Brandless Is Expanding Into 2 New Categories—and Increasing Its Signature $3 Price Point
Pet and baby products are on the way
Brandless, a direct-to-consumer essentials company, is expanding its category line to pet and baby products. For the first time as well, some products will cost $9—a change from the brand’s signature $3 price tag.
The news comes right after Brandless introduced a subscription service, in which customers can get some items on a reoccurring basis. As part of the subscription, a “surprise gift” is included. With the two new product categories, Brandless now offers more than 400 items.
“The main takeaway is that now in order to continue to expand our assortment at the quality people are looking for, we’re getting into categories where we have to increase our price point,” said Aaron Magness, CMO at Brandless. “Otherwise, it just doesn’t make sense.”
As of now, only a few products will retail at the $9 price point like the baby diapers, dog collars and pet supplements. Magness said the price point is higher here because of the quality of the materials in which some items are plant-based or organic.
“We’re excited about the quality that we’re offering,” Magness said. “To make everything better for you—that’s where we’re really focused.”
Considering the subscription service debuted Jan. 17, Magness declined to provide any numbers as to how many people have signed up so far.
Brandless’ news comes a few days after Target announced plans to expand its Cloud Island brand and sell baby items such as diapers and wipes. Most products retail for less than $10. Bruce Winder, a retail analyst, said these product expansions will continue as more retailers invest in their own private label brands in an effort to beat Amazon.
“If you carry the same product as Amazon, it’s really difficult for brick and mortar to compete on price with Amazon,” Winder said.
Winder added that creating a private label brand, such as in the case of Target’s Cloud Island or Smartly line, it gives the retailer a chance to access higher profit margins and develop a deeper relationship with the customer.
It’s unclear how these two new product categories will help Brandless’ bottom line, but Noble Kuriakose, vp, data science at Edison Trends, an ecommerce insights company, said a wider array of products lets Brandless stand out more.
“Their retention is good enough that they’re getting revenue from their users,” Kuriakose said. “They’ve raised so much money that it’s unfathomable that they’re not going to be around a year [from now]. What that money buys you is the ability to go get more users all the time.”
For now, Magness thinks there’s plenty of reasons to get into these two categories.
“While there are a lot of players in the market, there’s no clear defined winner,” Magness said. “Not a lot focused on the better for you product.”
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