It’s reported in the German press that DHL is to become Amazon ‘s exclusive delivery partnership for its grocery service Amazon Fresh.
The Amazon Fresh service will apparently roll out in Berlin during April, with Hamburg not far behind, before being made available in the rest of the country in due course. If that’s the case it will become the biggest online supermarket delivery service in Germany.
Apparently Amazon had planned to build its own logistics outfit yet according to the newspaper Handelsblatt: “But apparently DHL made them an offer that was so appealing financially that Amazon couldn’t refuse.”
This is an interesting story in the evolving Amazon saga of growth for two reasons. Firstly, the supermarket environment is ripe for reform in Germany. The Germans may have given the UK Lidl and Aldi but they don’t enjoy the same flexibility in their homeland as we enjoy in the UK. Opening hours are much more limited, especially in the evenings and weekends, and there is much less choice of outlets. So there is a huge opportunity for Amazon Fresh to plug the gap of greater convenience.
Secondly, it’s interesting here that Amazon may well go with an existing delivery firm (indeed a national and international player) to deliver the goods for Amazon Fresh rather than build out their own logistics network to do the job. At its heart it illustrates Amazon’s agnostic view on fulfilment. They’ll go with what’s best, effective and value for money. In this case it looks like it’s DHL.
But as noted in the piece, nothing has been confirmed yet, so we wait with baited breath.
