering Dash Buttons program outside the U.S. It was first introduced the Wi-Fi-connected buttons in the U.S. in March 2015. This feature was recently expanded to international markets, kicking off with the United Kingdom, Germany, and Austria.
The ultimate goal is to reach extensively into the lives of consumers everywhere, and by launching AmazonFresh in large urban areas connecting two or more cities such as Chicago or Dallas, the internet giant moves one step closer to being everything to everyone.