Amazon Inc., has just announced its newest venture, Prime Pantry a grocery shopping addition for Prime members. The news is expected to soften the blow suffered by Prime members who just last month were told that membership prices had increased for Amazon Prime.

Prime Pantry aims to compete with grocery and discount stores like Wal-Mart and allows users to order both bulk and smaller items that were previously only available in bulk. Amazon says their Prime Pantry service allows users to choose from a wide selection of grocery items usually available for pick up in stores.

Unlike their Amazon Fresh service that offers same-day delivery of fresh groceries. Prime Pantry goes beyond to offer different types of household products. For example, Prime Pantry offers a bottle of laundry detergent for $12 or a 10 oz. bag of potato chips for $2.60. The prices offered by the Prime Pantry are competitive with brick and mortar retail stores.

HOW IT WORKS:

Prime Pantry offers Amazon Prime members a new grocery shopping experience. For a flat delivery fee of $5.99 for each Prime Pantry box, Amazon Prime users are able to buy as little or as many groceries as they wish with no extra fees. Amazon guarantees shipping within four days which saves users time, money and gas. 

As users shop, an animated Prime Pantry box simultaneously fills up. The animation then indicates to users what percentage of the box is filled based on both the size and weight of the items. Each Prime Pantry box is big enough to hold up to 45 pounds of groceries. As users continue to shop, Prime Pantry will track and notify users to how full their box is.

AMAZON DASH:

To make things even more simple for users, Amazon recently introduced Amazon Dash. A handheld magic wand type device that seconds as a shopping assistant.

Users can use Dash to scan the barcodes of the items they are running low on. Dash connects to a user’s Wi-Fi network. Users then scan or say what items they need to purchase and Dash will sync the wish list with the user’s Amazon account. Allowing users to review the list at a more convenient time and place an order.

Amazon dash wand

Amazon now offers three services that make the shopping experience more simple. With a combination of Prime Pantry, Amazon Fresh and the Amazon Dash wand, users can go grocery shopping by never leaving their home.

COMPETITORS:

Although Amazon pioneered the at home grocery shopping experience, there are many other startups and companies doing the same thing.

Just recently, Instacart Inc. launched their service that provides users same-day delivery of groceries from different local grocers around the city for $3.99. Instacart also offers an annual membership of $99 which includes unlimited free delivery for all orders over $35. Private drivers are pinged with a user’s grocery wish list, go to the user’s  store of choice to pick up the items, and have it delivered at a specified destination and a specified time.

Other companies such as eBay and Wal-Mart also offer delivery services for their users. eBay for example, offers one-hour deliveries for $5 while Wal-Mart provides $5 – $7 deliveries for orders over $30. 

With much of the world shifting to an Internet dependent society, Amazon has struck gold with its  Prime Pantry service.