Beverages & Snack Foods Dominate Amazon's Grocery Sales

SEATTLE — In 2017, Amazon earned 18 percent of U.S. online grocery sales, valued at $2 billion, according to Sandy, Utah-based ecommerce solutions firm One Click Retail’s latest report, "Amazon Grocery 2017 Review."

According to the report, Amazon saw cold beverage sales — driven by bottled water and sports/energy drinks — and coffee — driven by disposable pods — earn more than double the next leading categories, with cold beverages increasing 65 percent year over year. Nonperishables continue to dominate Amazon's grocery sales, evidenced by the remaining top categories: snack foods, breakfast foods, and candy and gum.

Other findings include:

• Weekly sales of Amazon Fresh more than doubled over the course of the year, rising from $3 million to more than $7 million in 2017, to reach an estimated sales total of $350 million in total sales. Dairy drew the highest sales by value, estimated at $85 million, while most of the top Fresh items were fruit and vegetables.
• "Organic" was a key search term, with roughly 25 percent of all Amazon Fresh sales going to products with the word in their titles.
• AmazonBasics held the No. 1 spot among bestselling private labels, with Whole Food Market's 365 Everyday Value brand taking the No. 2 spot.

The Seattle-based ecommerce giant also saw growth of more than 50 percent in its two other biggest markets: the United Kingdom and Germany.

For more insights from One Click Retail’s "Amazon Grocery 2017 Review," visit Convenience Store News sister publication Progressive Grocer.