Amazon

Amazon Fresh is Now Free for Prime Members – What it Means for Brands

By Tinuiti Team

Ecommerce is getting more competitive every year, and no move illustrates this more clearly than Amazon Fresh. Amazon’s grocery delivery service has seen lots of changes in the past few years–some good, and some bad. 

This latest change to free membership is most definitely good. 

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What is Amazon Fresh?

 
Amazon Fresh is an online grocery delivery service created by Amazon. These groceries are mostly provided through Whole Foods Market (also owned by Amazon) within the U.S., and other retail chains if the customer is outside the U.S. 
 

What’s the difference between Amazon Fresh and Prime Pantry?

 
Although similar at first blush, Amazon Fresh is actually very different from Prime Pantry in both how they operate and how the customer benefits. 

Prime Pantry allows you to shop for grocery items across a wide variety of third party brands. It offers low-priced products with coupons and savings, but the online catalog does not include meat or dairy products, nor anything that requires refrigeration. 

Amazon Fresh, on the other hand, allows you to purchase any items available at the grocery store, including itmes like frozen foods, eggs, vegetables and bread. It will be picked up from the grocery store and shipped straight to your house on the same day you purchase it. 
 

How does Amazon Fresh work?

 
Amazon Fresh used to have a $14.99 monthly fee, but is now completely free for Amazon Prime members. 

Prime Members in select cities can browse the Amazon.com/Fresh store and order groceries from their local Whole Foods Market branch. Store employees will assemble the order, which will be picked up by an Amazon Fresh delivery driver and shipped to the customer’s location. The customer can opt for either Attended Delivery, Unattended Delivery or Pickup. 
 
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Amazon Fresh offers free 2-hour delivery in most regions for orders above $35. Certain regions will have higher 2-hour delivery thresholds. Orders that fall under the $35 limit will have delivery fees applied based on the size of order and chosen delivery speed/time of delivery.
 

What does the change mean for my brand?

 
Amazon is gradually making Amazon Fresh easier for customers to access. First was free 2-hour delivery for certain regions, and now Amazon is totally free for Prime customers. 

This move to free Amazon Fresh service means brands that currently have relationships with Whole Foods Market have even greater access to customers that are willing to pay premium prices for premium products and services. This access can also increase a brand’s potential exposure to new markets beyond the original Prime members.

But remember that although there are over 100 million Amazon Prime members, only those within the following areas are covered by Amazon Fresh:

 

How can brands get on Amazon Fresh?

 
Back in 2018, Amazon Fresh made the major decision to drop third-party sellers from its inventory. Speculation is that this was prompted by Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods just the year before. 

And even if you can’t get onto Amazon Fresh right now, there are still plenty of opportunities for your brand to take advantage of the ecommerce surge. Amazon itself is a hot market for products of all stripes, including organic food and household products. 
 

AmazonFresh & Prime Pantry Now Available in Sponsored Products

 
As of March 2019, AmazonFresh ASINs (and Prime Pantry) can now be promoted using Sponsored Product, making it easier for shoppers to find your shelf-stable, refrigerated, and frozen products.

Pro-Tip: Amazon Sponsored Products ads are—and will continue to be—one of the most powerful tools for driving discoverability and incremental sales for Amazon sellers.

The launch enables advertisers to create campaigns for all Fresh ASINs, including perishable ASINs, and enables ads for ASINs with a Fresh offer to be shown in the AmazonFresh program experience.
 

Example of a Prime Pantry Sponsored Products ad.

 

The feature is automatically enabled for new and existing Sponsored Product campaigns. If you have a Sponsored Products campaign running that features an ASIN with multiple offers, the Fresh offer is now eligible for display.

As of now, Sponsored Products is the only ad type available to Fresh ASINs, but an ASIN can be available through the Fresh, Pantry and national retail programs.

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