Amazon’s seafood sales spiked in the third quarter, thanks to the online giant’s acquisition of Whole Foods Market.
Third-quarter fresh, frozen and prepared seafood sales on AmazonFresh jumped 50 percent to reach more than USD 1.8 million (EUR 1.5 million), accounting for around two percent of all Amazon Fresh sales, according to One Click Retail’s “Consumables on Amazon: Q3 2017 Update” report. Conversely, AmazonFresh’s fresh seafood sales only grew one percent in the second quarter of 2017.
“This increase in seafood sales may be related to Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods.
While Whole Foods sales make up a very small portion of AmazonFresh Seafood sales, the attention AmazonFresh has received because of Whole Foods may be driving up traffic and sales across all categories,” Ojastro Todd, insights manager for One Click Retail, told SeafoodSource.
In the weeks after Amazon announced the Whole Foods acquisition, AmazonFresh’s average weekly seafood sales increased by nearly 40 percent and then leveled out, maintaining that increased average for the next two months, according to Todd.
Then, when Whole Foods’ products became available for purchase on Amazon, there was another large spike, with average weekly seafood sales increasing an additional 35 percent.
While media attention surrounding the merger may have resulted in a temporary buying surge, AmazonFresh’s seafood sales have not yet fallen, according to Todd.
“After the initial spikes, AmazonFresh sales have leveled out at the increased average, rather than decreasing to earlier rates,” Todd said. “This may be caused by the subscription-based nature of AmazonFresh, by effective customer retention by Amazon, by supply chain improvements, or by any combination of these or other factors.”
Todd expects significant growth in AmazonFresh’s overall sales – including seafood – in the fourth quarter of this year.
“After that, while I am sure that AmazonFresh will continue to grow at a rapid pace,” he said. “I don’t think that they will continue at the pace we saw in the third quarter, unless they can come out with changes as large as the Whole Foods acquisition.”
However, since Amazon is constantly innovating, “it’s entirely possible that their next move will maintain or even improve that growth rate,” Todd said.
Fresh fish fillets are the more popular seafood items on AmazonFresh, accounting for 29 percent of seafood sales in the third quarter, followed by frozen shellfish (21 percent of sales) and frozen prepared seafood items such as fish burgers and ready-to-bake fish, which accounted for 20 percent of sales.
In related news, AmazonFresh recently began offering meal kits via a partnership with meal-kit-building service eMeals. Shoppers can send a shopping list – automatically generated for all meals selected each week – to AmazonFresh, and then choose home delivery or curbside pickup.
Amazon is also developing its own meal-kit service, announced via a trademark filing in early July.
