Amazon.com Inc. this week added hundreds of new Whole Foods products to its website in a bid to get consumers to finally buy their groceries online.
Online grocery shopping accounts for less than 5% of the nearly $800 billion in food and beverage sales in the U.S., despite Amazon and others rolling out deliveries in major U.S. metro areas. Buying groceries online has been slow to take hold because of consumers' desire to touch and smell fresh produce before buying it, as well as price concerns and limits to where it's available.
Now Amazon's $13.5 billion acquisition of grocery chain Whole Foods Market Inc., which closed this week, is providing a new impetus for online grocery shopping. Amazon has expanded its catalog with Whole Foods groceries at the same prices as in stores, and could use Whole Foods' 470 stores as hubs for online pickups and deliveries.
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