Amazon Fresh is looking to ‘aggressively’ recruit new food and drink partners in the UK, The Grocer has learned.
The growing online grocery business has advertised for someone to head up its UK Amazon Fresh Marketplace team and grow its list of external sellers on the site.
The ideal candidate would be a ‘highly motivated, experienced, innovative and customer-focused business leader’, who is able to ‘aggressively’ expand its range of 36 main sellers, said the job ad, which has since been taken offline.
Amazon Fresh has established partnerships with a range of food and drink businesses since its launch last summer, including high-end butchers Lidgates, Gail’s Artisan Bakery and Murray’s Fresh Fish.
An analysis by The Grocer showed 34 of these 36 main sellers were based entirely in London. Although some of the businesses offer a small nationwide delivery service, Amazon requires tight turnaround times and has touted its same-day delivery option as a key selling point.
Amazon Fresh has this year made its first moves outside London to areas of Surrey, Hampshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.
Bernstein analyst Thomas Wharram said getting more food and drink names on board would boost Amazon in the absence of an own brand. “Customers need to be able to trust in fresh produce brands so the more third-party sellers they can provide, the better their offering will be.”
This week, data company One Click Retail revealed Amazon’s grocery sales in the UK had grown by 70% year on year across all of its sites, including Amazon Fresh. In the second quarter of this year, UK sales totalled £36m, found the research, which uses website indexing, machine learning and proprietary software to estimate weekly sales figures.
No comments yet