Amazon House Brands Are “Overblown” & Some Categories Fail To Impress
Following our story yesterday about Amazon private label pop ups, a new report has suggested that most Amazon branded products are flops that won’t threaten major brands. The report also suggests that Amazon struggles in several categories.
See story here.
According to Bloomberg the report by Marketplace Pulse examined 23,000 Amazon products and found that shoppers aren’t more inclined to buy Amazon brands even when the company elevates them in search results.
The study also suggests Amazon’s market powers are overblown, despite the company capturing 52.4 percent of all online spending in the U.S. this year, according to EMarketer.
“This idea that Amazon can introduce a product and magically use data to dominate a category is just a conspiracy theory,” says Juozas Kaziukenas, founder of Marketplace Pulse. “There are a couple of successful examples everyone uses, but most of their products aren’t successful at all and many other companies continue to outsell Amazon even after it introduces its own competing brands.”
The study used sales rankings and the number of customer reviews as indicators of sales volume for different products, including Amazon’s own brands and brands sold exclusively on the site. Amazon’s success has been limited to basic products like batteries where shoppers are inclined to seek generic alternatives to save money, the study found.
But when competing against such categories as apparel, where household names have an entrenched position, such Amazon brands as “A for Awesome” children’s wear don’t stand out, the study found. Kaziukenas is scheduled to present his findings Monday at a conference in front of 1,500 Amazon vendors, merchants and consultants in Las Vegas.
These are exceptions that demonstrate Amazon’s strength selling generic alternatives in categories where brands don’t command much value, Kaziukenas says. Amazon hasn’t been able to win over consumers with its fashion labels and other categories with brand loyalty.
But they have been able to successfully flog batteries to the detriment of Energizer and Duracell.
According to Bloomberg AmazonBasics batteries appeared in the top three search positions on Amazon more than half the time for battery-related keyword searches, more than Energizer or Duracell, according a September study by Kantar Media.