Amazon's private-label brands don't dominate, except for its batteries

Amazon's private-label products aren't taking the market by storm yet.

A recent report from UBS said that existing brands “are competing more effectively and defending share against Amazon's private label threat.”

Still, Amazon has achieved some dominance in the battery and diaper categories, according to UBS.

Amazon has established itself as a bit of a boogeyman in the retail business. But its private-label brands have a ways to go before they begin dominating in various product categories.

A report from UBS found that national brands and categories are “competing more effectively and defending share against Amazon's private label threat” than investors had “initially perceived.”

UBS concluded that “Amazon brands did not rank in the Top-20 or Top-100 best sellers lists” in around half of the categories the firm monitors.

The two notable exceptions to that trend were batteries and diapers, but even those categories saw mixed results from Amazon.

AmazonBasics batteries have grown in terms of brand share among Amazon's Top 100 sellers in the category, but the expansion has been “more muted” than that of competitor Energizer. The report said that Energizer has “ceded” brand share to AmazonBasics in the Top 20 list, however.

Read more: Most Amazon private labels aren't flying off the shelves yet, but the company is taking huge steps to change that

Amazon's Mama Bear brand has seen growth in the online retailer's Top 100 disposable diapers category, which is led by Huggies, Pampers, and Luvs.

That being said, “Mama Bear is not consistently found on the Top 20 list,” according to UBS.

Major retailers have been going on a private-label kick lately, with Walmart, Whole Foods, and Target doubling down on launching store brands.

“Like most large retailers, some of the brands we offer are private label,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider.“ We want to provide the widest selection possible — from small companies to well-known brands to our own private labels — in order to help customers discover exactly what they need and want.”

Amazon's foray into the world of private brands has long been touted as a potential nightmare scenario for competing retailers. But the success that giants like Colgate, General Mills, and Procter & Gamble continue to see on Amazon's Top 100 and Top 20 lists indicates that Amazon hasn't yet come close to dominating most categories with its private labels.

Then again, according to Amazon, its in-house brands simply don't have that big of a footprint at the end of the day.

“While private label products account for only about 1% of our total retail sales, our goal is to deliver great value to customers through the high-quality products offered across our brands,” the spokeperson said.