Amazon has begun its Pantry service in Munich but has had a challenge from an unlikely quarter – Lidl is offering a free Vorratsbox service. Unannounced, the European discount grocery chain started to offer a free home delivery service in the German city with no minimum order value.
Amazon began to offer the service, which delivers groceries to the customer’s door and is available to a number of towns and cities in the US with no minimum order value for €4.99 per order to residents of Munich. Where other businesses may have taken it on, discounter Lidl responded by offering a free home delivery service, delivered and handled by DHL in the city. This will be fulfilled within 3-4 days of making the order.
Lidl offer open to all
One group tested the offer from Lidl by buying a 69 cents jar of olives and this was met with good humour. Where Amazon may struggle against the European grocery discounter is that Amazon Pantry will eventually be only available to Prime subscribers where Lidl’s offer is open to all.
Though the Lidl service is currently free of charge in Munich, it is believed that this is only an introductory offer – however, with only Amazon Prime subscribers being eligible, Lidl has a much wider market.
Other companies have rushed to fill the last mile convenience delivery segment, including UberRush, Amazon Prime (a different Amazon service) and Google Express. Companies are currently experimenting with delivery models and software to make the process more efficient and crucially, profitable.