A brief history of Amazon’s private label brands
Amazon has been busy growing their own private label brands. The ecommerce giant now has 121 private label brands and counting.
Here are the top things you should know about Amazon’s private label brands:
A brief history of Amazon’s private label brands
Amazon started selling its own products in 2007 with the launch of the Amazon Basics line, a collection of everyday items like batteries and HDMI cables.
Today, Amazon Basics is a $300 million brand offering thousands of items including consumer electronics, kitchen goods and even pet supplies.
Amazon Basics handily outsells other popular products in its category by a ratio of 2-to-1, according to research from Marketplace Pulse.
But that’s just one example of Amazon’s brand growth. Today, Amazon has more than 120 private labels, many selling at least some products that compete with third-party sellers who sell on its marketplace.
Amazon launched its first private label brand back in 2009 — Amazon Basics — in response to a demand from customers for high-quality but affordable products. The idea was that Amazon could offer these products at a lower price point than competitors due to its direct relationship with manufacturers and control over end-to-end fulfillment. From there, the company expanded into other categories like electronics, office supplies, and school supplies. In 2015, it even expanded into apparel with the launch of seven different labels such as Buttoned Down (men’s shirts), Paris Sunday (
Amazon is a major threat to the ecommerce industry. Not only does Amazon have millions of online shoppers — it’s also competing with third-party merchants.
Amazon has been quietly launching its own private label products since at least 2009. Today, Amazon sells over 120 brands including apparel, baby products, food and household items.
Private label brands can be trouble for third-party merchants because they compete against your products on Amazon. There are a few specific ways that these brands can hurt your business:
Better positioning in search results
Higher profit margins
Inability to use certain keywords in listing title
Why Amazon’s brands concern third-party merchants
Amazon’s brands may be an annoyance for small businesses that sell similar items on the platform. But this isn’t just a problem for third-party sellers.
Over the past year, Amazon has also been developing a number of other product lines in categories where it
Amazon is no longer just a marketplace. It’s now a brand juggernaut, with its own products spanning nearly every category that third-party merchants sell in. Most recently, the company has expanded into the food and beverage space with a new line of coffee, tea, and snacks called Happy Belly.
The new brand joins dozens of other Amazon private label products or brands (like Amazon Basics, Amazon Essentials, and Amazon Fresh), many of which have created controversy among those selling on the platform. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at Amazon’s private label brands and their impact on third-party sellers.