Google Inc. (GOOGL) is expanding its delivery service “Google Express” and will start charging a membership fee, intensifying its competition with Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) for consumer spending.
Google’s subscription will cost members $95 a year (or $10 a month) for free unlimited same-day or overnight delivery of orders over $15, from select shops. For orders under $15, Google will charge members $3 and non-members $7.99.
This is analogous to the $99 Amazon Prime subscription, which offers unlimited two-day delivery. Under Amazon Prime, same-day shipping costs $5.99 for select areas. Same-day shipping is complimentary for people who upgrade to the $299 per year Amazon Prime Fresh program, which also allows for grocery purchases. Non-subscribers pay at least $8.99 a shipment, plus 99 cents an item for most items.ShopRunner – another competitor of Google Express – charges $79 a year ($8.95 a month) for free two-day shipping for products purchased from a wide range of online stores.
The Google Express service is also expanding to Chicago, Boston and Washington, D.C.
Google has added 16 retailers to the list of stores from where clients can order as part of the new service. The new merchants include companies like 1-800-Flowers, Barnes & Noble, Nine West, PetSmart and Vitamin Shoppe.
Clients can also try the Google Express service with a subscription fee for three months or instead, choose to pay $4.99 per shipment.
Other advantages that come with the subscription are choice of delivery windows and the ability to share the membership with a family member.
It's not clear whether Google will enable access to music, movies and TV shows herewith like its competitor Amazon. But the competition between the two is clearly heating up as Google tries to diversify away from its core search business.
Google currently holds a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
Stocks That Warrant a Look
Better-ranked stocks in this industry include Mercadolibre, Inc. (MELI) and World Energy Solutions, Inc. (XWES). Mercadolibre carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) while World Energy Solutions sporst a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Get all Zacks Research Reports and be alerted to fast-breaking buy and sell opportunities every trading day.
Be the first to comment