Amazon’s Private Label Bonanza

Private label sales have been exploding at Amazon of late, pushed by increasing sales of Amazon’s in-house devices.

Amazon has been focused on pushing those private label products — products consumers may not even know come care of Amazon, since that fact is not indicated on some of those goods. But even without the Amazon brand name, a new report out from 1010data indicates that the in-house brands are growing in a big way.  The best performers?  AmazonBasics, kids’ clothing brand Scout + Ro, Amazon Elements, and other Amazon-made devices like Echo, Kindle, and Fire TV.

1010data regularly tracks Amazon’s private label business. According to the research during the first half of 2017, Amazon saw its private label goods clocking in at about 2 percent of its units sold (excluding marketplace and subscriptions). That figure has bounced up to 12 percent in the back half of the year (thus far).

AmazonBasics — home to the “everyday essentials” of the Amazon user’s life — is a collection of over 2,000 selections ranging from HDMI cables to home goods like bed sheets and bath towels. This set of Amazon’s products managed to bag $200 million in sales during the first half of 2017.

Echo, Fire TV and Kindle — Amazon’s electronics lines — filled out second place with $120 million, $110 million, and $75 million, respectively in the post- Prime Day time period.  Combined, they accounted for 55 percent of Amazon’s private label sales, the report said — especially Echo, which saw its sales double-up year over year.  Kindle Fire also remains powerful — sales have tripled to 184 percent since this time last year.

Amazon Elements, one of the brand’s first forays into private labels, has expanded its offering — and apparently its revenue as well, with $9.5 million in sales during the first half of the year. Amazon Fashions also showed growth as customers are getting used to the service.

The report also examined what was particularly popular with customers.  Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote were the leaders, while the black Echo Dot speaker came in for the silver. A variety of AmazonBasics products take up the bulk of the first decile, though the original Echo and Echo Dot in white remain in the top ten.

And, if recent Quartz reports are accurate, Amazon has a host of new trademarks for private label brands that haven’t yet launched waiting in the pipeline.

Stay tuned.