Amazon.com proved it can use bargain buzz to sell a lot of gadgets on a random day in July. This year, it’s hoping excitement around Prime Day gets shoppers to change how they buy groceries.
Amazon’s fourth annual Prime Day — 36 hours of sales beginning Monday — will be its first since closing the $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods Market. It is offering discounted strawberries, chicken breasts and cod fillets to lure people into its brick-and-mortar stores, as well as enticements to get them to try grocery delivery for the first time.
Success for Amazon will be measured by how many people switch up their routines in response to the promotion and develop new habits. The $800 billion grocery market has been hard for Amazon to crack since so many shoppers already make weekly trips to supermarkets and big-box stores. Retailers have also stepped up their own digital offerings, including a buy-online-pick-up-in-store option that combines the ease of online shopping with the instant gratification of a quick run to the nearby market.
“They’re unlikely to lure a customer away, but maybe they can take a bit of the spending,” said Jennifer Bartashus, a retail analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “Your average Kroger shopper isn’t going to meaningfully change their shopping pattern based on being a Prime member. It takes a long time to change those habits.”
