Amazon launches own consumer goods label

London

AMAZON.COM'S launch of its own private label brand of consumer goods, starting with diapers and baby wipes, underscores the website's maturity as a grocery retailer and the migration of grocery shopping online. And if successful, the line's sharp prices could pressure profit margins for other makers of consumer goods, such as Procter & Gamble and Kimberly-Clark.

Amazon last week announced the launch of Amazon Elements, a new line of premium, everyday products available to members of its loyalty programme Prime, whose membership could exceed 40 million US households this year, according to Bernstein Research. Elements will offer information - such as where and when items were made, why each ingredient was included and where the ingredients were sourced.