Amazon Fresh is reportedly prepping for its own kind of British invasion. Amazon is getting ready to launch its same-day delivery service in the U.K., the Times of London first reported and multiple sources have told Re/code.
Amazon Fresh will reportedly be available in the U.K. later this year, even though the service is still only available in metro areas in and around Seattle, parts of Southern and Northern California, New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia in the U.S. This service offers same-day and early morning delivery on groceries, household items and other products. An Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment on the move to Re/code.
Competition in the online grocery delivery marketplace may be even steeper in the U.K. than in the U.S. An estimated 5 percent of grocery sales in the U.K. take place online, according to a report published last month by food and consumer goods research firm IGD. Online grocery sales in the U.S. are estimated to account for 1.9 percent of total grocery sales, according to a report published by industry research firm IBIS World in December 2014. However, it's important to note here that these two figures come from different reports and slightly different periods of time, so it's likely that online grocery sales in the U.S. have increased slightly since this report was published given the small but expected growth of this industry.
Still, if Amazon Fresh does hop across the pond, it will have to compete with established online grocery supermarkets like Ocado as well as the online delivery arms of the country's brick-and-mortar supermarket giants Tesco and Sainsbury's. But then again, it's not like Amazon doesn't know a thing or two about how to dominate global e-commerce.
