Amazon steering shoppers toward its private labels

Seattle-based Amazon.com has launched a new way to convert shoppers to its private brands.

According to the Washington Post, Amazon is featuring a section on its site called “similar items to consider,” featuring Amazon branded items that appear just above the area where shoppers click to add an item to their carts.

Still, despite the company’s promotional tactics, Amazon has struggled to gain a huge following for its private brands in the past. According to Bloomberg, most Amazon-branded goods are flops that don’t threaten other businesses. In fact, according to a study by Marketplace, a New York e-commerce research firm, after evaluating more than 23,000 Amazon products, the study found that shoppers aren’t more inclined to buy Amazon brands even when the company elevates them in search results.

“This idea that Amazon can introduce a product and magically use data to dominate a category is just a conspiracy theory,” says Juozas Kaziukenas, founder of Marketplace Pulse. “There are a couple of successful examples everyone uses, but most of their products aren’t successful at all and many other companies continue to outsell Amazon even after it introduces its own competing brands.”