I Have Seen the Future of Grocery Shopping...
Saturday, March 01, 2008 8:10 PM
...and it's from Amazon.
Seriously.
I've been happily buying books and electronics from Amazon for years, when last week I happened to stumble across Amazon's new site, Amazon Fresh. Although it's very much in startup mode (they only offer service to certain zip codes around Seattle, USA), it's a classic example of how great user experience and service trumps lower cost alternatives. For example:
Searching. They have taken the simplicity and accuracy of searching from Amazon.com and applied it to grocery items online. In addition, their site pivots across three areas for narrowing down selections - aisle (category), brand, and type (e.g. organic). This makes searching for even the most random item a breeze.
Products. Amazon Fresh is one of the few online suppliers to offer a really good selection of organic and natural foods. It's kind of like having the online version of Whole Foods. Also, because they don't operate a chain of stores their inventory tracking system is current - therefore, when an item is out of stock it actually says so on the site (as opposed to other online grocery retailers where they either don't deliver or substitute for something that may or may not be appropriate.)
Pre-dawn Delivery. Order your groceries at night (I placed an order the other night at 10.40pm) and it's on your doorstep before 6am the next morning. You don't get disturbed - all of your shopping appears in Amazon's totes on your doorstep - you return the totes with your next order. Think of it like outsourcing your shopping overnight :)
A couple of things I would like the see them adopt:
More detailed product information. I have a child that suffers from food allergies, so reading labels is very important to check for eggs, nut traces, etc. Many of the products listed only offer basic ingredient information - although I believe they are working on this.
Being able to search for items in your cart. If you are putting together a long list of purchases, it's always nice to be able to search for things in your cart (when you stumble across something that would be much better).
If you live in one of their delivery areas, you should definitely check it out - you won't be disappointed. My only hope is that it doesn't become another WebVan!