Dive Brief:
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Amazon is selling a new line of premium, sustainable diapers, Earth + Eden, the e-commerce giant confirmed to Retail Dive in an email. The diapers were spotted by TJI Research, a service launched this month "focused on tracking the business of Amazon."
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Amazon two years ago began selling a private label diaper under its "Mama Bear" brand. But while Earth + Eden is designated "our brand" in search results, Mama Bear is listed as an "Amazon brand." "To clarify, Earth + Eden is owned and developed by First Quality and is their brand that's available exclusively on Amazon," an Amazon spokesperson told Retail Dive in an email. "It is not Amazon's private label and we don't own the brand."
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Earth + Eden seems positioned to compete with The Honest Co.'s sustainable diaper. Amazon describes it as "free from lotions, latex, fragrance and chlorine bleaching," "cruelty free," "made with SFI Certified sustainably sourced fluff," "printed with non-toxic water-based inks," and "produced in a zero waste to landfill facility." The line was also "made in the USA with domestic and imported materials" by First Quality, which runs factories up and down the Eastern Seaboard.
Dive Insight:
Before last year's launch of Mama Bear diapers, Amazon struggled with the category. In 2015, the e-tailer pulled its line of diapers after "early customer feedback," less than two months after launching, which at the time was part of its Amazon Elements stable available only to Prime members.
The Mama Bear diaper label arrived just a few months after the e-commerce giant shuttered the unprofitable Quidsi unit, which it acquired from Jet founder Marc Lore in 2010. Among Quidsi's e-commerce sites was Diapers.com, which was a popular destination for parents looking to replenish baby care basics. (The diaper debut, however, was "unrelated to Quidsi," an Amazon spokesperson said at the time.)
Since then, the e-commerce giant has been poised to launch yet more baby products, according to e-commerce analytics firm One Click Retail. Amazon Elements last year tested items like diaper pail refills and pouch baby food to supplement its already successful baby wipes business, Ojastro Todd, marketing analyst at One Click Retail, said in April. The data firm then said Amazon would likely expand on tests of diaper sales initiated last year with an expanded launch some time in the ensuing 12 months.
And here they are. The category seems an obvious one for Amazon, considering its success selling baby wipes, among other consumer goods. The bestselling private label item outside of its AmazonBasics electronics line is Amazon Elements Baby Wipes, "Sensitive 480 count," which has earned $2.5 million in sales year to date, according to One Click Retail. Amazon Elements ranks third behind Huggies and Pampers in baby wipes and has accounted for some $10 million in sales so far this year.
Earth + Eden is positioned as better than most standard diapers but less expensive than popular premium sustainable ones, notes TJI research. "The Earth+Eden diapers appear to have launched within the last few weeks, as the earliest reviews are from August and Vine reviews (i.e. from customers who received free product, as often happens when a new product launches on Amazon) are coming in as of this morning," according to the report from TJI founder Justin Smith.
It's a retail sweet spot that stands to gain from the demise of Toys R Us, whose Babies R Us unit was one of the largest sellers of infant products.