AmazonFresh Expands, Further Leveraging Alexa for Everyday Voice Commerce
Last week, Amazon announced that its grocery delivery service, AmazonFresh, expanded to three new cities, bringing its total to 18 cities across the US. The recent expansion included Houston, Minneapolis and Phoenix. In their press release Amazon confirmed that customers can shop through any Alexa-enabled device and Alexa will add products to shopping carts based on previous purchases or popular items. “Alexa is always learning and as you use AmazonFresh, she will remember your favorites and make grocery shopping fast and simple.”
AmazonFresh can be added to Prime memberships for $14.99/month, and to ensure a one-hour delivery customers can pay an additional $7.99 fee. Whole Foods, which was acquired by Amazon in 2017 for nearly $14 billion, offers a “Prime Now” grocery delivery service that offers free 2-hour delivery. Prime Now operates at a much larger scale and is available in over 50 cities globally.
Amazon Pushing Everyday Voice Commerce
In the 2019 Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption Report Voicebot found that 15% of smart speaker owners made purchases by voice on a monthly basis at the end of 2018, up from 13.6% at the beginning of the year. There is also data that shows 45% of millennials use voice assistants while shopping. These surveys focus on voice commerce consumer habits, but not daily behavior.
AmazonFresh is a service that can be useful to people on a daily basis, as opposed to Amazon’s usual voice commerce pushes that have centered around promotional initiatives like daily deals, Prime Day or Black Friday. Ordering groceries and basic goods via voice is also expediting delivery time, making the convenience of voice even more potent. For example, Amazon customers who shop using Prime either have to wait two days for delivery or reach an order minimum to receive a faster turnaround. Grocery shopping via Alexa is likely to form a long-term habit and becomes even more convenient for users once repeat orders and preferred products are automatically recognized.
Coffee chains are an example of voice commerce that can be utilized daily. Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts both have mobile ordering apps that are voice integrated and have the reordering function perfected.
