Amazon launched the newest edition to its private brand portfolio earlier
this month. Wickedly Prime is the first grocery brand officially affiliated
with Amazon and the first affiliated Amazon Consumables Private Label
(CPL) since the launch of Amazon Elements two years ago. Exclusive to
Amazon Prime members, the brand targets the Foodie market and the
products look like something you might find at Trader Joe’s, with the
following tagline: “Some eat to LIVE, we live to EAT”.
Announcing Wickedly PrimeBy JT Meng, Account Manager at One Click Retail
“We are Wickedly Prime, and our passion to experience and
share the best flavors on earth has inspired us to create a new
line of distinctive food and beverages, available exclusively to
Amazon Prime members.”
https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=13854994011
This marks a distinct shift from Amazon’s strategy of launching private
labels with no overt brand affiliation in the Grocery/Consumables group.
The brand messaging for Happy Belly, Mama Bear, and Presto! does not
openly state their Amazon affiliation. Wickedly Prime, on the other hand,
prominently features the Amazon “smile” in its logo (not to mention the
“Prime” trademark) and product packaging states “Distributed by
Amazon Fulfillment Services” while previous CPLs had stated “AFS Brands
LLC”.
This strategic shift may explain why Wickedly Prime, which was
announced in May along with Happy Belly and Mama Bear, has taken
so long to launch. With the success of two earlier CPLs, Amazon may be
more confident now slapping their brand and trademark on their latest
private label. But that doesn’t mean Wickedly Prime is taking
precedence – within the last two months we have seen Amazon
pushing all of their consumable private brands aggressively.
Strategic Shift
With five distinct brands, Amazon continues to build their Consumables Private
Labels portfolio, beginning with Amazon Elements in 2014 followed by Mama Bear,
Happy Belly and Presto! earlier this year. The initial products under the Wickedly
Prime banner, including popcorn, tortilla chips and almonds have sold well so far,
with the four top SKUs reaching over $500 in sales in the first week and another
three breaking $100, not insignificant for a new product. We can expect more
Wickedly Prime products going forward including beverages (the brand page reads
“distinctive food and beverages”).
CPLs Continue to Grow
We’ve seen continued investment in the Amazon CPLs in the past two
months, with no sign that Amazon is slowing down when it comes to
introducing new products within these brands, including the new Mama
Bear Baby Laundry Detergent. The marketing and promotion of private
brands has been aggressive throughout the holiday shopping season,
with Amazon leveraging Subscribe & Save, the Amazon’s Choice tag and,
for new products, Vine in order to drive growth in CPLs.
Happy Belly, in particular, saw sales of nuts/trail mixes grow
from $20,000 to $265,000 thanks to a series of Alexa Deals
throughout the month of November and a lightning deal on
December 6th. That’s a growth of over 5000% above the
previous 4-week sales period!
Amazon is uniquely positioned to develop a strong private brand
strategy. Their approach is informed by their access to the best product
information, sales data and customer insights collected over the course
of years as one of the world’s leading e-commerce platforms. Thus far,
they have taken a conservative approach in the rollout of their brands,
but this slow burn approach has been very effective.
What Manufacturers Can Learn
Manufacturers can achieve similar success by
watching what works for Amazon’s CPLs. For
example:
• It’s not all about a big launch week. Relying on steady, organic growth allows you to troubleshoot fulfillment issues and address customer complaints early in the sales cycle.
• Subscribe & Save promotions help to establish steady, long-term sales and are an important part of Amazon’s long-term marketing strategy.
• Investing in a combination of both paid and organic Amazon search optimization is central to growing and maintaining brand awareness and visibility.
• In the short-term, the importance of customer reviews for building
consumer confidence cannot be overstated. All of Amazon’s CPL
products began with more than 20 reviews at the time of launch.
• Tailor your product offerings to specific platforms. For example,
Amazon offers Wickedly Prime products in single packs on Prime
Pantry while promoting multi-packs on Amazon.com
Using all available data about how consumers actually shop is the
best way for brands to remain profitable. It’s still early for Wickedly
Prime so our data is limited, but going into the new year we will be
following the continued growth of Amazon’s consumer private labels
closely. Check back often for our latest insights.
To get the latest and most accurate industry insights and reports, check out our weekly articles at
www.oneclickretail.com/insights, and following us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
One Click Retail (OCR) is a market leader in eCommerce data measurement, sales analytics and search optimization for brand manufacturers in North America, Europe and Asia. Thanks to our proprietary sales calculations that are 98.5% accurate down to the SKU level, OCR’s accuracy is unrivaled in the marketplace. The OCR Product Suite provides 1st and 3rd party business intelligence across the 30 largest retailers such as Amazon, Walmart, Target, Staples and Home Depot. The world’s top brands, such as Procter & Gamble, Panasonic, Nestle, Hamilton Beach and HP, rely on OCR insights to drive sales and profitability across eCommerce.
Founded in 2013 by eCommerce experts from Amazon, Walmart, Target, Overstock and other leading retailers, OCR was acquired in 2016 by Ascential plc (LSE: ASCL.L), a UK-based international B2B media company with a focused portfolio of market-leading events and information services products.
To learn more about how OCR can provide your brand with the competitive edge in today’s ecommerce marketplace, visit www.oneclickretail.com.
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