2014 may be the year of the most developments yet, but the hottest technology race these days is a about which of the Silicon Valley giants has the capability of delivering diapers and other household non-perishables to one’s door step when charging less money and as quick as possible. As of Monday, it seems that search engine giant Google Inc. is jumping ahead of its competitors in this race as the company is undertaking expansion of its same-day delivery service to LA and Manhattan. CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos and John Donahoe of eBay are bound to be concerned because of this move.
This is due to the fact that both companies are also expanding their non-perishable household goods and groceries and other items next-day delivery service to several major cities all over the country, which also include the Big Apple. Google Shopping Express is the name given to Google’s service and it has promised to provide same-day delivery service from Target, Costco, Walgreens, Fairway and several other retail partners anywhere in Manhattan for a fixed fee of $4.99 per store. In contrast, $9.98 is charged by Amazon for the first item, followed by 99 cents for each extra item that’s added.
However, $99 a year is paid by Amazon Prime Members and they are able to reap the benefits by paying only $5.99 per order. Similar to Google, a $5 flat free per store is charged by Ebay’s new service, but this is only available for a minimum order of $25. There is no minimum purchase requirement set for Google Shopping Express. The search engine giant introduced the service last year in Sans Francisco first and the company’s executives said that it would be expanding to Queens and Brooklyn in the upcoming months.
The term ‘same day’ indicates that customers will get their goods a few hours after placing their order. An order can be placed by people late in the day and it would still be delivered the very same day, according to the sources. This means that people can save a lot of traveling expense to and from the stores. The head of Google Shopping Express, Tom Fallows, said that they believe that same-day delivery should be a service affordable by everyone rather than just being a luxury service. It is part of the company’s plans to charge retailers in their delivery network for the purpose of keeping prices low.
Fallow also said that the stores are ready to pay the tech company because it would lead to increased business. While the company is famous for its unmanned rockets and driverless cars, the delivery service of Google Inc. is actually dependent on a small army of humans spread across Manhattan. Fallow said that the team is quite big and have made a multi-year commitment to the company. However, even though Google has increase competition between rival tech companies, it hasn’t taken aim at grocery delivery services because it doesn’t deliver perishables as yet.