Amazon will expand its grocery
delivery operation in the US
and may introduce the offer into Europe next
year.
The online retailer has run local grocery delivery firm AmazonFresh in Seattle for at least five years and plans to extend the service to Los Angeles imminently and then San Francisco. Another 20 urban areas have been earmarked for 2014, including a possible push into Europe where its
main existing markets are the UK and Germany .
Amazon warehouses currently in development have refrigerated areas for food and space to store up to a million general merchandise items, according to Reuters sources. The retailer is expected to tie its food and general merchandise delivery operations together.
The prospect of it selling fresh food would put it in direct
competition with Ocado, Tesco and the other supermarkets. Morrisons, previously
the only major grocer not to sell food online, said last month it would launch
a food delivery service by January in partnership with Ocado.
The company, which has come under fire
for its tax arrangements and lately suffered a series of strikes in Germany , has
not commented on any of the plans.
But Reuters cited a supermarket analyst, Bill Bishop of Willard Bishop and online consultancy Brick Meets Click, saying the firm could be targeting as many as new 40 markets for the service.
But Reuters cited a supermarket analyst, Bill Bishop of Willard Bishop and online consultancy Brick Meets Click, saying the firm could be targeting as many as new 40 markets for the service.
Food delivery in the UK has become extremely competitive. But some analysts believe that retailers all struggle to make money on the service even though it is now seen as a vital part of operating a supermarket to help retain customers.
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