With terabytes of sales and consumer interest data in its back pocket, Amazon ($AMZN) launched AmazonBasics in 2009. It has since become the best-selling private label brand on Amazon.
There are now more than 2,000 AmazonBasics products sold at the e-commerce giant, from batteries to puppy pee pads. AmazonBasics accounts for a relatively small slice of Amazon's overall sales — $7.5 billion of $232.9 billion in 2018 according to analysts — but that number is growing, and the AmazonBasics brand has become a valuable trademark on its own.
Amazon publishes — and we track — a daily top-100 sales rank chart for 51 categories. Since 2016, 423 AmazonBasics products have charted in the top 100 across 22 of its categories. The most popular AmazonBasics product are AA batteries followed by microfiber cleaning cloths.
Where AmazonBasics really shines is in the Office Products and Cell Phones & Accessories categories. Among office products, AmazonBasics items have charted in the top-100 4,7100 times since April 2016. In that same time period, Cell Phones & Accessories products have charted 4,030 times.
While Amazon's private label is clearly helping to maximize profits, they are rarely #1 sellers. In fact, on average, AmazonBasics products tend to rank somewhere in the middle of the top-100, especially as of late. The only products to average in the top-10 of their respective categories for any significant time period include AA batteries, microfiber cloths, and AAA batteries.
We compiled the 20 best-selling AmazonBasics products by looking not just at each product's average category sales rank, but also how many days it ranked in the top-100 as a way to gain a better understanding not just of which products sell well, but which ones sell well over time.
|
Name |
Category Rank (Average) |
Days in top 100 |
|---|---|---|
|
AmazonBasics AA Performance Alkaline Batteries (48 Count) - Packaging May Vary |
3.31 |
420 |
|
AmazonBasics Microfiber Cleaning Cloth - 24-Pack |
6.03 |
416 |
|
AmazonBasics AAA Performance Alkaline Batteries (36 Count) |
7.21 |
401 |
|
AmazonBasics High-Density Round Foam Roller, Black and Speckled Colors |
12.10 |
299 |
|
AmazonBasics Hanging File Folders - Letter Size, Green, 25-Pack |
17.77 |
328 |
|
AmazonBasics High-Density Round Foam Roller |
19.79 |
338 |
|
AmazonBasics Thick Microfiber Cleaning Cloths - 3 Pack |
25.24 |
428 |
|
AmazonBasics XLR Male to Female Microphone Cable - 6 Feet |
34.06 |
363 |
|
AmazonBasics 9 Volt Everyday Alkaline Batteries (8-Pack) |
36.29 |
603 |
|
AmazonBasics Pet Training and Puppy Pads |
38.81 |
300 |
|
AmazonBasics USB 2.0 Extension Cable - A-Male to A-Female - 9.8 Feet (3 Meters) |
39.19 |
461 |
|
AmazonBasics USB 2.0 Cable - A-Male to B-Male - 16 Feet (4.8 Meters) |
39.96 |
399 |
|
AmazonBasics AAA Performance Alkaline Batteries (20-Pack) - Packaging May Vary |
47.34 |
553 |
|
AmazonBasics Hanging File Folders - Letter Size (25 Pack) - Assorted Colors |
47.78 |
362 |
|
AmazonBasics Thermal Laminator |
49.47 |
412 |
|
AmazonBasics XLR Male to Female Microphone Cable - 10 Feet |
49.81 |
365 |
|
AmazonBasics D Cell Everyday Alkaline Batteries (12-Pack) |
51.92 |
532 |
|
AmazonBasics AA Performance Alkaline Batteries (20-Pack) - Packaging May Vary |
57.24 |
425 |
|
AmazonBasics C Cell Everyday Alkaline Batteries (12-Pack) |
59.47 |
404 |
Private label brands are huge money makers not just for Amazon, but also for Walmart, Target, Costco, and other big-box retailers. They're such marketplace disruptors that presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren wants to bar tech giants from participating in their own marketplaces as part of her plan to break up big tech.
If she gets her way, Amazon would likely be forced to shutter — or spin off — AmazonBasics.