Amazon Horns in on Snacks

The online retailer gobbled up $240 million in sweets and snacks last year out of $49 billion in total sales.

September 20, 2017

SEATTLE – Amazon has been slowly grabbing a bigger piece of the sweets and salty snacks categories, Chain Store Age reports. The online retailer has become a destination for sweets and snacks, siphoning off $240 million in the categories last year out of $49 billion in total sales.

From January to August 2017, Amazon’s sweets and snacks revenue rang in at $215 million—a year-over-year growth of 42%, according to One Click Retail’s “Sweets & Snacks: The Amazon Effect.” Though the biggest subcategories by a significant margin are not surprising—chocolate candy ($31 million), salty snacks ($31 million) and non-chocolate candy ($27 million)—much of the year-to-date growth has been driven by more health-conscious consumers.

Dry fruit snacks, arguably the healthiest of all subcategories, experienced 75% growth, more than any other subcategory, while the next three top growers are all relatively healthy: dried meat snacks, snack/granola bars and crackers. Of the larger volume categories, salty snacks grew the most rapidly, leaving sugary treats relatively stagnant by comparison.

Amazon points to its private-label brands as driving sales: Happy Belly and Wickedly Prime in the snack category. Happy Belly has generated $3.5 million year-to-date in the snack nuts category, snapping on the heels of its closest competitor Planters ($6.5 million in snack nuts sales year to date).

The online retailer’s Alexa also contributes to sales in the categories with Amazon Echo owners shouting out their desire for candy or salty snacks for real-time orders.

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