• by Steve Smith  @popeyesm, November 14, 2011

While under the radar relative to other Amazon projects, AmazonFresh has been taking orders and delivering groceries to the environs of Seattle sinc 2007. Although it is still restricted to a select cluster of ZIP codes in and around Amazon’s home base, the service has gone mobile in recent months with a new iOS app and recent Windows Phone and Android apps. AmazonFresh, the app, allows shoppers to scan UPC codes from their own cupboards to create lists that can be fulfilled and delivered to their door.

AmazonFresh's designer, agency Metia/Seattle, had to think outside the usual m-commerce box when crafting the app. Company VP Andrew Morton says “grocery shopping is different from a lot of e-commerce. You use it on a regular basis, not just to buy one-off purchases.” Like an ongoing shopping list that builds over time during the week, a grocery app had to let the user iterate as well as easily recall frequently ordered items. “You need to make it easy and quick to create an order and edit and update it as someone runs out of things before the delivery becomes available.” AmazonFresh members can schedule regular deliveries of items on lists that they build online -- or now, on mobile phones.

The app enables customers to peruse virtual aisles by tapping through items parsed by category (produce, meat, etc.), by picking from previously purchased items, by performing a word search or by aiming the phone cam at a UPC code. Morton says the apps aim for a common-use case of someone deciding what they need from the grocery store by visually scanning their shelves to see what is running low in the cupboard.

Morton says the app was designed around customer feedback and experience with the Windows Phone version that has been available for the past four months. Amazon had also created an Android app internally that launched months ago. “It is about convenience, enabling them to do something that is actually quite time-consuming, and have the world’s largest convenience store in their pocket.” AmazonFresh also can access items from the larger Amazon catalog and deliver many of them same-day as well.

AmazonFresh can deliver about 61,000 items from 300 brands to more than 70 ZIP codes in the Seattle area. Among the top-selling grocery items are bananas, San Pellegrino Sparkling Natural Mineral Water and yellow onions.