Amazon expands Pantry online supermarket as it lays out fresh challenge to UK’s Big Four supermarkets Asda, Tesco, Sainbury’s and Morrisons
Amazon’s foray into the supermarket sector has quickly become a success, after the online retail giant announced plans to expand its new Pantry service in the UK next year.
In other words, there's more disruption ahead for the UK’s troubled traditional supermarkets. The “Big Four” – Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – are struggling to keep up both as discounters like Lidl and Aldi weigh heavily on prices, and shoppers increasingly move to buy their groceries online instead.
Amazon is now planning to add “thousands” of extra items to Pantry, according to the retailer’s UK boss Christopher North, who told the Guardian:
We are really happy with the early numbers. In the new year we are going to be adding a lot more products.
Pantry was launched in the UK in November, as the online retail giant sought a bigger slice of the country’s £177.5bn grocery market. Described as a sort of cornershop to bigger brother Amazon Fresh, Pantry offers Amazon Prime customers next-day delivery on 4,000 “everyday essentials”.
As for Fresh, it’s still only available in the US. The retailer began trying out a similar delivery to select London postcodes in October, testing the water for a launch in the UK.
“When we believe we have got the offer right, and the economics, we will roll it out internationally,” said North.