This week, Amazon has launched a new product line called Wag, dedicated entirely to pet products and accessories. According to the American Pet Products Association (APPA), all U.S. pet owners combined will spend over $72 billon in 2018 on pet expenditures, making this a very lucrative market for Amazon to add to its portfolio.
It feels like it gets harder and harder to remember everything that Amazon does as time goes by. Many see it simply as an online shopping center, but it has become so much more than that.
Under the helm of CEO, Jeff Bezos, Amazon has gotten into a lot of industries that initially made customers scratch their heads in disbelief. From Amazon Web Services (also know as AWS) to AmazonFresh, the company has shown that it will not be confined to just one, or even a few, types of revenue streams.
In 2009, Amazon began launching its own private-label brands. It now owns over 70 lines that range from batteries to baby wipes. Amazon is adding Wag to that growing list. Initially they are offering multiple varieties of dog food that can be ordered in 3 different sizes (5, 15, and 30-pound bags) and include flavor options such as chicken, turkey, beef, and more.
Amazon has been sitting on the pet-friendly domain name of Wag.com since its acquisition of Quidsi back in 2011. For those of you that don’t remember Quidsi, it was the parent company of diapers.com and soap.com. Amazon acquired Quidsi after fiercely competing over diaper pricing. It was reported that Amazon was taking a large loss on diaper sales just to ensure their success against the rival.
Looking at how Amazon handled Quidsi may give us some insight into how the company may handle pet product companies in going forward. If that is true, it could mean that consumers may soon benefit from lower costs at the expense of less companies to choose from.
Wag-branded dog food will only be available to customers subscribed to Amazon’s Prime service, adding one more feature to already expansive membership. Although it does seem that the new dog food could be a good fit for the Whole Foods chain that Amazon acquired in June of 2017
Product reviews are a bit scarce at the moment, but Amazon was at least able to get a few reviews in ahead of time by taking advantage of its very own review program, called Amazon Vine. At the time of publishing this article, each variation of dog food is averaging 4/5 stars with somewhere between 10-20 reviews. Pricing starts at $12.99.
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