Amazon Begins Testing $9.99 Monthly Unlimited Grocery Delivery Subscription

Online retail giant, Amazon Inc. AMZN has begun testing a new subscription model for unlimited grocery delivery to its Prime members at an additional cost of $9.99 per month.

What Happened: The initiative allows Prime members in three U.S. cities, Denver in Colorado, Sacramento in California and Columbus in Ohio to avail unlimited delivery on Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods orders of more than $35, reported The Verge. 

The subscription cost is added to the basic Amazon Prime subscription fee of $14.99 per month. 

Moreover, this subscription also offers an unlimited 30-minute pick-up for orders of any size. 

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Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide grocery stores, Tony Hoggett, stated, "We're always experimenting with features to make shopping easier, faster, and more affordable, and we look forward to hearing how members who take advantage of this offer respond."

The e-commerce giant's pilot program appears to be a competitive move against rivals like Walmart Inc. WMT, Postmates, Maplebear Inc. CART, popularly known as Instacart, and major grocery chains, aiming to attract frequent Amazon Fresh users who heavily rely on the service for their grocery needs.

Why It Matters: This development comes on the heels of Amazon’s recent expansion of its grocery delivery service to non-Prime U.S. members. The development not only increased Amazon’s customer base but also intensified its competition with Walmart.

The latest subscription model indicates Amazon’s continuous efforts to capture a larger share of the online grocery market. It remains to be seen how customers respond to this additional cost and how it impacts Amazon’s position in the grocery delivery sector.

Photo by Sergei Elagin on Shutterstock

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This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.