Whole Foods One-Hour Pickup Now Available for Amazon Prime Members

Amazon is currently providing Prime subscribers with the convenience of one-hour grocery pickup at every Whole Foods Market store throughout the United States, as the company declared earlier today. Prime members are able to utilize either the Amazon application or the website to submit orders through the Whole Foods Market section, allowing them to shop and then choose a one-hour pickup time slot during checkout for purchases totaling $35 or more.

Prior to visiting the Whole Foods store, customers can inform the staff of their impending arrival by using the Amazon application. Amazon states that the majority of customers will experience a wait time of only one minute upon arrival to receive their orders—a significant pledge that other online retailers may find challenging to fulfill.

This expansion is intended to strengthen Amazon’s competitive position against other online grocery providers, notably Walmart, Target, and Instacart. Walmart, for instance, reported a 97% increase in its e-commerce operations during the second quarter, largely driven by online grocery sales, compared to the industry average of 27% growth. The company also connected this growth to the effects of COVID-19, including the distribution of government stimulus payments.

Target also broadened its grocery pickup services nationally in August, reaching almost 85% of its U.S. stores ahead of schedule. Digital growth at Target during the most recent quarter was largely attributed to online order pickup, including its Drive Up and delivery options, with curbside pickup experiencing growth exceeding 734%.

In the meantime, a report released this past summer indicated that Instacart had secured more than half of the U.S. online grocery market. (However, other reports suggest that Walmart is actually ahead of both Amazon and all Instacart-like delivery services.)

Amazon’s approach to the grocery market, however, currently appears somewhat fragmented.

The company is managing two separate online services—Whole Foods, accessible through Amazon.com, and Amazon Fresh. It has also recently introduced Whole Foods locations functioning as grocery distribution centers and unveiled its first physical Amazon Fresh store in August. Earlier in the year, it launched an Amazon Go Grocery store, which features its technology eliminating the need for traditional checkout lanes.

The increasing number of competing grocery brands from Amazon may cause confusion for shoppers.

Nevertheless, the retailer believes the online grocery sector is still in its early stages of development and that it has sufficient time to close the gap with its competitors.

Amazon highlighted today that over 40% of its Whole Foods Market pickup orders each month are placed by first-time users of the service. The company also anticipates that the current increase in online grocery shopping, spurred by the pandemic, will not diminish in the near future. Similar to many other sectors, the pandemic has simply accelerated existing consumer trends.

“According to recent data from Global Data Research, nearly 68 percent of consumers report they will continue to utilize curbside pickup even after the pandemic has ended,” Amazon stated in its announcement.

In addition to pickup options, Prime members in more than 2,000 cities and towns can also receive free, two-hour delivery of over 170,000 items from both Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market on orders of $35 or more, Amazon also pointed out.

Amazon currently operates 487 Whole Foods locations across the U.S., and pickup services will be available at all of them, including any new stores that open.