Amazon to launch super-fast grocery delivery service in the UK

The service, called Ultra Fast Fresh, would aim to bring rapid grocery delivery to some 40% of UK households by the end of the year and would see Amazon retrofit nine existing depots across the country to handle fresh produce and fulfil deliveries, according to The Grocer.

The first depot to be retrofitted will be located in London, with the next earmarked for Leeds.

Citing suppliers of the ecommerce giant in the UK, the service could involve making Amazon Fresh – its grocery delivery service – a free benefit of Prime membership in the country rather than a monthly add-on.

The Ultra Fast Fresh grocery delivery service is currently available for Prime members in the US, and in October Amazon waived the additional $14.99 per month fee it charges for Fresh.

The ongoing coronavirus lockdown has both increased the demand for, and in some cases exposed the fragility of, the UK’s grocery delivery sector.

In March, figures published by Nielsen showed that demand for online grocery delivery increased 14%, compared with 20.6% across grocery more widely. The reason for the gap between the two was put down to capacity constraints across the major grocers for online deliveries.

Ocado in particular, the UK’s only pureplay grocery delivery retailer, has suffered with limited capacity following the fire that gutted its Andover customer fulfilment centre last year.

As a result, existing customers have been forced to wait for long periods in digital queues, and its website has been closed to new customers looking to register.

The big four grocers have also struggled to meet increased demand, but the likes of Tesco have been looking to add thousands of delivery vans and pickers to meet demand over recent weeks.