Not So Essential: Amazon Drops Most of Its In-House Brands

pcmag.com:

Several of Amazon's in-house brands are going away as the company ditches them in an effort to cut costs and protect itself against antitrust scrutiny.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the company will axe 27 of its 30 clothing brands, leaving only Amazon Essentials, Amazon Collection, and Amazon Aware. Daily Ritual, Goodthreads, and Lark & Ro will disappear once Amazon sells through its inventory. The company is also getting rid of its private-label furniture sold under the names Rivet and Stone & Beam.

In a statement to the Journal, Matt Taddy, VP of Amazon Private Brands, said the company looks to eliminate things that “aren’t resonating with customers.” Shoppers prefer larger labels, he says, so the focus will be on Amazon Collection, Amazon Essentials, and Amazon Aware.

Amazon has previously said sales from its in-house brands equate to 1% of total retail sales.

But the move comes amid regulatory scrutiny in recent years over whether Amazon was ripping off third-party retailers, developing its own versions of what they sold, and serving up its own dupes more prominently in search. The Journal reported on this scheme in 2020, and Congress grilled then-CEO Jeff Bezos about it that year.

Bezos acknowledged that there might be some truth to the Journal story, but said he wasn’t entirely sure. “We have a policy against using seller-specific data to aid our private label business, but I can’t guarantee you that that policy has never been violated," he said at the time.

Last year, Amazon agreed to a number of legally binding commitments to change its business practices. The agreement settled two European Union (EU) antitrust investigations that could have led to the company facing a fine worth 10% of its annual global