Amazon may be looking to expand its private-label brands to include more perishable food and household items, such as nuts, spices, coffee, diapers, laundry detergent, and baby food. It’s reported that this rollout will take place sometime around the end of this month or in early June and will initially be available only to Amazon Prime members.
Sources told The Wall Street Journal the names of some of the new brands — Happy Belly, Wickedly Prime, and Mama Bear — but didn’t disclose how the price of these items would stack up against traditional brand name goods. Happy Belly will represent food products such as nuts, trail mix, tea, and cooking oil, while Wickedly Prime will feature snack foods. Baby products like diapers, baby food, gentle detergent, and other related items will be carried under the Mama Bear line.
These aren’t the first private label brands for Amazon — the online marketplace giant already has several brands, though mostly in the fashion arena. It also has an “ethical” own brand product line called Amazon Elements, which promises transparency for featured items. Amazon only featured diapers and baby wipes at the onset, but it’s apparently now ready to expand its offering. This makes sense, especially when you think about the increased potential use of its Dash buttons and Amazon Echo and Alexa-powered devices in the home.
Amazon does currently deliver groceries through its AmazonFresh program, and it could be that by selling generic brands (such as Happy Belly, Wickedly Prime, and Mama Bear), the company can undercut major brands in price, thereby saving you, the consumer, some extra money.
June 5th: The AI Audit in NYC
Join us next week in NYC to engage with top executive leaders, delving into strategies for auditing AI models to ensure fairness, optimal performance, and ethical compliance across diverse organizations. Secure your attendance for this exclusive invite-only event.
This move further shifts Amazon toward becoming the new mega supermarket and convenience store for the connected generation. Instead of getting into our cars and going to Target, Walmart, Safeway, or Trader Joe’s, we can simply take out our mobile device and place an order for Amazon to deliver goods to our doors at a comparable or cheaper price.
But while this helps move our perception of Amazon from being more than just an online bookstore and movie provider, there’s no guarantee that this private label brand push will succeed — we’ve seen it before. Earlier this year, the company shut down its diaper product, so what are the odds that it’ll succeed this time around..
We’ve reached out to Amazon for comment and will update if we hear back.
