Whole Foods' brand is becoming Amazon's most powerful weapon in taking on the grocery industry (AMZN)

pulse

January 17, 2018 7:06 PM

The Whole Foods brand is strong, and Amazon is taking full advantage of it.

The study showed that Amazon's online grocery business is booming, and Whole Foods contributed significantly to that growth.

Whole Foods and Amazon — two great tastes that taste great together.

A new report on Amazon's grocery business by OneClickRetail shows that Whole Foods integration with Amazon's existing services has been a boon for the company.

Similar to how store traffic increased when Amazon slashed prices in Whole Foods locations, Amazon saw an overall grocery sales bump when it integrated Whole Foods' brand. In a chart sales figures over the year that include both Amazon.com and Amazon Fresh, a noticeable bump occurred both when Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods was announced, and when 365 debuted.

Whole Food's 365 Everyday Value brand is now the number two best-selling private label brand on Amazon, just behind AmazonBasics. The food brand raked in $11 million in the few months it was available in 2017 on the website. Most of the best-selling items on Amazon include non-perishables, like drinks, coffee pods, and snacks.

Amazon now has an 18% share of the online grocery market in the US across all its platforms, double that of its closest competitor, Walmart, according to the report. Online grocery is only an estimated $2 billion market in the US, things like electronics and clothes are still bought online more often. It's growing fast though, at nearly 60% a year.

As Amazon realigns its grocery business with the focus on market share, it will likely leverage Prime Now, Amazon.com, and Amazon Fresh — each of which use different delivery methods to help ensure the company is reaching as many customers as possible.

Before Whole Foods, Amazon was looking for a way into the grocery market. With Whole Foods' brand cache, it seems to have found its golden ticket.

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