Google is adding fruits, vegetables, meat and milk to the Google Express deliveries, answering rival Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Fresh grocery service and supermarket-shopping startups for example Instacart Inc.
Google will add perishable groceries to pick neighbourhoods in Bay area and La, the company said Wednesday. Deliveries are US$2.99 for members and US$4.99 for everyone else. Membership costs US$95 annually. Amazon gives customers who pay US$99 annually for Prime service the opportunity to get some foods delivered within a two-hour window, and offers an expanded range to those subscribed to Amazon Fresh for US$299 annually.
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The Express update is Google’s latest move in the fragmented online grocery market, which IBISWorld estimates is really a US$13 billion industry. Major players include Peapod, a subsidiary of Royal Ahold NV, which serves markets in the Northeast and Midwest, and FreshDirect in Nyc. Amazon’s grocery deliveries can be found in New York, Seattle and areas of California. Instacart offers grocery delivery in 18 states and Washington, D.C. and it has a partnership with Whole-foods Market.
Delivering perishable groceries is more difficult than non- perishable items which could be left on doorsteps, and groceries really are a low-margin business. Amazon and Google are seeking to bring their technological savvy to bear around the problem and are developing systems that could eventually see drones or self-driving cars deliver products to a person’s home.
Bloomberg News
