Private-label products on Amazon are declining

In response to lacklustre sales, Amazon.com Inc. has begun to cut back on the quantity of products it offers under its own brands, according to sources who were familiar with the situation, as reported by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

In order to lessen regulatory pressure, the corporation has reportedly talked about possibly completely quitting the private-label industry, according to the newspaper. Amazon, though, insisted that it has never thought about shutting down the private label division.

According to a company spokeswoman, "We continue to invest in this area, just as our numerous retail competitors have done for decades and continue to do now."

The move to pare back many of the in-house brand products was partially motivated by disappointing sales, according to the WSJ story.

According to the source, the company's leadership has also discussed cutting its in-house label assortment in the United States by more than half and has asked its private-label staff to decrease the list of products and not reorder many of them over the past six months.

According to the source, Dave Clark, a longstanding Amazon executive who was appointed president of its worldwide consumer division in January 2021, reviewed the company, which led to the decision.

With the European Commission accusing Amazon in 2020 of abusing its size, influence, and data to promote its own items and gain an unfair advantage over competitor merchants who also use its platform, the company's house-brand business has generated controversy.

The dominant American online retailer has now offered to stop using sellers' data for its own rival retail operation and its private label goods.