Amazon Offers Grocery Delivery To Amazon Business Members

Companies that are members of Amazon’s free Amazon Business program will get to benefit from AmazonFresh grocery delivery going forward. The retail giant emailed members of its Business program on Wednesday to announce the new benefit, which will now allow companies to provide their employees with food straight from Amazon’s grocery delivery vehicles, TechCrunch reports.

“Start shopping Fresh for your everyday office grocery items today,” the email to Amazon Business customers said, according to GeekWire. To place AmazonFresh orders, Business customers will need to have access to an Amazon Prime account. They can, however, use their personal Prime membership to order from AmazonFresh, which costs $14.99 monthly in addition to the cost of Prime, which is currently $99 annually.

AmazonFresh is currently offered in select cities in the U.S. and abroad, but does not yet have nationwide reach. Several of its grocery delivery competitors, however, such as Instacart, have a wider geographic footprint. The move to open AmazonFresh to Amazon Business customers is expected to help grow its grocery service. Amazon Business announced that it had over a million customers in its roster as of July, with companies both large and small among its members.

Among Amazon Business’ U.S. customer base are schools such as Johns Hopkins University and Stanford University, health care facilities, including Intermountain Healthcare and the Mayo Clinic, and firms such as Con Edison of New York and Siemens.

Amazon is also aiming to stave off potential competition from retail giant Walmart, which not only offers grocery pickup at more than 900 locations, but is also testing a delivery partnership with Uber that would utilize Uber’s vast network of drivers for last-mile grocery delivery. Amazon is also expected to benefit from the grocery capabilities of Whole Foods Market, which the online retailer is currently in the process of acquiring.