Amazon’s D2C Play For Big Brands Like General Mills Has Big Boxes Scared

In an unprecedented power move, Amazon is hoping to lure some of the world’s biggest brands away from chains like Walmart, Target and Costco.

In a three-day summit at its Seattle headquarters, Amazon will host executives from General Mills, Mondelez and various other packaged good manufacturers. While at Amazon’s main office, these companies will get a tour of the eCommerce giant’s fulfillment center and attend a presentation from its Worldwide Consumer CEO, Jeff Wilke.

As we reported earlier this week, Amazon pulled its entire staff from Quidsi’s offices to focus on their grocery store route. Recently, the AmazonFresh grocery stores upped the ante with a new offering where customers can preorder items online and pick them up on the way home.

If this summit is successful in persuading these big brands to at least start selling on Amazon, it’s likely we’ll be seeing a major disruption of the entire $800 billion grocery industry. Food manufacturers will need to rethink their entire operational system and possibly look into package redesign. Gone would be the days when colorful packages were designed to stand out on a grocery store shelf.

Will this be the event that tips the grocery scales in the favor of eCommerce?

Amazon shared a statement with Bloomberg News which said, “Times are changing. Amazon strongly believes that supply chains designed to serve the direct-to-consumer business have the power to bring improved customer experiences and global efficiency. To achieve this requires a major shift in thinking.”

That shift in thinking for both consumers and these brands may cause retailers like Walmart to rethink their eCommerce strategies. While online sales have traditionally not been a large portion of a retail chain’s income, eCommerce giants like Amazon are certainly changing the game.