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Secret Amazon Brands Are Quietly Taking Over Amazon.com (qz.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Arabella. Lark & Roe. Mae. NuPro. Small Parts. You might not know it from their names, but these brands all belong to Amazon. Amazon's private label business is booming, on pace to generate $7.5 billion this year and $25 billion by 2022, according to estimates from investment firm SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. To accelerate that growth, the company is inviting manufacturers to create products exclusively for its collection of private brands. The "Amazon Accelerator Program" is hiring a senior product manager for private brands, CNBC reported. The job listing invites applicants to "invent and Think Big to take an idea from concept to reality for Amazon customers." Duties include managing and planning inventory, identifying business opportunities, and working across a wide swath of Amazon divisions, including consumables, Prime Pantry, Prime Fresh, Prime Now, and Amazon Go. Another job listing spotted by CNBC, for a private brands program leader, notes that the "Private Brands team is rapidly expanding and is looking for an exceptional product leader to grow the business." Brands created through the accelerator will be exclusive to Amazon, but not owned by it, the company said. Further reading: Amazon is Stuffing Its Search Results Pages With Ads.
Everything old is new again. Remember Craftsman, Kenmore and Hotpoint? All well regarded brands and one point and all made by the same companies that competed with those brands. House brands are just the next step in the life-cycle of a retail organization.
I think companies should not be allowed to sell their house brands under a different name than the company name. For example, "AmazonBasics" is fine. You clearly understand it's an Amazon brand.
An alternative would be a clear and governments-standardized branding/label/warning to make it clear that it's made by Amazon, Canadian Tire, Costco, Home Depot, etc.
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"House brands" are common, but some companies such as Walmart and Amazon use them in anti-competitive ways.
If a product is tweaked and rebranded, it makes it harder to comparison shop.
A store can have a low price guarantee, and offer to match any advertised offer by a competitor or even an additional 10% off. But that is meaningless because they can insist that it is a different product due to the rebranding. Even for products sold under the original brand, Walmart often has unique model numbers that are sold no where else.
You would also have to Prosecute my former employer JCPenney (also Sears, Macys, etc). My ex-emploer JCPenney has MANY private label brands, which try to copy the style of more popular brands: Honestly I sold more of JCPenney's brands than any other.
- Arizona Jeans (and shirts)
- Stafford suits, dresswear and shoes
- Towncraft suits, dresswear and shoes
- J.Ferrar casualwear
- St. Johns Bay casualwear
- Cabin Creek for women
- Worthington dresswear for women.
And on and on and on. This practice has never been illegal by retail stores, and it is not illegal when amazon does it.
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