Fortune reports that a new a survey conducted and released by Cowen & Co found that 25 percent of Amazon Prime members used the company's Prime Now service just during January 2016, and that seven out of 10 of them used Prime Now "several times a month."
The story notes that "Prime Now is still only available in 24 major U.S. markets and costs about $8 for one-hour delivery service. It is free for Prime members ordering from an assortment of 10,000 different items if delivery is after two-hours ... Cowen recently estimated that some 41 million Americans are Prime members ... meaning that 10 million people tried Prime Now in January, a sizable number considering its limited availability. What’s more, a December survey found that Prime is drawing younger and wealthier shoppers, who are now using the website to shop for an increasingly diverse range of products, notably apparel."
In a research note, the Cowen analysts wrote that they "view Prime Now as one of the pathways Amazon is utilizing to gain share in the $1 trillion U.S. grocery market.”
The story notes that "Prime Now is still only available in 24 major U.S. markets and costs about $8 for one-hour delivery service. It is free for Prime members ordering from an assortment of 10,000 different items if delivery is after two-hours ... Cowen recently estimated that some 41 million Americans are Prime members ... meaning that 10 million people tried Prime Now in January, a sizable number considering its limited availability. What’s more, a December survey found that Prime is drawing younger and wealthier shoppers, who are now using the website to shop for an increasingly diverse range of products, notably apparel."
In a research note, the Cowen analysts wrote that they "view Prime Now as one of the pathways Amazon is utilizing to gain share in the $1 trillion U.S. grocery market.”
- KC's View:
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Even I, as an Amazon user and enthusiast, am a little surprised by these numbers. I suspect that they may be a little high, inflated by the places the questions were asked.
But I'm not surprised that Prime Now is gaining traction, especially among young people who don't remember a time when Amazon did not exist. Amazon won't kill the physical store, but it certainly creates new challenges for bricks-and-mortar retailers, who have to define with great clarity compelling points of differentiation. If they don't do that, it'll be suicide, not homicide.
