DUBAI: Amazon hopes its third annual Prime Day on Tuesday could be the ideal launching pad for something the giant online retailer is not exactly known for even for its most loyal customers: groceries.
Seattle-based Amazon has declared July 11 to be Prime Day but 30 US cities are already enjoying marked down prices on grocery items like Halo Top ice cream, La Croix sparkling water since July 8, days ahead of the online retailer’s third attempt at such a large-scale event.
Amazon is hopeful the buzz generated by its $13.4 billion (SR50.25 billion) acquisition of upscale grocery chain Whole Foods would encourage people to sign up to AmazonFresh, its take on a grocery delivery and pick-up service available only for Prime members in select cities across the US.
Purchasing Whole Foods also represented a major leap in the company’s long-running battle with Walmart, the largest grocery retailer in the US, as the deal gave them an instant brick-and-mortar network across the country.
Wal-Mart controls the biggest share of the US food and grocery market, with about 14.5 percent of all sales, according to estimates and analysis from GlobalData Retail.
Whole Foods meanwhile has a 1.2 percent share on all US food and grocery sales and Amazon has about a 0.2 percent share of that $800 billion market.
Amazon’s push into grocery is further bolstered its Prime Day plans to sell various food and household items for as much as 35 percent off with onsite coupons in Prime Pantry, an “everyday essentials” section that features many products from one of Amazon’s own food brands, Wickedly Prime.
Prime members can also shop exclusive deals – many for food and beverage items – available for free, two-hour delivery, ahead of the highly anticipated, 30-hour Prime Day.
The first Prime Day was held on July 15, 2015 to celebrate Amazon’s 20th anniversary, and its success at boosting sales and bringing in new Prime members prompted the company to do it again on July 12 last year.
Amazon has been experimenting with technology to help grow its grocery business and in December 2016 Amazon Go, which grab-and-go stores without cashiers and checkout lines.
Customers can use a mobile app to enter an Amazon Go store and items they want to buy are automatically added to their virtual cart as they grab them off the shelf. Their Amazon accounts are then charged when they are finished shopping and leave the shop.
Amazon said its beta store located in Seattle was just currently open to employees.
Amazon hopes third US Prime Day sale to help it break into grocery business
Amazon hopes third US Prime Day sale to help it break into grocery business
European gas prices soar almost 50% as Iran conflict halts Qatar LNG output
- Analysts warn prolonged disruption could push prices higher
- Some shipments of oil, LNG through Strait of Hormuz suspended
- Benchmark Asian LNG price up almost 39 percent
LONDON: Benchmark Dutch and British wholesale gas prices soared by almost 50 percent on Monday, after major liquefied natural gas exporter Qatar Energy said it had halted production due to attacks in the Middle East.
Qatar, soon to cement its role as the world’s second largest LNG exporter after the US, plays a major role in balancing both Asian and European markets’ demand of LNG.
Most tanker owners, oil majors and trading houses have suspended crude oil, fuel and liquefied natural gas shipments via the Strait of Hormuz, trade sources said, after Tehran warned ships against moving through the waterway.
Europe has increased imports of LNG over the past few years as it seeks to phase out Russian gas following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Around 20 percent of the world’s LNG transits through the Strait of Hormuz and a prolonged suspension or full closure would increase global competition for other sources of the gas, driving up prices internationally.
“Disruptions to LNG flows would reignite competition between Asia and Europe for available cargoes,” said Massimo Di Odoardo, vice president, gas and LNG research at Wood Mackenzie.
The Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub, seen as a benchmark price for Europe, was up €14.56 at €46.52 per megawatt hour, or around $15.92/mmBtu, by 12:55 p.m. GMT, ICE data showed.
Prices were already some 25 percent higher earlier in the day but extended gains after QatarEnergy’s production halt.
Benchmark Asian LNG prices jumped almost 39 percent on Monday morning with the S&P Global Energy Japan-Korea-Marker, widely used as an Asian LNG benchmark, at $15.068 per million British thermal units, Platts data showed.
“If LNG/gas markets start to price in an extended period of losses to Qatari LNG supply, TTF could potentially spike to 80-100 euros/MWh ($28-35/mmBtu),” Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING, said. The British April contract was up 40.83 pence at 119.40 pence per therm, ICE data showed.
Europe is also relying on LNG imports to help fill its gas storage sites which have been depleted over the winter and are currently around 30 percent full, the latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe showed. In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract was down €1.10 at €69.17 a tonne
