Amazon's UK Partnership With GoPuff Signals Marketplace Strategy Shift | Fast Five Shorts
Amazon teams up with Gopuff for 15-minute grocery delivery across major UK cities. Our hosts debate whether this signals Amazon's retreat from direct grocery or a strategic setup for agentic AI shopping experiences that could revolutionize how consumers buy groceries. Sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, and Ocampo Capital.
📌 Amazon's UK grocery marketplace approach
📌 Gopuff's white-label delivery strategy
📌 Implications for direct grocery competition
📌 Future agentic AI shopping possibilities
For the full episode head here: https://youtu.be/IHX4xxVvFJs
#amazon #gouff #ukretail #grocerydelivery #marketplace #retailstrategy
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Transcript
Amazon has rolled out 15 minute grocery deliveries to cities across the UK after striking a national partnership with rapid delivery firm Gopuff.
Speaker A:According to a retail Gazette, the ultra fast service first trialed in Birmingham.
Speaker A:Birmingham, like I said, Birmingham.
Speaker A:And I do try to pull out my Ben, my best Ben Miller impersonation.
Speaker A:And Salford in May is now available in cities including London, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Cardiff, Bristol and Sheffield.
Speaker A:If you're keeping score at home, Amazon customers can now order groceries, cleaning products, baby supplies and alcohol24.7 via a retailer's website or app with delivery speeds of as little as 15 minutes in some areas.
Speaker A:The move is powered by GoPuff's network of micro fulfillment centers strategically located close to customers to enable near instant delivery.
Speaker A:The tie up adds the online giant's growing roster of grocery partners, including Morrisons Co Op and Iceland, as the e commerce giant steps up its focus on convenience and speed in the competitive UK grocery market.
Speaker A:And, and my question for you, do you think Amazon's UK partnership with GoPuff says more about the state of Amazon or the state of Gopuff?
Speaker B:I mean I immediately thought like, what's poor Gopuff?
Speaker B:Like they must be in some dire straits here that they're just like, well, we're just going to white label for Amazon now, like it's a business model, but it certainly is quite a departure from where they were, you know, two or three or however many grocery shops ago that was where they were on stage talking about how they were going to dominate the delivery space, especially the rapid delivery space.
Speaker B:So for me, I, I, I question what this does for GoPuff in the long run because they are losing all the customer data to Amazon.
Speaker B:Like the, all the, all the value of this is going away.
Speaker B:And, and so it just seems like can the Gopuff model still sustain itself on just being a white label delivery provider?
Speaker B:And especially when you think about who we're, we're talking about here now with Amazon and I think that's the question that I have, like, do they get to test the logistics and the validity of 15 minute delivery and the need here without building their own network?
Speaker B:Yes, this is a huge value to them, but I have to imagine that once they figure this out, they're just going to learn everything from Copuff, replicate it for themselves in some way and then either figure out it, a it's not financially feasible, we're going to shut it down, or B we'll just do this better ourselves.
Speaker B:I, I don't see this as like a lasting partnership, but what do you, where do you land on it?
Speaker A:What do you think that that's interesting.
Speaker A:And one point, one point of clarification for the audience too.
Speaker A:It was a little unclear, like, how this is actually from the article is a little unclear on how this actually shows up on Amazon.
Speaker A:Like, I'm, I think given the allusions to Morrisons and, and co op and stuff, like, I think it probably shows up as like on their marketplace, like GoPuff is the vendor, but I don't, I don't know for sure.
Speaker A:So I don't know if, you know.
Speaker B:It said that you go to Amazon, right?
Speaker B:You go to Amazon, you order, you.
Speaker A:Go to Amazon, but it's hard to tell.
Speaker A:So, but I think, you know, I think it says a lot about both, but I think it says more about Amazon, you know, for Gopuff, you know, it's like you're saying they can't make it alone.
Speaker A:They need, they need the scale to make their delivery model even work at a profit.
Speaker A:From a profit perspective is my guess, which is not a surprise to anyone.
Speaker A:For Amazon, though, like, I think there's some interesting angles here which I potentially disagree with you a little bit, or not not disagree with you, but I think there's some extensions here that we have to think about.
Speaker A:I mean, it tells me they're definitely taking the marketplace approach in the uk, you know, which again, like, we've asked on the show, like, why are the grocers signing up for this?
Speaker A:That's my number one question, like, why are you giving Amazon this position of strength?
Speaker A:But number two, why is Amazon having so much trouble going direct and establishing a grocery foothold in the market, similar to the trouble they're having over here in the States?
Speaker A:So that's the one thing where I'm like, okay, can they ever really go direct?
Speaker A:I mean, if they're doing this, like, you know, they're, they're using the marketplace partners to help them reach the market.
Speaker A:But like, the idea of going direct eventually, I don't know if that's their game because.
Speaker A:And we'll talk about this more in headline 5.
Speaker A:I'm wondering if they're actually setting this up more for like an agentic AI play where they have the stable of grocers online and then they can, you know, mix and match people and delivery times and expectations to that for them.
Speaker A:And they're kind of saying, you know what, we don't want to be in this logistics game, especially in this market, but let's start thinking about the next wave of how customers are going to interact for groceries with us.
Speaker A:And let's start to put in the infrastructure for that.
Speaker A:And we'll talk more about that in Headline five particularly.
Speaker A:But, but I think that's, that's potentially the one thing I'm like, maybe there's like a different endgame here that just isn't as obvious.
Speaker B:Hmm.
Speaker B:I haven't thought about that.
Speaker B:So you think that Amazon.
Speaker B:So Amazon would be like taking multiple groceries orders for different things.
Speaker B:You just order it all through Amazon and then it all arrives at different times based on when they're doing the pickups.
Speaker A:Yeah, especially when you think about the value of Amazon, which is always about selection and price.
Speaker A:So you get the agentic AI agents working for you to do your grocery shopping and can find the lowest price of whatever item you're looking for and has a selection and can get you the delivery speed that you want to do.
Speaker A:You want 15 minutes, you want next day, you want, you know, two day, whatever it is.
Speaker A:I think that's potentially the idea here that I think it's something we need to be thinking about more consciously than we probably are when we read the headline.
Speaker A:Just on its face value.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Yeah, hadn't even thought about that.
Speaker B:It's one of the beauties of doing.
Speaker A:This show, having epiphanies in the moment.
Speaker B:Yes.
