Interview: Amazon Fresh UK Director Matt Birch talks new Notting Hill Gate convenience store and biggest Christmas yet

Amazon Fresh UK Director Matt Birch sits down with Liz Morrell* to discuss stores, Christmas ranges, and Amazon’s goal to “build a best-in-class grocery experience for customers where we are the first choice, as we are in many other areas, for selection, value and convenience”.

It’s lunchtime and Amazon Fresh UK Director Matt Birch has a prized possession in his hand, albeit now half eaten. “Our Christmas range is in-store, and I wanted to race out to our Moorgate store to be one of the first to get our brie and cranberry hot baguettes,” he laughs.

Amazon Fresh is gearing up for its biggest Christmas yet and its online business and partnerships, as well as its physical stores, will be crucial to building its share of the grocery market yet further.

“Our goal is to build a best-in-class grocery experience for our customers where Amazon is the first choice, as we are in many other areas, for selection, value and convenience,” says Birch. “That’s whether you are shopping online or in-store. It’s an omnichannel vision.”

The vision, he says, is to replace shoppers’ multi-store relationships for their food and grocery needs throughout the week with a single point of contact with Amazon at the helm.

“What we’ve been thinking about in Amazon is what would it be like if shoppers could get all of their grocery needs served through fewer relationships and maybe one app, that one payment method that you’ve already got loaded up, that one account that you trust and that familiar experience,” he comments.

“When you think about serving all those different customer missions and needs in grocery – such as lunch on the go in-store, planning that special occasion, doing the big weekly shop, getting your meal for tonight delivered fast – getting to all those things through that one trusted relationship, that’s how we think about grocery within Amazon.”

Making it easier to shop

In London, at least, the retailer is getting close to that ambition with its network of Amazon Fresh convenience stores, and Whole Foods market as well as online partnerships with the likes of Deliveroo and Morrisons all opening up access for customers.

“That’s all using the same Amazon app, one Amazon account and their trusted payment method and Prime membership.”

Pre-Christmas the focus is on making all options even easier to shop, according to Birch. Online that will include improved value, range and delivery options. The range includes hundreds of brands, including its own brand By Amazon offering, as well as products from Morrisons, Boots and Iceland.

“You’re going to see lots of products exclusive to us that really celebrate that festive sparkle as we run into Christmas,” he says.

Since the beginning of November prices have also been slashed in Amazon Fresh’s biggest price cutting campaign yet. Discounts of up to 25% are available on featured brands but Amazon is also continuing its Tesco Clubcard price match campaign, first launched over a year ago.

Delivery will also be a key area of focus in the Christmas period. Birch says that most customers will be able to get delivery the same day but for the first time, they will also be able to reserve delivery slots online which will help build spend. “They know they can get that super-fast same-day delivery guaranteed before they start building their baskets. That gives them that peace of mind to build a bigger shop with us.”

Changes to payments and a new store in Notting Hill Gate

As part of its physical store strategy, the company will also open its latest Amazon Fresh location, its 20th in the UK market and 19th in London pre-Christmas.

This will open in Notting Hill Gate on 29th November and will also include an Amazon collect and returns counter. It follows the launch of new stores in Liverpool Street earlier this year and Moorgate in August.

Birch says it will have the latest in Amazon Fresh thinking both in terms of the range and also its payment options. Tackling the issue of payments for Amazon Fresh has been a necessary focus with many blaming the slower than expected store roll-out on the limited ways in which customers pay.

The original target had been a portfolio of more than 200 stores by the end of 2025. Previously the ability to pay had been restricted to payment by QR code. That has now changed.

“We’ve been thinking very much about the way customers can pay in our stores. Instead of just paying with the QR code, which a load of our customers love, you can also just tap a credit card to pay and that’s in response to listening to customers and how they want to experience our stores,” says Birch.

The Notting Hill Gate store will include self-checkouts, which were also installed in its Monument store recently. “It’s just making it as easy and effortless as possible for customers to experience our great selection, value and convenience but then paying the way they want to.”

Amazon Fresh’s Deliveroo partnership has also expanded, rolling out from its Hoxton store, to also serve customers in Kensington and Southwark.

Looking to the future

Despite the latest openings store numbers remain relatively static, however.

Three Amazon Fresh stores closed in the summer including the first UK store which opened in Ealing Broadway in March 2021, as well East Sheen and Wandsworth which were also less than two years old. Its Dalston store closed in January 2023.

Birch says the fluidity of the stores is a result of continual learning. “We’ve always looked to make sure that the shops we’ve got are in the right place. If you look at all convenience estates and the way retailers think about this, it’s a constantly moving feast. You’re always looking to make sure that you are where customers need you to be.”  

As ever Amazon is coy about future plans, but Birch believes the strategy is going well.

“We’re very, very excited by the reactions we are getting from customers to the changes we’ve made this year. We’re continuing to look for locations where we can reach new customers and grow the business.”

“Customers tell us that they love interacting with our stores and particularly love the convenience of not having to scan your own products. It’s fast and customers talk about it being slightly magical as well as quite exciting which is not often words you often hear about convenience shopping. We get great feedback but also, they tell us how we can make it even better.”

With Christmas approaching fast, Amazon Fresh will be hoping for all the magic it can get as it competes in a hugely competitive sector involving Tesco, Sainsbury’s et al for spend.

*Liz Morrell is a freelance retail business journalist and copywriter.