BOSTON, U.S. –  According to online sales measurement from Edge Market Share (formerly One Click Retail), Coffee brands on Amazon.com have sold more than $140M YTD, Tea brands have totaled more than $50M, and Hot Chocolate brands have warmed up to over $6M in sales so far this year.
Edge Market Share brand measurement calculations reveal the top 3 highest selling Coffee brands on Amazon are:
- Starbucks (12% share of total 1 [st] party coffee sales on Amazon.com)
- Green Mountain Coffee (9%)
- Nespresso (8%)
While Green Mountain Coffee sales have stayed relatively stable compared with 2017, Starbucks sales for key coffee items have nearly tripled in size since last year, leading it to take the top spot in the category in 2018.
Last year’s top selling coffee brand on Amazon, San Francisco Bay Coffee, has fallen out of the top three altogether in 2018.
Because the brand lost a significant amount of 1P sales due to inventory issues, it switched to 3P (3 [rd] party) earlier this year, which resulted in price hikes beyond the brand’s control.
Edge Market Share brand measurement calculations reveal the top 3 highest selling Tea brands on Amazon are:
- Twinings (13% share of total 1 [st] party tea sales on Amazon.com)
- Traditional Medicinals (9%)
- Stash (8%)
Overall sales for the Tea category have increased by 40% YoY, with sales for Flavoured Teas more than doubling in 2018, followed by Herbal Teas, which have grown 50% YoY. While Herbal Teas remains the most popular tea sub-category on Amazon with brands Traditional Medicinals and Stash leading the way, Twinings, however, continues to dominate the overall Tea category with its English breakfast black tea.
Edge Market Share brand measurement calculations reveal the top 3 highest selling Hot Chocolate brands on Amazon are:
- Ghirardelli (21% share of total 1P hot chocolate sales on Amazon.com)
- Grove Square (17%)
- Nestle (11%)
Although K-Cup hot chocolate items are trending due to the success of single-serve brewers from brands like Keurig, last year’s top selling hot chocolate brand Grove Square has fallen to 2 [nd] place this year because of the K-Cup competition from brands like Two Rivers and Land O’ Lakes. Meanwhile, Ghirardelli (now the number one top selling brand in the category) and Nestle retained their respective market shares from 2017, which demonstrates that traditional hot chocolate packaging and mixes still dominate this category.
“Competition is evolving as fast, if not faster than, the world of commerce. It should be the number one focus of every brand, wherever they are selling: online, in stores, on social media,” explains Boren Novakovic, managing director of Edge by Ascential.
“If brands are not paying attention to their online performance—which can have more immediate and longer lasting impact to their reputation due to the nature of the interconnectedness of today’s digital consumer—in comparison to brands in the same category and sellers in the same space, they run the risk of losing more than sales. They run the risk of losing the top of mind for consumers. And in the world of Amazon, that means losing the top of the search results page. A strong 1P strategy on Amazon means never losing site of your 3P sales and how those third-party sellers position and price your products.”
