We need to talk about Amazon Key In-Car Delivery, and not just because Amazon announced it formally this week. Today I'm going to run down 5 main points you need to be aware of, whether or not you'll be participating in Amazon's futuristic product delivery adventure. The first and most important point here is: Amazon doesn't get a copy of your car key - they don't need it.
Amazon Key is still a fairly young service, having only launched back in November. Amazon is wasting little time in expanding it, though, today launching in-car delivery as part of Key. Yes, you heard that right: Amazon will now deliver packages to your car, so long as it'll be in a publicly accessible area when you want your item dropped off.
It's hard to believe that Amazon Prime has been available for 13 years at this point, but perhaps ever more surprising is Amazon's hesitancy to talk about just how popular it is among users. Obviously, we can guess that Prime has been a big win for Amazon, but the fact that the company has never shared specific subscriber numbers means it's impossible to know just how successful it's been. That all changed today, as Amazon finally shared some hard numbers for the first time in Prime's 13-year history.
Google might be the go-to for people looking to make a purchase, especially an online one, but a lot of the times it ends at search results. More often than not, those search results lead to a purchase on Amazon, and Google is none too happy about that. Now it is starting a program called Shopping Actions to let searcher become instant buyers without having to leave Google. And it is getting Amazon’s rivals to help set it up.
Walmart will spread its Online Grocery Delivery service to more than 100 cities across the US by the end of the year, the retailer has announced, as it responds to the challenge of app-based delivery upstarts. The service will include fresh produce along with meat and bakery items, in addition to household essentials and seasonal merchandise.
Amazon Prime is a great service for anyone who regularly does their shopping online, but at $11 a month or $99 per year (if you're willing to drop that much all at once), it can be an expensive extra. Amazon already offers a few discounts for Prime, such as ones to students and those receiving government assistance in the form of EBT benefits, but today it's adding a new one. If you receive Medicaid benefits, you can now get Prime at a discounted rate as well.
Amazon has wasted little time in putting its recent Whole Foods acquisition to use. Shortly after buying Whole Foods, Amazon slashed prices at all of its locations in an attempt to boost foot traffic and put more pressure on competitors. Just last month, Amazon rolled Whole Foods deliveries into Prime Now, giving Prime users in some cities around the US the option to have groceries delivered to their door through the service.
Wish.com, purveyor of steeply discounted items of mostly the junk and trinket variety, has proven immensely popular with online shoppers in search of cheap goods. That popularity seemingly spurred Amazon to action; the company recently introduced a "$10 and Under" category to simplify finding inexpensive items across many categories. Taking a page out of both companies' books is eBay, which has just announced the launch of a new "Under $10" category.
Amazon plans to open as many as six new Amazon Go locations this year, insiders claim, its AI-staffed brick & mortar stores that do away with traditional checkouts. The online retail behemoth opened its first Amazon Go store last month, using a combination of person-tracking and smartphone connectivity to automatically figure out what people were buying and charge them accordingly.
Amazon's post-acquisition price cuts at Whole Foods probably provided enough reason to keep shopping there for a lot of people, but if you still haven't converted, Amazon has another way to tempt you in. Today Amazon announced a new promotion that's aimed at getting Prime members into its numerous Whole Food stores, but this one only applies to those who have a Prime Visa Rewards credit card.
It would seem that Apple isn't the only one looking to shake up the ebooks scene. Walmart, as odd as it may seem at first blush, announced today that it will begin offering ebooks in the US as well. It won't be doing this alone, either, as it'll be backed by Rakuten, an e-commerce company operating out of Japan.
Amazon may not always get dragged onto the hot seat the way Google or Facebook do, but when it does, it does so in a very big way. After all, the world’s biggest e-tailer is anything but meek when it comes to business, having no qualms about putting its competitors out of that business. In just a few hours, Amazon will be opening wide Amazon Go, it’s ambitious attempt to revolutionize and modernize convenience stores. And if it becomes a raging hit, it could pretty much rock that industry to its core.