Following our end-of-year 2015 FastMovers rankings for brands on Amazon in the US, we analysed the winning brands in two categories on Amazon UK: Grocery and Chocolate.
Here’s what we found:
- Nescafé and Tassimo led our Grocery FastMovers rankings in 2015, signaling a sustained shopper interest in upscale espresso capsules and the benefits of Subscribe & Save
- Cadbury, Lindt, and Thorntons took the top three spots in the Chocolate category, an intensely seasonal category that requires winning at the right times of the year
In this post, we rank each category’s top brands, try to understand their success, and gather insights about each category’s particular dynamics.
Grocery FastMovers: Upscale Espresso Capsules Delight Shoppers
With 9.9 FastMovers per month, on average, Nescafé topped Profitero’s UK Grocery FastMovers rankings for 2015. Tassimo was a close second with 9.3. To put those numbers into perspective: Nescafé comprised nearly 10% of the Grocery best sellers on Amazon.co.uk for the entire year of 2015.
Both of the top two brands sold primarily upscale espresso capsules – compared with KIND’s snack bars that dominated the US FastMovers rankings – which indicates a sustained shopper interest in these products.
Subscribe & Save (S&S), which gives shoppers a discount for subscribing to regular, recurring shipments, might have played an important role in their success, as well. Coffee capsules are exactly the type of recurring purchase that S&S was designed to streamline and are a key enabler of the “path to repurchase.”
Both brands’ FastMovers were eligible for the program at higher rates than other Chocolate FastMovers. In February 2016, 13 out of 13 Nescafé FastMovers, and 9 out of 10 Tassimo products, were eligible for S&S. Overall Grocery FastMovers’ S&S eligibility fluctuated between 30% and 59% in 2015 and was 53% in February 2016.
Below, the #1 FastMover in UK Grocery from August 2015 through February 2016 – Tassimo Costa Americano Discs
Chocolate FastMovers: Holiday Seasons Produce Winners
Cadbury, with 10 FastMovers per month on average, was the #1 Chocolate brand in 2015. Lindt, with 8.9, and Thorntons, with 8.5, were close behind.
These brands succeeded in large part because they won certain important seasons – Easter and Christmas.
Like the US, Chocolate best sellers in the UK are heavily driven by seasonality, which makes it more important for brands to win at the right times with strong holiday pushes.
Cadbury clearly won the Easter season: the Mondelez-owned chocolate brand had 24 FastMovers in both March and April, far more than any other brand. Lindt and Thorntons won the Christmas season, albeit by smaller margins.
As for trans-continental appeal, Lindt and Hershey’s were the only brands to appear among the top brands on both the US and UK Chocolate FastMovers 2015 rankings.
Of the top five brands in December 2015, Naked was the most expensive, followed by Cadbury, both of which were priced higher than the average Chocolate FastMover. Hershey’s was the lowest-priced of the top brands at just £6.23 in December.
Looking Ahead
Nescafé, Tassimo, Cadbury, and other top brands have already made a strong showing in our latest FastMovers reports. As we follow the rankings this year, we’ll be asking:
- Will we see Grocery FastMovers migrate to Amazon Pantry? (As of February 2016, 0% of the Grocery FastMovers 100 were sold on Amazon Pantry.)
- How will Subscribe & Save evolve? Will it remain as important to Grocery FastMovers?
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