US E-commerce giant Amazon earns 9% of its sales in the Clothing, Shoes & Accessories category from its private label brands. In response to US House Antitrust Subcommittee questions following the July 29th hearing, Jeff Bezos included a breakdown by department of Amazon’s private label brands share of total first-party sales.
Measured in total Amazon’s sales, the Amazon private label brands per category performance as follows:
Home & Kitchen: 4%
Consumer Electronics: 3%
Consumables: 2%
In other departments: < 1%
In the Clothing, Shoes & Accessories department, first-party sales of bought brands represented roughly 25% of total Gross merchandise value (GMV), first-party private label sales represented less than 3%, and the marketplace accounted for 72%.
While the marketplace represents 60% of overall GMV, some departments are outliers. Specifically, Books was the only highlighted department where third-party sales represented just 26% of sales, less than the overall. In contrast, Home & Kitchen, Beauty, and Clothing, Shoes & Accessories departments outpaced the overall GMV share.
Amazon’s private label brands represent less than 1% of total SKU listings, however. According to the data, the third-party marketplace represents over 90% of all SKU listings except for the Books department.
Amazon’s most successful clothing brands are Amazon Essentials (men’s and women’s clothing), Simple Joys by Carter’s (children’s clothing), Goodthreads (men’s clothing), Daily Ritual (women’s clothing), and Lark & Ro (women’s clothing). The Clothing department has the highest number of brands launched by the company, and they combine to over 10,000 products, roughly half of Amazon’s private label portfolio.
9% is low compared to US big-box retailers, but here Amazon is presenting itself in the role of the underdog. Meanwhile it outperforms all US retailers in the segment and builds a massiv Amazon owned extremely profitable private label assortment based on the available of its online sales data.
In February, Macy’s said it is on track for its Private Label brands to make up to 25% of sales by 2025. Target is at a higher percent already, and 50% of its own Private Label brands are in clothing. JC Penney is close to 50% of its sales from private label brands and was targeting 70%. Private Label Clothing brands are the most common and most profitable categories from store brands, with hugh potential to grow further.
According to Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley, Amazon has quietly become the nation’s leading apparel retailer in value and volume. The company has ambitions in clothing beyond Amazon Essentials, like the Vogue x Amazon Fashion storefront launched in July, and the Fashion Stores luxury fashion offering announced in September. In the meantime, Amazon is filling gaps left by brands that have steered clear of the company with its own brands. Like the Amazon Essentials polo shirt that has been the number one best-seller for over a year.
Other categories at Amazon are growing equally, making Amazon soon also the largest US retailer for Consumer Electronics, Beauty, Home & Kitchen, Softlines, Books, Consumables and Toys.
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