Amazon announced on Friday that its fast-delivery Prime Now app would be phased out at the end of the year, saying that its regular app will now provide the same level of service. The seven-year-old app, which also has its own website, delivers groceries and other household essentials in under an hour. It has been integrated into Amazon.com in order to “streamline” all of its services into a single app, according to the company.
What is Amazon Prime Now?
Prime Now is Amazon’s on-demand shopping and delivery service, which is mostly used by the company’s Whole Foods Market and Amazon Fresh divisions. While Prime Now may not be available in all locations where Amazon Prime is available, an Amazon Prime subscription provides and is required for access to the service. In rivalry with Instacart, Amazon partners with local specialty stores such as Uwajimaya and Pet Food Express to offer Prime Now as a third-party delivery channel. According to a Cowen & Co. survey from May 2016, roughly one out of every four Amazon Prime customers had used Prime Now.
What will be the alternative to Amazon Prime Now?
Customers will continue to receive the same “fast” delivery as they did with Prime Now, according to Amazon. In India, Singapore, and Japan, the company has already discontinued Prime Now as a separate operation.
Amazon Pantry was suspended last year due to the pandemic wreaking havoc on shipping, but it was eventually phased out in 2021. It was a delivery service for bulky and heavy products such as bottled water and canned goods. In 2014, Prime Now debuted in a few cities before expanding to 5,000 cities and providing free two-hour delivery. Separate Prime Now warehouses are also available. With Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market, it became more widely available in 2019. Amazon also provides Prime Now distribution by third-party retailers, such as Seattle’s Bartell’s Pharmacy, which will now switch to Amazon.com, according to the company.
“In 2019, we started offering two-hour delivery from Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market on Amazon in the United States. Before the Prime Now app and website are retired later this year, we’ll migrate our third-party partners and local stores to the Amazon shopping experience globally
“Stephenie Landry, Amazon’s vice president of grocery, confirmed this. Prime Now was first introduced in 2014. Now you’ll be able to shop, monitor orders, and contact customer service all from one app.
“The same super-fast delivery on daily essentials, gifts, toys, high-quality food, and more that you’ve come to expect from Prime Now is now available on Amazon,” Landry said in a statement. Customers who have ordered two-hour delivery on Amazon have overwhelmingly positive reviews, according to the company, and it’s a natural next step to simplify the ultrafast delivery experience globally. Customers in the United States can now add products from their Alexa shopping lists to their Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods Market shopping carts with ease.
