Tracking Amazon's Recent Product and Service Launches

by Mary Sullivan, Thursday, Dec 11, 2014

The past month has been an extremely busy time for Amazon, who has launched new products and began trialing a number of services. These development point to both Amazon’s ability to move quickly and innovate as well as their ability to attract free publicity in the holiday season. To keep all of this innovation straight RNG put together a list of the recent developments:

• December 9, 2014 - Amazon Launches 'Make an Offer' Allowing Shoppers to Bargain For Lower Prices:Amazon has launched a "Make an Offer" option for around 150,000 items on its marketplace, allowing shoppers to suggest lower prices to vendors than the ones listed on Amazon. This feature is available on one-of-a-kind items, like sports equipment and artwork. The ecommerce giant plans to expand the "Make an Offer" function to "hundreds of thousands of items" in 2015.
• December 8, 2014 - Amazon Adds 'Exclusively For Prime Members' To Select Products: Amazon is now offering specific products on its marketplace exclusively to Prime members in a move to encourage shoppers to sign up for the program. This new selling option, discovered by One Click Retail, limits the purchase of popular items to Prime members. Thus far products have been found in Grocery, HPC, Baby, Sexual Wellness, Beauty, and PC Appliance categories.
• December 8, 2014 - Amazon Trials Bike Delivery Services for One Hour Deliveries in NY: Amazon has been trialing bike deliveries in order to decrease the time required to deliver packages in New York. Through this new initiative Amazon aims to get orders to shoppers in an hour, a service that could be an appealing offer for the upcoming holiday season. The program is reportedly called Amazon Prime Now and is headquartered at Amazon's newly leased building by the Empire State Building.
• December 4, 2014 - Amazon Launches Private Label Line of Diapers and Wipes: Amazon has launched a private label line of diapers and baby wipes, putting the ecommerce giant in direct competition with the merchants that sell through its marketplace. The new line of baby products, called Amazon Elements, will only be available to Prime members and will be aggressively priced.
• December 4, 2014 - Amazon Launches Local Takeout & Delivery in Seattle: Amazon has launched a new local takeout & delivery feature on its Amazon Local page for Seattle. This feature competes directly with companies like Seamless, DeliveryHero, and Grubhub, allowing shoppers to place delivery and takeout orders for about 20 local restaurants. All payments are coordinated through shoppers' Amazon accounts.
• Amazon's recent push into local includes initiatives such as the expansion of AmazonFresh's local offerings through a program called Neighborhood Shops & Restaurants. See RNG's analysis here.
• November 29, 2014 - Amazon Launches Sample Society: Amazon is expanding its subscription offerings though its sister site, BeautyBar.com. The site offers a program called “Sample Society” that operates using a subscription model similar to Birch Box. The subscription boxes contain five “deluxe-size” beauty samples, an Allure editors miniature magazine, and a $10 monthly gift code for purchases of $50 or more on BeautyBar.com. The site is currently advertising its subscription for both personal use and as a gift membership. Boxes are $15 each with free shipping and are shipped on a monthly basis.
• November 21, 2014 - Amazon Launches Travel Service, Competing with Alibaba for Global Users: Amazon recently announced the launch of its new travel-booking service, Amazon Travel. The site will feature a select number of hotels, selected by Amazon using TripAdvisor ratings, in each of the popular destinations Amazon decides to offer. The site will also feature suggested activities and sightseeing recommendations.
• November 18, 2014 - Amazon Supplements B2B Offering With "Amazon for Business:” Amazon has launched Amazon for Business, a new B2B ecommerce platform that gives businesses access to the expansive offerings of Amazon.com. This represents a new option in addition to Amazon’s B2B site, Amazon Supply. While AmazonSupply exists on its own “amazonsupply.com” website, Amazon for Business remains within the traditional Amazon.com platform. This allows Amazon to leverage the popularity of its traditional ecommerce site, emphasized by the slogan of Amazon for Business: “The Same Amazon You Love. Now Powered For Business.”
• November 18, 2014 - AmazonFresh Expands to Philadelphia: Amazon quietly debuted its online grocery delivery service AmazonFresh in Philadelphia on Monday. The service will begin in Center City, and then likely expand out into other neighborhoods. AmazonFresh will allow Philadelphia customers to order groceries by 10am and get their products by dinnertime, or order by 10pm and receive their orders early the next morning.