From your closet to your pantry and everything in between, Amazon will soon have something to sell under its own private label: after making a recent foray into the fashion world with in-house clothing brands, the e-commerce giant is going to start peddling its own line of food and diapers.
In the next few weeks, Amazon will launch new private-label brands that will include perishable items for the first time, along with household items like diapers and laundry detergent, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing a source in the know. The move might not be much of a surprise, considering reports last year right around this time that Amazon was possibly up to something in the virtual grocery aisle.
Shoppers will see brands like Happy Belly, Wickedly Prime, and Mama Bear on products including nuts, spices, tea, coffee, baby food, and vitamins, the insider said, as soon as the end of the month or early June on Amazon’s site.
However, the only folks who can buy the private-label goods will be Prime members, the insider said.
A lot has changed since generic products stood sadly by on store shelves while name brands scored all the customers: the WSJ points out that store brands reached $118.4 billion in U.S. sales last year, according to the Private Label Manufacturers Association.
Of course, having its own label means it can capture a higher profit margin, and potentially squeeze out its own vendors.
“Amazon is ‘carpet-bombing’ the market with new products,” a brand consultant told the WSJ. “Private label allows them to test out new prices and distinctive flavors with less risk.”
Along with the new clothing labels it launched recently, Amazon has already been selling some other products under private labels for years, including Pinzon linens and towels, and Elements baby wipes. There’s also the AmazonBasics line of everyday accessories like phone cases, batteries, dog crates, and lightning cords.
This isn’t the first time Amazon has tried to sell its own diapers, either: the company’s Elements line used to include diapers along with the baby wipes it currently sells, but Amazon pulled them soon after they launched in 2014, citing design flaws.
Amazon to Expand Private-Label Offerings—From Food to Diapers [The Wall Street Journal]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist