How does Amazon Fresh work for 1P?

Amazon Fresh is Amazon’s delivery and pickup service for fresh produce, home goods and essentials. It offers a wide range of groceries, household goods, personal care products, and even seasonal items and electronics. Orders are placed online and delivered within the same day or a 2hrs-window of your choosing, in eligible regions.
Originally exclusive to Prime members, the service has since expanded. Access, assortment, and pricing now vary by region.

Amazon currently operates four separate grocery-focused formats:

• Amazon Fresh delivers mass-market groceries and household essentials
• Whole Foods offers organic, premium, and lifestyle-focused products
• Amazon Go provides checkout-free shopping in compact urban stores (currently being scaled back)
• Amazon Grocery is Amazon’s private-label grocery brand introduced in October 2025

Each model has its own logistics, merchandising, and data flow. For vendors, this means that managing inventory, pricing, and visibility is far more complex than it appears on the surface.

Amazon Fresh is now available in more than 1,000 U.S. cities. By the end of the year, that number is expected to grow to 2,300. Same-day delivery is already standard in many metro areas.

In 2025, Amazon closed all 19 Amazon Fresh stores in the UK and converted five into Whole Foods Market locations (Amazon to Shutter Fresh Stores in the UK, Focus Instead on Whole Foods, Grocery Delivery – Retail TouchPoints). In Germany, the service remained limited to Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich with no further rollout currently planned and came to a total stop in 2024 (Amazon beendet Fresh-Lieferservice in Berlin, Hamburg und München).

The takeaway is clear. Amazon is rethinking its physical retail footprint and investing heavily in regional online grocery fulfillment.

Yes, but access levels vary.
Amazon Fresh was originally only available to Prime members. Today, many non-Prime customers can also place orders, depending on location. However, delivery windows, minimum order thresholds, and fees can differ. Prime members still receive the broadest access and best pricing.

Yes. Prime members typically pay an additional $9.99 per month to unlock the full Amazon Fresh catalog. This includes access to all national brands, fresh produce, frozen goods, and same-day delivery windows.
Delivery fees or minimum order amounts may also apply, depending on location.

In October 2025, Amazon launched Amazon Grocery, its private-label grocery brand. It replaces the previous Happy Belly and Amazon Fresh branding on selected in-house products.

• The Amazon Grocery catalog features around 1,000 items
• All products are rated four stars or higher
• Packaging now reads Amazon Grocery rather than Happy Belly or Fresh
• Prime members can shop Amazon Grocery without the $9.99 monthly fee

However, the selection is limited. Many national brands and fresh items remain exclusive to the full Amazon Fresh experience. (Introducing-Amazon-Grocery-A-New-Private-Label-Food-Brand-From-Amazon-Offering-Quality-Products-at-Everyday-Low-Prices – US Press Center)

Customers face a trade-off. Pay extra for full Fresh access, or use Amazon Grocery for free but accept a much smaller, private-label-focused selection.
Amazon introduced this model after internal data showed that private-label grocery items generated 15 percent more revenue than comparable vendor brands.
For 1P vendors, this is more than a pricing issue. It is a competitive reset.

Amazon’s regional fulfillment structure fundamentally changes how vendors must manage inventory (Amazon shifts to regional fulfillment model | Supply Chain Dive).
What has changed

• National distribution strategies are no longer effective
• Inventory must be placed closer to demand
• ASINs must be available in-region to show up in search or recommendations
• Same-day expectations make cross-region fulfillment uncompetitive

(How Amazon reworked its fulfillment network to meet customer demand – Amazon Science)

1. You have 500 units of a product in stock
2. They are all in California
3. A customer in Boston searches for it
4. They will not see it in their Fresh interface

Result: no sale, despite being “in stock” nationally.
This is happening every day. And vendors often have no visibility into it.

If your product is not in the right region, it will not appear. If your return data is unclear, your margin is unstable. If your ASINs cannot compete with Amazon Grocery on price or convenience, they will be filtered out of view.

This is not a marketplace problem. It is a structural shift. 1P vendors who adapt to this new model will win. Those who don’t will be left wondering why their “in stock” products are not moving.