Amazon.com Inc. has dramatically increased the number of products it offers from its in-house brands and is expanding aggressively in categories outside of apparel and accessories, according to a new study by retail advisory firm Coresight Research and ecommerce data-gathering firm DataWeave Pvt. Ltd.
Amazon, No. 1 in the 2020 Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000, now sells 22,617 items from 111 of its own brands, more than triple the 6,825 private-label products it sold in June 2018, the study says.
Amazon private-label products rank high
Apparel, accessories and footwear products account for 12,222 of the Amazon-brand products, or 54%. Those categories accounted for three-quarters of Amazon’s own products two years ago, suggesting the online retail giant is expanding its house brands rapidly into new types of merchandise.
Among the other categories with large numbers of Amazon private-label products are home and kitchen (3,409 items), grocery and gourmet food (1,820) and home improvement (1,104).
Within apparel and accessories, excluding luggage and other travel-related items, women’s merchandise accounts for nearly 60% of the 11,995 items available from Amazon’s own brands. Men’s clothing accounts for nearly a quarter of the total.
In all, Amazon offers 7,071 private-label products for women in such categories as clothing, handbags and wallets, shoes, maternity, plus-size and jewelry, according to the DataWeave/Coresight report.
Smaller brands target specific audiences
Six of Amazon’s brands offer more than 1,000 products each. Topping the list is AmazonBasics, which offers a wide variety of everyday products from batteries and light bulbs to coffee makers and office supplies, at 4,152 products. However, 78 of the Amazon brands offer 100 products or fewer, including 45 brands with fewer than 25 products, Coresight and DataWeave say.
“Amazon’s strategy in the private-label space, therefore, seems to be to offer a comprehensive range of low-priced products through key multi-category brands, while serving specialized customer bases through more focused brands,” the report says.
The average price of an Amazon private-label product is $32, “indicating an overall midmarket positioning,” the report says. There are a few exceptions, such as jewelry brand Amazon Collection, which has an average price point of $179.50, and formal-dress brand Social Graces at $109.90.
Among Amazon’s better-known brands, AmazonBasics has an average price point of $61.80 and women’s clothing brand Lark & Ro of $37.10.
Customers seem to mostly like Amazon’s brands: “The average Amazon private-label product generates a customer rating of 4.3 stars out of 5, suggesting overall solid customer satisfaction levels,” the report says.
The Coresight/DataWeave report did not address how much Amazon sells of its private-label products.
A report last year from the L2 unit of research and consulting firm Gartner found that Amazon brands accounted for 14% of best-selling products on Amazon.com in household goods and 7% in men’s clothing. But in areas where consumers are more brand-conscious, including healthcare and pet foods, traditional brands perform better, Gartner said.
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