AmazonBasics Is Bigger Than You Think

In recent Amazon news, AmazonBasics — Amazon’s private label retail merchandise brand — made news as a “spearhead” of the company’s private brands, according to reports from retail news provider Chain Store Age.

AmazonBasics — despite sharing the proprietary product category with the Amazon Echo, Dot, Wickedly Prime snacks, Lark & Ro apparel and Happy Belly Snack Food, among others — is far and away the leader of the Amazon private label pack, contributing 85 percent of the company’s private brand sales. In fact, AmazonBaiscs is so powerful and popular that, in some cases, it is also the main competitor for Amazon’s other brands, Chain Store Age reported.

Amazon’s bedding and bath label Pinzon, for example, has seen its sales decline by 50 percent this year in a way that is directly correlated to AmazonBasics entering the same category. While Pinzon has seen its sales fall 50 percent, Basics has seen its own increase by 50 percent.

According to Chain Store Age, his has led some analysts to speculate that Amazon is moving away from its niche brands, possibly toward consolidating them all under the AmazonBasics umbrella.

Basics is now the third best-selling brand overall on Amazon.com and has moved far from its initial offering of a range of affordable household batteries.

Most of the sales still fall within the electronics category (approximately $35 million), including wireless, camera and PC. Paper shredders have also turned out to be a huge area of interest among consumers.

With its recent Whole Foods Market buyout, Amazon has made 2,000 Whole Foods items available in the Amazon marketplace — and netted a $500,000 bump to its sales in a single week.

Whole Foods’ private label goods join a portfolio of Amazon brands with Basics and 45 additional private labels. Amazon’s portfolio features Lark & Ro, Amazon Essentials, Buttoned Down, Mae and Goodthreads, among others.