Most Amazon Brands Are Duds, Not Disrupters, Study Finds

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From Bloomberg:

The explosion of Amazon.com Inc.’s private-label products — batteries, baby wipes, jeans, tortilla chips, sofas — has prompted concern that the world’s biggest online retailer could use its clout to promote these house brands at the expense of merchants selling similar products on the web store. The issue even surfaced in Senator Elizabeth Warren’s recent proposal to breakup big technology companies.

Turns out most Amazon-branded goods are flops that don’t threaten other businesses at all, according to Marketplace Pulse. In a study, the New York e-commerce research firm examined 23,000 products and found that shoppers aren’t more inclined to buy Amazon brands even when the company elevates them in search results.

The study suggests popular political and media narratives about Amazon’s market power are overblown, despite the company capturing 52.4 percent of all online spending in the U.S. this year, according to EMarketer Inc.

. . . .

“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.

Link to the rest at Bloomberg

4 thoughts on “Most Amazon Brands Are Duds, Not Disrupters, Study Finds”

  1. Hardly a shock.

    House brands are by design targeted at “generic” and off-brand shoppers. It is only after a long period building equity with shoppers that a CRAFTMAN or a KENMORE emerges. Amazon hasn’t been at it long enough to build brand awareness, much less brand loyalty.

    It’s like comparing an author with two or three books to King or Patterson. Brand building needs a track record.

    • Same. I bought an Amazon Basics paper shredder, and an Amazon Basics monitor arm that was clearly modeled after the Ergotron brand. Both work exactly as advertised and I’m happy with them.

      As Felix mentioned, Sears has Kenmore. JC Penney has Worthington. Newegg has Rosewill. And Microsoft has the Surface Pro (which I covet). I’m not seeing why “Amazon Basics” must be a threat to other businesses.

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