Amazon Fresh Predictions

Amazon is battling Walmart and Instacart for online grocery dominance. Adapting to how Amazon Fresh changes in light of this tussle will be critical for Grocery and CPG brands looking to maintain and grow market share. 

In a recent podcast episode, the Bobsled team shared some predictions about where Fresh is headed, read on to learn more. We’ve also created an in-depth white paper on the topic: The Ultimate Guide To Amazon Fresh in 2020

Prediction #1 - Instacart’s rise will prompt Amazon innovation

“Instacart works with 400 retailers with a total of 30,000 stores,” says Bobsled’s Grocery expert Lauren Sutehall. “This is why Instacart has seen such explosive growth during Covid. Neither Amazon nor Walmart can compete with their breadth of product selection.”

Fortunately for Amazon, they’re well poised to reclaim market share from Instacart.

“Amazon’s ace in the online grocery market war is their Prime membership base,” Lauren says. “Prime members get free same day pick up or delivery for Fresh orders, as long as the order meets the minimum threshold. I believe Amazon will make further tweaks to make it easier for Prime shoppers to order groceries through Fresh, and this will win them a lot more repeat business for big grocery orders, compared to Instacart which will continue to dominate one-off purchases.”

💡Check out An Introduction To Instacart For Brands

Prediction #2 - Consolidation of Amazon’s grocery platforms

Amazon has multiple online grocery programs - Amazon Fresh, Prime Pantry, Prime Now plus Whole Foods Market. This creates a confusing experience for both brands and customers alike.

“A shopper might select certain products from Fresh, and unwittingly add products from Pantry to the same order, and due to the compartmentalization of the programs, items within this single order may get delivered to the customer on different dates,” explains Bobsled CEO Kiri Masters. “This is less ideal if you need all the products for the same recipe.”

“On the other side of the transaction, many Grocery & CPG brands are already struggling with awareness when it comes to Amazon performance data. Multiple grocery subprograms in addition to the regular Amazon retail channel is a nightmare to manage. Streamlining everything under a single banner would make it easier for brands to track, which would likely increase investment into the platform. Amazon may look at consolidating their programs as a way to keep pace with Instacart.”

💡 Listen to All You Need To Know About Amazon Fresh

Prediction #3 - Pantry to be discontinued

Amazon is not accepting any additional brands into the Amazon Pantry program for the remainder of 2020. They have encouraged interested parties to sell via Seller Central instead. Many are speculating that there is a strong chance that Amazon will decide to discontinue the Pantry program, or merge it with Fresh. 

“In order to allow Prime customers to create more ‘complete’ grocery orders, I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon expanded Fresh to include more non-perishables which would traditionally be sold through Pantry,” Lauren says. 

“Amazon has a strong preference for sophisticated ‘retail ready’ brands with reliable supply chains on the Fresh platform. Other brands selling perishables should be getting comfortable with Seller Central as soon as possible.”

Prediction #4 - Integration of Whole Foods Market on Amazon

Amazon will likely try to maximize their Whole Foods Market (WFM) investment by expanding their 365 WFM Private Label distribution beyond just the current Whole Foods Market store location zip codes.  

Amazon may decide to either bring 365 WFM/365 Everyday products into their FCs, or expand the dark store footprint across the country to create a national online footprint for these 365 WFM/365 Everyday products.  

Consumer adoption of Fresh could be enhanced if Amazon allowed consumers to upload an image of their WFM store receipt or give an opt-in for consumers to allow AmazonFresh to use WFM data on their last in-store trip to build their initial order on Fresh.  

Initial orders on Fresh can take up to 50-60 minutes for consumers to place so removing that time barrier could lead to more consumer adoption of the Fresh service.

To learn more, check out
‘The Ultimate Guide To Amazon Fresh in 2020’

Take a deep dive into how the service works, the application requirements, and how to successfully manage your account.

The Ultimate Guide To
AmazonFresh in 2020