Brand View has conducted a price comparison analysis matching a minimum of 3,780 branded products from AmazonFresh to that of Asda, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose*.
The price comparison encompasses the following categories:
- Baby
- Beer, Wines & Spirits
- Grocery (Ambient, Fresh and Frozen Foods and Drinks)
- Health & Beauty
- Home Care (Household Cleaning, Laundry and Pet Care)
The analysis only includes products where there is an exact match and does not include Own Label SKUs. This is a shelf price comparison and therefore does not include multi-buy promotions.
Results
Our analysis revealed that, on average, AmazonFresh was cheaper than all other retailers analysed. Asda was the cheapest of the six retailers in comparison to AmazonFresh.
Compared to our previous analysis (1 May 2018), the average price gap between AmazonFresh and its rival supermarkets had widened. Morrisons, the cheapest retailer in comparison to AmazonFresh (6.9 percent more expensive) in May, was second in July, being 10.0 percent more expensive than AmzonFresh. Waitrose remained the most expensive retailer with a price difference of 15.9 percent on 1 July.
We looked at the percentage of comparable products where AmazonFresh was cheaper, more expensive or price matched the six retailers in the analysis. More than half of each of the six retailers’ comparable range was cheaper on AmazonFresh, except for Asda. Asda’s prices were matched by AmazonFresh across almost half of the comparable range (45.5 percent); the highest of the retailers analysed.
Of the six retailers, Ocado stocked the lowest percentage of products where AmazonFresh was more expensive (8.5 percent), but the second highest where it was cheaper (56.9 percent) – only after Waitrose (66.2 percent).
Compared to 1 May 2018, Sainsbury’s was the only retailer where the percentage of range being more expensive than AmazonFresh did not increase but remained stable instead. The percentage of products where AmazonFresh was more expensive than Sainsbury’s, however, decreased in favour of a higher percentage of price matches (from 30.1 to 38.3 percent).
Our analysis also investigated how the competitiveness of AmazonFresh varied across categories and found that the retailer was especially price competitive in the Baby and Health & Beauty categories, being at least 11.7 and 14.8 percent cheaper than leading rivals respectively. AmazonFresh was less competitive in the Baby category than it was in May, down from a minimum of 13.5 percent. However, it became more price competitive in the Health & Beauty aisle, except in comparison to Waitrose.
The Grocery category saw the price gap widening across the board compared to 1 May, after it had significantly shrunk between March and May. Despite this, AmazonFresh remained less price competitive than it was in March.
Asda had the closest prices to AmazonFresh, on average, in the Beers, Wines & Spirits, Grocery and Home Care categories, with price differences as low as 3.9 percent on average in the former. Beers, Wines & Spirits was also the category where AmazonFresh was less price competitive and where the price gap had reduced since our previous analysis, with the exception of Asda.
Having observed a slightly diminishing price difference between AmazonFresh and the rival supermarkets between May and July in the Beers, Wines & Spirits category, we took a closer look at retailers’ prices in the three main subcategories (Beers & Ciders; Wines; Spirits).
AmazonFresh, particularly price competitive in the Spirits subcategory, was 7.6 percent cheaper than Morrisons; the widest price gap out of the retailers analysed. Sainsbury’s was the closest in price to AmazonFresh, being an average of 5.4 percent more expensive. Ocado and Waitrose, generally sitting toward the right side of the price spectrum, were the second and third retailers closest in price to AmazonFresh. While Ocado, however, recorded the biggest price gap from AmazonFresh in the Beers & Ciders and the Wines subcategories, Waitrose was only 1.7 percent more expensive than AmazonFresh in the Wines aisle; the second closest retailer after Asda.
As with Beers & Ciders and Spirits, AmazonFresh was again the cheapest retailer in the Wines category, however the margins were tighter. In Wines, we saw price differences ranging between 1.4 percent (Asda) and 3.3 percent (Tesco), with exception of Ocado who was 6.9 percent more expensive on average.