Google apparently has plans to enter into the fresh grocery biz with its same day and next-day delivery service called Google Express. Bloomberg noted that the company will begin offering fresh food delivery in two cities later this year, starting with San Francisco.
Google lowering dependence on warehouses
For the service, Google plans to partner with Whole Foods and Costco, and does not want to rely on warehouses. It will be making the pickups from the partner stores directly. Cost issues have led the Internet firm to move away from warehouses. Some of the boxed foods are already offered by Google Express, but items like fresh fruits and vegetables will be offered for the first time.
Apart from its expansion into fresh groceries, Google’s existing services will be expanded into parts of six states, the company said in a recent blog post. Next-day delivery services is now coming to Illinois (outside of Chicago, which already had service), Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
Google Express will work be same as elsewhere, and residents will be able to shop from Barnes & Noble, Kohl’s, PetSmart and Walgreens through Google’s website, and then place orders for delivery. The customers have multiple payment options to choose from. They can either pay a delivery fee on all their orders or take advantage ofl the monthly or yearly subscription where they will receive most of their orders free of any shipping costs.
Google chasing Amazon
Google Express was built to compete with Amazon Prime, and now Google is chasing Amazon in fresh grocery deliveries. As of now, Google is behind Amazon since the latter already has its services running in parts of New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles. But Google need not worry as Amazon is not the dominant fresh grocery delivery company. Moreover, the business of fresh grocery deliveries is not a proven business by any means. This is probably why Google is only starting with two cities.
We might ssoon ee Google in the restaurant delivery service also. On Tuesday, Amazon announced restaurant delivery services for Prime members in Seattle. Customers can order food from dozens of restaurants making use of the Prime Now app, and they won’t be required to pay any extra delivery fee.
