Hershey taps Amazon Dash and expects US e-commerce grocery market to hit $80bn

By Oliver Nieburg

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Confectionery Amazon

One-click ordering for Hershey's Ice Breakers via Amazon Dash service
One-click ordering for Hershey's Ice Breakers via Amazon Dash service
Hershey forecasts rapid growth in the US online confectionery market as its Ice Breakers brand becomes available for reorder via Amazon’s Dash button.

Amazon Prime customers will be able to reorder Ice Breakers mints in a single click in a move that Hershey says will appeal to busy, on-the-go Millennials.

Amazon accounts for 40% of US online candy sales

Hershey’s director of e-commerce Denise Vivas said the US e-commerce channel for confections and snacks was growing “exponentially” within an online grocery market  Hershey expects will surpass $80bn by 2020.

“Amazon has a very strong presence in the marketplace. They currently reach 62 million grocery shoppers in a month and 52% of all shoppers have bought canned or packaged goods online,”​ she told ConfectioneryNews.

“The online confection landscape is very fragmented; we estimate Amazon has about 40% share,”​ she said.

E-commerce boom

A global survey by Nielsen found a quarter of consumers already buy groceries online and more than half willing to do so. It found Millennials were the likeliest e-commerce shoppers due to their familiarity with technology.

Clavis Insight recently said 1% of US grocery sales came online, but expected the figure to rise to 5% by 2018 and 10% soon after.

Ice Breakers is Hershey’s second top seller on Amazon and most of the purchases for the brand via Amazon are between 21-24 years old. Hershey said Ice Breakers sales on Amazon were up 70% year-on-year – double the growth of the US candy, mint and gum category.

Vivas said larger pack types tended to be Hershey’s bestselling products online.

Amazon Dash service

Amazon Dash was introduced in March this year. Users download the Amazon app, login to their Amazon Prime account and they can then reorder an item in a single click via the app or a dedicated Dash Button device.

Many products available through the service are household supplies such as Tide, but there are also grocery items including Wrigley’s Orbit gum and Larabar.

Hershey recently told this site it also anticipates a boom in China’s e-commerce​ confectionery market.  Online chocolate confectionery sales in China were estimated at $386m in 2014 and sales are forecast to reach $1.2bn by 2020, according to a report from SmartPath.

Related topics Manufacturers Candy Hershey E-commerce

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