Amazon.in rebrands Amazon Now as Prime Now, beefs up offering

Amazon India has announced the rebranding of its grocery offering Amazon Now to Prime Now. Prime Now promises an expanded selection of over 10,000 products across categories like fruits and vegetables, grocery, staples, meat, home and kitchen, exclusive express two-hour delivery to Prime members and ‘crazy deals’.

The brand is also investing in a chill chain to ensure delivery of fresh fruits and vegetables and dairy products to customers.

The expanded selection options will be fulfilled by Amazon through the Now Store, as well as by supermarkets such as Big Bazaar, Aditya Birla More, and local specialty sellers like Licious and Pescafresh.

“We are excited about scaling up our grocery experience with a significantly expanded selection and new delivery services with Prime Now, an Ultrafast App, for ‘delivery in hours’. Customers can access fresh quality of fruits and vegetables, staples, and also get access to popular Amazon bestsellers. With new delivery hours, and over 10,000 products fulfilled by Amazon, customers can look forward to a fast, convenient and trustworthy shopping experience on Prime Now,” said Sameer Khetarpal, Director, Category Management (Grocery), Amazon India.

Commenting on the development, Siddharth Nambiar, Head of Prime Now, Amazon India, said, “On Prime Now, customers can shop for products from our Now Store, which is fulfilled by Amazon. We have invested in customised infrastructure of fulfilment centres (FC) for faster deliveries and chill chains to maintain temperatures at optimum conditions for leafy products and dairy products like curd and paneer. We are encouraged by the strong response and quantities ordered have grown by 90% monthly since the launch of the Now Store.”

The app-only ultrafast service will be available to customers in Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad.

Customers will also be able to enjoy “Crazy Deals” on grocery products with up to 30% off. In addition, Amazon Pay will run regular promotional offers for customers who shop on the app.

To meet the delivery promise and on-time performance of Prime Now, Amazon India has now established 15 fulfilment centres equipped with temperature-controlled zones. Besides this, the fulfilment centres will store kitchen appliances, beauty products and household supplies available on Prime Now.
This re-branding comes close on the heels of Walmart’s acquisition of Amazon’s biggest competitor in India, Flipkart.

Amazon and Walmart have been engaged in a bitter duel in the US where the former has taken the lead from the latter since its debut.

In India, Prime Now will be competing with the likes of Big Basket (which dominates the market) and Grofers. Although both the brands work on different models (Big Basket has its own inventory from which it provides the products that customers order and Prime Now scouts for products that the customer has ordered from nearby supermarkets), it will be interesting to see how these nuances fare for the both the brands.

Big Bazar also charges a fixed delivery cost while Amazon is offering free delivery to its Prime members.
Amazon is also rolling out its food retailing business in India called Amazon Retail. Amazon Retail, which sells food products, is already a seller on Amazon pantry, a service on its online marketplace Amazon.in.

Flipkart is also looking to expand its grocery business from Bengaluru to more cities in India.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com