Amazon has been trying to find successful inroads into the grocery industry for a while, and in 2024 the retail giant continued to innovate while also making key alterations to its playbook.
Amazon kicked off the year with the closure of its last Fresh Pickup site — the first of several grocery initiatives the company pulled the plug on this year. A few months later, Amazon announced it would pull its Just Walk Out technology from Amazon Fresh stores in the U.S. and the two Whole Food Markets stores that tested the checkout solution.
On the brick-and-mortar front, Amazon reignited store openings for its Amazon Fresh chain after pausing store expansion at the start of 2023. By the end of September, Amazon Fresh had achieved the 50-store mark and currently has more than 60 stores.
During the summer, Whole Foods debuted its first Daily Shop small-format store. In Chicago, Amazon began testing a small-format store called Amazon Grocery for fill-in trips, blending a limited grocery assortment with the convenience store size of 3,800 square feet.
On the digital front, in October Amazon said it would pilot a new feature in Phoenix that lets Prime members shop for grocery items alongside Amazon.com products and have them delivered together. The company also said it’s modifying 26 Amazon Fresh fulfillment centers to include popular Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods and Amazon.com products and is separately building its first-ever automated micro-fulfillment center in a Pennsylvania Whole Foods store.
Amazon also beefed up its position as a third-party provider of grocery technology and services to other retailers, including expanding its delivery roster and offering up its Dash Cart.
As value and price played a starring role for consumers worried about high grocery costs, Amazon joined the bevy of grocers and retailers this year in unveiling promotions, price cuts and lower-price private brands. In September, it unveiled a new value-focused private label line called Amazon Saver and expanded Prime savings to more than 3,000 grocery items sold in-store and online at Amazon Fresh.
In an effort to more closely tie grocery perks with its Prime membership, Amazon in April debuted a monthly grocery delivery subscription and then in August launched an annual version.
Here’s a look back at Amazon’s new initiatives and major changes for its grocery efforts this year.
