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Amazon Service Refinements: New ‘Low-Cost’ Store, Prime Fuel Discount, Ending of ‘Today’ Delivery Service

A look at the new Amazon app homepage.
Image courtesy Amazon

Amazon has made a number of moves to refine its offerings, including adding fuel discounts to the list of Prime membership benefits; developing a low-cost store to compete with discount shopping apps like Temu; and redesigning the homepage of its shopping app for easier navigation. Not all the changes have been additions— Amazon also is reportedly winding down its Today same-day delivery service for sellers that also have brick-and-mortar stores. Here’s all the recent news on Amazon’s recent services shuffle.

Prime Members Save on Gas, EV Charging Discounts Coming in 2025

Amazon is now offering fuel discounts.
Image courtesy Amazon

Amazon is looking to give grocery and warehouse retailers a run for their money with its newest Prime membership benefit — Prime members can now save 10 cents per gallon at approximately 7,000 BP, Amoco and AM/PM gas stations across the U.S. And the retailer promised even more transportation-related savings for members in the future, with electric vehicle (EV) charging discounts launching next year through BP’s EV charging business BP Pulse.

“We’re constantly looking to add more value for Prime members, and perhaps the broadest and most popular additional benefit we could offer is fuel savings — we’re excited to give this to Prime members,”

said Jamil Ghani, VP of Amazon Prime in a statement.

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Looking to Take a Bite Out of Temu with New ‘Low-Cost Store’

It’s no surprise that Amazon wants put the brakes on discount shopping app Temu’s meteoric rise in the U.S. In addition to reducing the seller fees for low-cost apparel in its regular marketplace, The Information has been reporting for several months that Amazon is prepping the launch of a China-direct competitor store, which the company is currently calling the “Low-Cost Store.”

Citing a forum Amazon runs for merchants, the latest news from The Information is that Amazon recently shared policies for the new store, which will feature severe price caps, such as an $8 limit for jewelry, $9 for bedding sets, $13 for guitars and $20 for sofas. “To ensure ultra-affordable prices for customers, the Low-Cost Store has maximum eligible price points at the product-type level,” Amazon said in its messages to merchants, which reportedly also tell merchants that if they want to sell items above these price caps, they should consider listing on the regular Amazon marketplace instead.

Amazon hasn’t formally announced its plans for this new Low-Cost Store, but The Information reports that Amazon plans to ship orders to the U.S. from a facility in Guangdong, China, and that it would charge sellers significantly lower fulfillment fees for items sold through the new storefront than items shipped domestically.

Amazon Today to Wind Down, End Service by January 2025

But Amazon isn’t just in the market of adding new services and benefits. CEO Andy Jassy has been on a cost-cutting kick for several years now, and the latest victim appears to be the company’s Amazon Today service, which offers same-day delivery from brick-and-mortar retailers, according to CNBC.

Launched in 2022, Amazon Today allows retailers that sell on Amazon to offer speedy delivery from their brick-and-mortar stores in select cities. Retailers currently using the service include Office Depot, Staples, Petco, Pacsun and GNC.

The news that Amazon Today would be winding down came as a surprise even to some Amazon insiders, according to CNBC, which reports that the company was still actively onboarding new retailers and had been pitching the service as recently as last week. And just last month, the company announced a new partnership with Feedonomics to help retailers better integrate their inventory with Amazon Today.

Still, Amazon has now reportedly stopped new development of the service and will begin to wind it down. The bulk of the program will be shut down by Dec. 2, according to people familiar with the matter, although Amazon told CNBC that select retail partners will be able to continue fulfilling orders with Amazon Today through Jan. 24, 2025.

Making Shopping ‘Better and Easier’ with a New Amazon App Design

U.S. customers who open the Amazon app might soon see a very different home page experience. Amazon is testing a series of new features and design elements in its shopping app, aimed at making the experience more personalized and easier to navigate. Select customers are testing the new experience now, with rollout to additional U.S. users set for the coming months, according to a blog post from Amanda Doerr, VP of Core Shopping at Amazon.

“Our shopping experience is rooted in making customers’ lives better and easier every day, leading us to invent features such as quick and easy shopping with Buy Now, customer reviews and more recently, review highlights and Rufus, our AI shopping assistant,” Doerr said. “We’re adding to that list by testing new homepage features and design elements on the Amazon Shopping app for iOS and Android for millions of customers in the U.S.”

New features include:

Visualization of the new Amazon app Window Display design.
Image courtesy Amazon
  • An enhanced homepage with recommendations tailored to customers’ interests. For example, if a customer recently bought a new comforter, the homepage might feature matching sheets and pillows. The homepage also will highlight trending products, new releases, best-sellers and deals based on customers’ interests and preferences;
  • Seamless browsing with a refreshed “Window Display” design, which includes improved product groupings and horizontal scrolling to create a more intuitive shopping experience. The “Window Display” feature at the top of the homepage greets customers with personalized recommendations — whether they are picking up where they left off on a previous shopping trip or looking for something new — including deals, new Prime Video and Amazon Music releases or seasonal finds based on their shopping behaviors. For example, customers who love sports might see the latest pair of running shoes from their favorite brand, deals on fitness trackers or a reminder for next week’s Thursday Night Football game. As customers scroll, the page is organized into groupings of related products by topic, interest or previous searches; and
  • An improved Buy Again hub that consolidates frequently purchased items into one location, making it even more convenient to complete common shopping tasks. With a single tap, customers can quickly add to their go-to products and discover complementary items.

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