Amazon Launches Aplenty Brand to Appeal to BFY Consumers

This week online retailer Amazon announced the launch of its newest private label brand, Aplenty, which will focus on offering consumers better-for-you takes on center store categories.

Aplenty’s products are developed without artificial flavors, synthetic colors or high fructose corn syrup, an Amazon spokesperson said. The line will roll out on Amazon Fresh, one the retailer’s grocery delivery services, as well in Amazon Fresh stores. To-date, there are eight Amazon Fresh stores in California and four in Illinois.

The Aplenty portfolio of 11 products currently consists of snacks and condiments, including pita chips, cornbread crackers, cookies, mustard and frozen cakes, with prices ranging from $2.49 to $3.99. The company has plans to expand the brand over the next year, moving into other center store categories.

While some natural or better-for-you products focus on functional benefits, with Aplenty, Amazon is focused on taste, offering a “delicious guarantee” in which customers can ask for a full refund if unsatisfied with the product’s taste. While the products themselves are more familiar, the brand has tried to also add taste appeal with descriptors and modifiers, such as “Sweet Cream Butter Crackers,” or callouts, such as “made with white wine.”

Those are qualities on consumers’ minds, at least according to a recent article by The Hartman Group studying the growth of private label products during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the firm, indicators of quality –such as Amazon’s new guarantee — simple ingredient lists, or interesting “culinary” angles are all strong drivers of a private label purchase.

Aplenty joins other Amazon private label food brands such as Solimo (which includes coffee, beverages and gummy vitamins), Wickedly Prime (which has snacks and other center store products), and Happy Belly (which has snacks, dairy products and other center store staples). Amazon, which purchased natural products retailer Whole Foods Market in 2017, also sells many 365 by Whole Foods Market products through its Prime Now two hour delivery service.

Online grocery sales have dramatically increased during the Covid-19 pandemic, with a recent study by Oracle finding that 53% of respondents had shopped online for groceries during the pandemic. With many households also feeling budget constraints, sales of private label products, in particular, have also seen a dramatic increase. Oracle found that 86% of shoppers have “explored store owned brands and private label alternatives.” For many shoppers, they’ve liked what they’ve found: 32% intend to stay with the store brand option and 34% will shop a mix of new store brand finds as well as branded items.

For retailers including Amazon, which saw out-of-stocks at the height of the pandemic, private label provides a way to have a stronger hold on their supply chains as well as often offers better financial gains.

“The surge in private label purchases has become the unexpected silver lining of COVID-19 for grocers,” noted Mike Webster, SVP and GM, discussing Oracle’s study. “Consumers uninterested in trying something new were forced to branch out due to shortages and now plan to stick with their new finds. This allows grocers an opportunity to increase brand affinity with customers and, in turn, their margins.”