Amazon.com Inc. shoppers are buying more packaged foods, pushing the e-commerce giant deeper into grocery sales.
The world’s largest online retailer sold $650 million worth of consumer packaged food items in the first quarter, a 48 percent increase over the same period a year earlier, research firm One Click Retail said in a note released Thursday. Packaged food items include coffee, salad dressings, baby food, cereal bars, energy drinks and soda.
In September, Amazon heralded its plans to disrupt the grocery industry with the $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods Market. The deal, plus consumers’ increasing preference for shopping online, have sent some packaged foods companies scrambling to improve their web marketing. Online food brands like Soylent, a startup that makes beverages and meal replacement bars, are among the most popular on Amazon.com, One Click Retail said.
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