To jog your memory, Amazon India launched Amazon Kirana Now in Bengaluru in 2015 to take on the grocery delivery services in the city, and then launched Amazon Now in Bengaluru, a hyper-local delivery service for the city residents.
All these initiatives from Amazon have been to provide the customers their daily essentials without the need for them to step out of their houses and plan their day accordingly. Picking up bits from Amazon Prime Pantry in the US, Amazon India has launched Amazon Pantry in India, a pilot in select areas in Hyderabad.
Amazon Prime Pantry in the US allows users to shop for groceries and household products, not in bulk, but actually on need basis. So whenever you’re out of shampoo or onions, you can request Amazon to deliver those to your home with a nominal delivery fee. Essentially, you are not shelling out extra money and time to go to the grocery store yourself.
Amazon also has a similar concept, but with a monthly delivery guarantee, called Amazon Subscribe and Save. With Amazon Pantry, the company aims to deliver individual products quickly instead of bulk deliveries.
According to a report by ET, Amazon Pantry will offer the same benefits, and take on Big Bazaar and Spencer’s in India. Customers will be able to fill a box of upto 15kg, with items that will be priced competitively, and have them delivered at their doorstep for only Rs. 20.
This is a pilot in a few areas in Hyderabad but the company has plans to expand the service to other cities soon, of course depending on its success.
FMCG business of Amazon India is now in the top 5 in terms of sales, and continues to grow at a staggering rate. ET’s report states, “The FMCG business in terms of units sold has grown 215 per cent for Amazon India in the first half of the calendar year (January-June 2016) compared with same period last year, driven by grocery sales which grew by 412 per cent year-on-year, health and personal care 311 per cent, and the beauty category growing by 265 per cent.”
Amazon India confirms that the orders will be delivered the next day at only Rs. 20, which is quite economical considering there is a wide range of products at one place at reasonable prices and one does not have to step out of the house for purchasing anything.
The company should now focus on scaling up this service across Indian cities where Hyper-local services like Grofers and BigBasket are facing operational issues and take advantage of the situation.
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