Is Amazon Changing Diapers Focus To Selling Its Own Brand?
E-tail juggernaut Amazon.com ( AMZN ) might be getting serious about selling its own brand of diapers. Amazon is asking some of its customers via an emailed market research survey about the design and packaging of a new diaper brand called Mama Bear, tech news webside Re/code first reported . The survey asked about the potential new brand’s trustworthiness and whether shoppers would buy such products, if they were offered at a “reasonable price,” among other questions, said Re/code. Amazon.com stock rose 2.8%, to 521.10, on the stock market today , more than 25% below its all-time high of 696 touched in late December, before the stock markets tumbled on global economic worries and falling oil prices. Re/code pointed out Amazon’s survey could be on behalf of another brand. The company doesn’t comment on rumor or speculation, an Amazon spokeswoman told IBD via email. The diaper business is worth more than $29 billion, according to research firm Nielsen, which suggests that the product category could be an important one for large retailers such as Wal-Mart ( WMT ) and Amazon.com. Diapers are also ordered frequently, which is shopping behavior that e-tailers such as Amazon like since it affords them a chance to upsell the shopper on other offerings as well as track buying behavior. Amazon had previously launched — and then killed — a program to sell its own brand of diapers, though the company does own Diapers.com, which it purchased for $545 million in 2010 . Former Diapers.com executive Marc Lore has gone on to found Jet.com, an e-tail startup that aims to take on Amazon. When asked how to beat Amazon at diapers, Cathy Halligan, former chief marketing officer for walmart.com, told IBD in 2010 that the solution involved “developing those capabilities themselves. “What I believe is a possibility is that with larger companies’ purchasing power, there might be an advantage in product costs, opportunities through procurement, because a company like Target ( TGT ) or Wal-Mart has larger-volume buys than” others, she said. “They can leverage their larger scale to lower product costs.”