Will This Signal New Opportunities For Other Delivery Tech Companies?
E-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN) is well known for entering new businesses if they see an opportunity and hence, it was not a surprise when it entered the booming food delivery business with Amazon Restaurants. It was launched back in 2015, but the company has not decided to shut down the business altogether.
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The service had first been launched in Seattle but then launched in a string of other major cities in the United States and also London in the United Kingdom. The U.K. operation was closed in December last year and now the business in the U.S. is also set to be closed. The service had been bundled with Amazon Prime and customers who had the subscription could avail the Amazon Restaurants service at no extra cost.
Tough Business
The food delivery sector might be a booming one thanks to the billions of dollars that have been invested into companies by venture capitalists, but it remains a tough business to thrive in. The cost of hiring workers to make the deliveries and offering promotions frequently to lure customers can erode capital pretty fast.
Amazon had offered a $10 discount from the first order placed on Amazon Restaurants for instance. The profit margins in food delivery are notoriously thin and the logistics of the business can prove to be extremely complex.
Considering the fact that the online good delivery business had evolved into a multibillion-dollar industry, it was hardly surprising that Amazon had decided to enter it. As a company, Amazon has had plenty of setbacks of this nature despite being a company that revels in logistical challenges.
More Than Just Food: How Companies Are Evolving The Industry
Companies like ParcelPal (PTNYF) (PKG) have created an on-demand marketplace where customers can shop for anything from food to clothes. There is no more waiting in line for lunch or rushing to the store after work to grab your clothes. With ParcelPal on-demand, customers simply shop from the app, choose the items they want, and pay.
Something that is beginning to set ParcelPal (PTNYF) (PKG) apart from its immediate competition is its diversification strategy. Not only is the company working with the likes of Amazon, but it is also entering into key verticals that are seeing an increase in rapid demand. Right now, ParcelPal has built relationships with businesses in both alcohol and cannabis. Don’t Believe Us? Click Here For More.
About Amazon’s Food Delivery
For instance, Amazon had launched its grocery delivery service around 10 years ago but struggled to make it work. Eventually, the company acquired Whole Foods two years ago for $13.7 billion in order to truly turbocharge its grocery delivery business. Hence, it would be presumptuous to say that Amazon’s exit from Amazon Restaurants is a definitive exit from the food delivery space.
In this regard, it is important to note that the Jeff Bezos led company has already led a massive $575 million funding round for U. K. based food delivery startup Deliveroo this year.
That is a clear indication that Amazon is definitely going to be in the food delivery space in the long run and it would be interesting to see whether the company acquires a U. S. food delivery business following the closure of Amazon Restaurants. It is being speculated that Amazon might try to acquire GrubHub in its quest to get a toehold in the U. S. food delivery sector.
GrubHub and ParcelPal stock have continued to climb after the Amazon news was released.
