The future’s already here isn’t it? We’ve long embraced, well, gotten used to, all sorts of home delivery apps that send food, groceries, and other items right to our doorsteps — I really can’t live without Deliveroo now to be honest — so it’s no surprise that one of the biggest companies in the world is launching here today: welcome Amazon.
Here to enable our laziness is Amazon’s Prime Now service, a mobile app which offers an ultra-fast two-hour delivery of all sorts of items, from groceries to beer to toys and consumer electronics. Key brands include L’Oreal, Pampers and Samsung, as well as local favourites Milo and Tiger Balm. Can we repeat this, two-hour delivery!
The company has long been teasing us with its launch, and it looks like they finally delivered on their promise with this first foray into the Southeast Asian region. Prime Now was previously launched at the end of 2014 in New York, and has since expanded to more than 50 cities in nine countries, including Tokyo, London and Madrid. The good news is that Prime Now will be available in Singapore for all to try, for a limited time. After that, it will be an exclusive service for members of Amazon Prime, which will launch soon.
We can definitely see the convenient service working for busy individuals, when you’re planning large-scale or last-minute events, or if you’re just too lazy to leave your house. Can you imagine getting chips delivered to you on a whim, or not having to lug your six-pack of beer cans home? Of course, we did a little price comparison of our own and found items to be same across its competitors — a 6-pc set of Milo packets costs $4.25, and costs the same on RedMart, Cold Storage and FairPrice.
A quick check on the app also sees many product categories. The food section alone goes from fruits & vegetables or dairy & eggs, to frozen food, bread, snacks, and wine or alcohol that you can get delivered chilled. Other categories include household essentials, toiletries, electronics, home appliances and toys.
As for that speedy delivery time? This is how it’s done.
It’s possible due to a sophisticated back-end system, where staff pick and pack orders within minutes of customers hitting checkout, says Ivan Lim, site leader at the Prime Now hub. He also elaborates that this is supported by “advanced techniques and algorithms to fulfill orders as quickly and efficiently as possible”. Processes include random stow, batching and machine learning.
A quick tour of the Amazon Prime Now facility site reveals this — rows and rows of items, where, instead of being alphabetically listed, are tucked away randomly in their cubby holes, a system that the company has found more efficient. After customers place their orders, Amazon employees, or “pickers”, will be sent out to retrieve the item, using a handheld device that smartly detects the nearest item, and the fastest route by which to collect that item.
We’re told that the AI system is also smart enough to adapt to customers’ preferences and demand over time; for example, it might now be hard to determine the quantity of water bottles each customer usually orders, but over time, they’ll be able to get an estimated quantity, which then helps reduce delay when it comes to replenishing and ordering stock.
That’s some eye-opening insight we got from the largest global Prime Now facility, a 100,000-sq-ft facility based right on our tiny island. Does this spell the extinction of physical supermarkets, and should other groceries delivery services be threatened by this new colossal arrival? For sure, Amazon’s here to shake up the industry, but let’s see if they actually deliver.
Download the Prime Now app, available on iOS and Android devices. Prime Now is available 10:00 to 22:00, seven days a week. Prime Now offers free two-hour delivery on orders of $40 or more. For orders under $40, two-hour delivery is $5.99. Customers can also get their Prime Now order with one-hour delivery for $9.99.
Shop using your Visa credit card will receive $20 off your first Prime Now order using promo code VISA20, or, key in 10PRIMENOW to get $10 off your first order.
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