Yesterday, Amazon announced that the company is planning on shutting down its Prime Now service globally, by the end of 2021.
Prime Now service was launched by the company in 2014, for its prime subscribers. The service allowed users to get their favourite books, household essentials, toys, apparels, and other goods, to be brought at their doorstep, with fast one or two hour delivery. The service mainly focused on instant delivery of groceries, fruits & staples globally. Two-hour delivery service is free, however, users have to pay a small amount of fee for one-hour delivery.
Initially the Prime Now app services were confined to a limited number of cities, but now the service is accessible in more than 5,000 cities & towns across the globe. The company plans to merge its Prime Now services to its main platform i.e., Amazon App or Website.
“To make this experience even more seamless for customers, we are moving the experience from a separate Prime Now app onto the Amazon app and website so customers can shop all Amazon has to offer from one convenient location,” said Stephenie Landry, vice president of grocery at Amazon.
In fact, the company has already started preparing their users, by giving in-app pop-ups on Prime Now Application, which will take users to Amazon’s main website or app. Amazon Prime Users will be provided with all the benefits they had, including, instant one two hours delivery on daily essentials, groceries, & other goods via the Amazon App or Website.
Which also means that merchants, third-party retailers or any local stores or business that were exclusively available on the Prime Now app before, will be shifted to Amazon’s main website/ or application as well. This may include local pharmacy chains in western countries, home-delivery liquor brands, fresh foods & other essentials delivering stores.
One important thing to take-in here is that Prime Now services have already been suspended in India, Singapore & Japan since 2019, when Amazon took-up the two-hour delivery of groceries & fresh foods, from its Amazon Fresh & Whole Foods chain from its main website/ or application. Company has been working on shutting-down the Prime Now App and moving it to the main Amazon app for a long while. And, recently Stephenie Landry, vice president of grocery at Amazon, has said that “Prime Now App will be retired worldwide by the end of this year”.
Chetna Singh
A biblomaniac, with utmost love for reading, writing and painting. An asthete and altruistic.
