Amazon has confirmed it is set to launch two more ‘Just Walk Out’ Amazon Fresh stores in East Sheen and Chingford.
It comes after The Grocer last week revealed the e-commerce giant was about to open a checkout-free store in Holborn, just 120 yards from Tesco’s first public checkout-free store, GetGo.
When the three new Amazon Fresh stores open – the Holborn launch is understood to be imminent – Amazon will have launched a total of nine Fresh stores in the UK since March.
If the three stores currently being outfitted open this month, Amazon Fresh stores have opened at a rate of one every four weeks.
Amazon said it “looks forward to opening additional stores in the Greater London area”.
The first Fresh store in Ealing was the company’s first physical retail site outside North America – a “new convenience grocery format” for Amazon, director of Amazon Fresh stores UK Matt Birch told The Grocer at the time.
As well as its Fresh store rollout – where customers shop by scanning their phones on arrival, filling their bags with products and leaving without any interaction with staff or a self-checkout machine – Amazon has also opened two Amazon ‘4-star’ branded physical stores.
The first of the stores opened in Bluewater Shopping Centre, Kent, in early October, with the second launching this week in Westfield Shopping Centre in Shepherd’s Bush.
The stores carry a “highly curated selection” of around 2,000 products – the majority in consumer electronics, toys, games, books and kitchen categories – all rated four stars and above by customers on Amazon.co.uk.
The 4-star locations also serve as next-day collection points for orders made on the Amazon website, where sales of food continue to increase.
Exclusive analysis of Amazon food sales for The Grocer by factor-a show the top brands selling on the marketplace include both challenger brands and fmcg giants. The top ten best-selling food and drink brands on Amazon.co.uk are Nakd, Nature Valley, Walkers, The Gourmet Sweet Company, Ferrero, Kind, Lindt, Graze, Cadbury and Nestle.
A spokeswoman for Nature Valley owner General Mills said Amazon was its “fastest growing online partner for the fourth year running”.
“A primary destination for product searches, which increasingly include food categories, it offers a crucial route for reaching the consumer. It’s also a show window and retail outlet, meaning it delivers on both mental and physical availability, which maintains brand loyalty with our audience,” she said.
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