Amazon 'Instant Pickup' service delivers items in 2 minutes!
Amazon, in its latest endeavor to supplement its online presence with brick-and-mortar retail, has rolled out 'Instant Pickup'. This facility is currently available only in the US. Shoppers, using this option, can get their orders almost immediately (in 2 minutes). The e-commerce giant now has set up 'Instant Pickup' points at five college campuses and will extend it further in future. Here's more.
How does it work?
The shoppers in these locations can choose what they want to buy from the several hundred fast-selling items. Within next two minutes, Amazon employees in a back room will load the same into lockers and provide customers with bar codes to retrieve the items. World's biggest online retailer understands that certain items are difficult to be sold online. Hence it has adopted this system.
What is the target?
The Instant Pickup program is directed towards day-to-day items that consumers would like to access within a short time, rather than ordering and waiting for them to be shipped. It also applies to impulse buys or minor items, like stationery. The market for such goods is substantial and Amazon wants to have a piece of that pie.
Why was it necessary?
Before Instant Pickup, Amazon shoppers could expect their orders to be delivered within an hour via the Prime Now program and grocery orders via AmazonFresh Pickup within 15 minutes. Now that gap has been further shortened. Amazon's drive to shorten its delivery time has been alarming for the brick-and-mortar retailers, as they now have to move back further to make space for Amazon's infiltration.
Where is it available?
Amazon would be pitting itself against vending machine services too, but there shouldn't be much of a disruption. Forrester analyst Ananda Chakravarty told Reuters that Instant Pickup works for gadgets, which vending machines don't usually offer and "two minutes is too long to wait for a soda can." Instant Pickup is currently operational in Berkeley, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Columbus, Ohio and College Park, Maryland.
