After listing thousands of Whole Foods 365 Everyday Value items on its website, Amazon sold out of 93 percent of the 100 most popular items and logged nearly $500,000 in sales within a one-week period, said Spencer Millerberg, CEO of market insights analyst One Click Retail.
Amazon.com Inc.’s $13.7-billion purchase of Whole Foods is paying off in other ways, Bloomberg reports. The e-commerce giant is seeing a surge in online grocery shopping for basic food staples like canned beans and tomato paste. They were among Amazon's best-selling products from Whole Foods' private-label line, which also included water, turkey breast lunch meat, coconut water and frozen berries, Millerberg said.
“It’s easy to implement and bring everything online with Amazon’s endless shelf,” Millerberg continued. He then said the question is whether Amazon can sustain the inventory and use the stores to decrease delivery costs.
The findings show the news on Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods has extended beyond its stores to its website. Customer traffic in Whole Foods brick-and-mortar locations gained 25 percent during the first two days after Amazon’s takeover, according to Foursquare Labs Inc., which compared shoppers’ mobile location information before and after the acquisition.
This suggests there's no cannibalization between the two retailers, with one taking sales from the other. The combined company may sell even more with the two brands working together than they would have collectively as separate companies.
Amazon appeared unprepared for the rapid pace of sales. Of the top 100 selling Whole Foods items online, only 7 percent remain in stock on Amazon’s website, noted One Click Retail.
