The Minimum Order Value Increases In February 2023
Amazon is set to increase the minimum order value for its Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service, for some UK households, by 50%, from £40 to £60, from February 2022.
Certain areas will have to order more to get free delivery or pay £3.99 to have their groceries delivered. The company hasn't disclosed all the regions the change will be rolled out to, but it will notify affected customers by email to let them know.
The move comes just days after the online retailer announced it would be cutting 18,000 members of staff in an effort to curb rising costs and the general decline in spending by its customers.
The Amazon Fresh service is currently offering free delivery, over £40, as part of its Amazon Prime service, which was increased in price to £8.99 last year.
The Amazon Fresh service offers a range of grocery products, which are delivered to your day the same day, and is now competing with more same-day delivery companies, including services by Tesco, who have introduced Whoosh, which delivers orders within 60 minutes, and Deliveroo and Uber Eats who are expanding their grocery delivery service, signing up with more and more retailers to offer more value and options to their customers.
Interestingly, Amazon Fresh, Deliveroo and Uber Eats are believed to make no profit from their delivery services.
Deliveroo posted a loss in 2021 of £298M. Uber Eats is increasing its revenue and is now a more significant revenue source to Uber than its ride-share service, but it did lower its losses in 2021. Amazon Fresh does not publish its UK grocery sales figures. Still, in 2020 I spoke to a member of Amazon management, who confirmed that at the time, the service was not profitable but was propped up by the other profitable Amazon ventures.