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.

About One Click Retail