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What it’s like to shop on the new Amazon Prime Now in Singapore

An employee works at Amazon's Prime Now fulfillment centre in Singapore July 27, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su
An employee working at Amazon’s Prime Now fulfilment centre in Singapore. (Photo: Reuters)

By now, you would probably already have heard of the launch of Amazon Prime Now in Singapore. The app by the popular American e-commerce company Amazon was officially available from Thursday morning (27 July) and offers a variety of items for Singapore residents to purchase, from groceries like fresh fruits and vegetables, to electronic items such as laptops.

While Singapore already has online grocery shopping services such as RedMart and honestbee, Amazon Prime Now seems to offer much more. Think of it as an online hypermarket rather than just a supermarket.

Similar to its competitors, Amazon Prime Now also offers a relatively fast delivery service from 10am to 10pm. While it promises a free two-hour delivery for purchases above $40, the service is subject to availability.

When Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore tried making a purchase, the next available delivery window was 10am to 12pm the following day, a Friday.

Wide range of items

According to several media reports, items available on Amazon Prime Now are specially curated for the Singapore market. If you log on to the app, which is available for download from both the Apple app store and Google Play store, you will find 28 different categories of items to choose from, with the first being “Local favourites”.

Categories of items available on the Amazon Prime Now:

  1. Local favourites

  2. Amazon basics

  3. Fruits & vegetables

  4. Dairy, eggs & tofu

  5. Rice, pasta & noodles

  6. Frozen

  7. Groceries

  8. Chips & snacks

  9. Beverages

  10. Chilled alcohol & beverages

  11. Wine, beer & spirits

  12. Meat & seafood (no halal meat)

  13. Chocolate & sweets

  14. Bread & bakery

  15. Baby

  16. Household essentials

  17. Personal care & toiletries

  18. Health

  19. Beauty

  20. Toys & games

  21. PC & electronics

  22. Audio & headphones

  23. Camera & accessories

  24. Mobile & accessories

  25. Home & kitchen

  26. Sports & outdoor

  27. Home improvement

  28. Stationery & printing

Under local favourites, you will find items that are popular among Singaporeans, such as Milo, Maggi instant noodles, Ayam brand canned foods and Tiger balm. The site pretty much offers everything you need if you’re not overly brand-specific.

For example, if you’d like to buy a carton of milk, they’ll definitely have it. But if you’re specifically looking for a type of Hokkaido milk, for example, they might not.

Amazon Prime Now was officially launched on Wednesday night (26 July) and offers a variety of items for Singaporeans to shop, from groceries such as your fresh fruits and vegetables, to electronic items such as laptops. (Photo: Amazon Prime Now/Facebook)
Amazon Prime Now was officially launched on Wednesday night (26 July) and offers a variety of items for Singaporeans to buy, from groceries such as fresh fruits and vegetables, to electronic items such as laptops. (Photo: Amazon Prime Now/Facebook)

Similarly for electronics, while Amazon Prime Now offers a variety of tablets and laptops from brands such as Samsung, Acer and Asus, the range of products is still not as extensive as Lazada, where you can also find products from other brands such as Apple.

When it comes to pricing, there were no stark differences noted. Most of the groceries were priced similarly to the ones by RedMart and honestbee. Some of the items, such as raspberries and beers, have the exact same prices.

With that said, Amazon Prime Now offers a one-stop site for one of the widest range of items yet.

Delivery service requires a bit of patience

With a warehouse located at the Mapletree Logistics Hub in Toh Guan, it’s now possible for Amazon Prime Now to promise a free two-hour delivery for purchases above $40.

However, this service is subject to availability. After Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore successfully picked items amounting to $40, the next thing we discovered was that all of its delivery slots for the day were already unavailable.

Amazon Prime Now was officially launched on Wednesday night (26 July) and offers a variety of items for Singaporeans to shop, from groceries such as your fresh fruits and vegetables, to electronic items such as laptops. (Photo: Amazon Prime Now/Facebook)
Amazon Prime Now offers free delivery for purchases above $40. (Photo: Yahoo Singapore)

For purchases below $40, a delivery fee of $5.99 is required. If you’d like a one-hour expedited delivery service, a fee of $9.99 applies.

Also remember that while you’re free to browse through Amazon Prime Now as a guest, an Amazon membership account is still required during checkout. But since signing up is relatively a seamless process, it made the overall shopping experience hassle-free.

The app’s interface is also clean, well-organised and easy to use. It also saves your past purchases so you won’t have to create a new shopping list each time.

Read our update on the delivery here: What it’s like to shop on the new Amazon Prime Now in Singapore (Part 2)


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What it’s like to shop on the new Amazon Prime Now in Singapore (Part 2)
Amazon Prime Now FAQ: Everything you need to know about the delivery service

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