Amazon Now is Amazon India’s version of the online grocery delivery business. Considering how Amazon India is one of the two front-runners in the e-commerce battle in India, it makes sense for them to try and step into the grocery delivery business, competing with Big Basket and Grofers.
How does Amazon Now work?
The model is similar to Grofers — Amazon has a tie up with local supermarkets (Big Bazaar, FoodWorld, Spar, Reliance Fresh, and Amazon’s own Kirana Now). An Amazon delivery guy will visit your local market and drop off the goods to your home. The promise is that the delivery will happen within 2 hours. From what I understand delivery is only in Bangalore at the moment.
Delivery Charges – Free!
What sets Amazon Now apart (at least for now) from Grofers is that they don’t charge any delivery fee. I can order a Rs 25 chocolate for free delivery. That’s awesome for the customers, but an unsustainable cost in the long run.
Amazon Now Review – Our Experience
No regular Amul Butter on Amazon Now. What a shame!
I decided to order some Amul butter and Danone Milk online. Big Basket were taking two days to deliver, and i was tired of Grofers, so I said hey — why not Amazon Now.
I downloaded the Amazon Now app (only on Android for now – http://amzn.to/29haxUU)
I typed in ‘Butter’ in the navigation and was disappointed to see Buttermilk, Butter Popcorn… but no regular Amul Butter. The closest thing was Amul Lite Butter, but not what I wanted at all.
My Danone Milk search was better — I managed to order my milk, pay and wait for delivery.
But wait, there’s a twist in the tale. 5 minutes later I got an email saying that my payment method apparently failed — and I would now have to pay in cash. It gave me no chance to revise the payment, and I had to pay in cash. This was strange — what if I didn’t have the cash lying around? I would have to go to an ATM. We usually don’t keep much cash at home and luckily this order wasn’t too big.
Delivery — the delivery was fine and on time (within 2 hours). The milk cartons came in a cloth bag. They cartons were slightly dusty, giving the impression that they were lying around in FoodWorld for qutie some time.
Fruits & Vegetables vs FMCG Products
Amazon Now has free delivery which means you can get a bar of chocolate delivered to your doorstep at no extra cost.
There are two parts of the online grocery business: the FMCG products (chips, coke, atta, biscuits, etc) and fruits and vegetables.
All online delivery businesses find it easy to figure out the FMCG products, but are severely challenged by the fruits and vegetables part of the business. In my experience, most fruits and vegetables suck when you order them online. It’s much, much better to go to your local vegetable store and pick out the veggies you want. Vegetables delivered online are often stale and just not fresh.
While Amazon Now does fruits and veggies delivery (via FoodWorld), I don’t trust the quality at the moment. This lack of trust in the mind’s of customers is what Amazon will need to address sooner than later.
Subscribe & Save with Amazon Now
The promise here is that you do some repeat monthly orders (washing powder, juices, ketchup, cornflakes) and you get 10% or more off (when you order 3 repeats / month). http://amzn.to/29hbmx1
I don’t know, man. I don’t think this would work for me. I personally don’t order things once a month. I wait till I need 3-4 four large items (washing powder, lizol, etc) and then order them in bulik together. This usually happens maybe once in 2-3 months.
Amazon Now Promo Codes (India)
You can get 15% cash back on your 1st Amazon Now order via an Amazon.in Gift Card. This is valid only for orders above Rs 350, and it is a limited time period offer. Check the promotion details on the app itself. (No coupon code required).
Overall thoughts
I don’t think I’d really be ordering from Amazon Now again soon — mostly because of the no butter reason.
Not good for certain items. Sometimes vegetables are not good, quantity is good but quality unsatisfactory. Ordered 2 pkts of biscuits of same brand, got 1 of a different brand costing less than what I paid.
Worst and untrusty app.I have placed an order but when the delivery time comes i get a call that the item is not available and you should buy something else.I didn’t get any compensation as I have wasted both time and money.finally I have to go to shop to buy the things.
Worst in quality. Compromise of freshness, at the cost of on time delivery.
We will not get all items we order. Some items are changed to their availability. eg. if u order margo, medimix will be delivered. Price variation if any are refunded by cheque. Cheque amount may even be as less as Rs.20. So going to bank and depositing is a burden. Amt is not credited back to card account. Prices are not updated. If any amount for unavailable item credited to card account, we have to call our bank and follow up. If u order for a different address, refund cheques are sent to delivery address and not to your (billing) address. So u have to strain to collect the cheque. Why all these headache?
We will not get all items we order. Some items are changed to their availability. eg. if u order margo, medimix will be delivered. Price variation if any are refunded by cheque. Cheque amount may even be as less as Rs.20. So going to bank and depositing is a burden. Amt is not credited back to card account. Prices are not updated. If any amount for unavailable item credited to card account, we have call our bank and follow up. If u order for a different address, refund cheques are sent to delivery address and not to your (billing) address. So u have to strain to collect the cheque. Why all these headache?
Very Nice app products clin not damage dary products and vegetables cline Amazon now best in grofer bigg basket compear…..