Real-Time Insights on Amazon Prime and Whole Foods Integration

Amazon’s integration of its Prime loyalty program at Whole Foods is designed to create an everyday benefit for Prime Members, and it appears to be working. From the behavioral data gathered by Sense360, Amazon shoppers are 27% more likely to visit Whole Foods than non-Amazon shoppers. Both Whole Foods and Amazon shoppers appreciate value, with both groups indicating “value for money” and “good everyday prices” as top motivators. 

Through its Prime integration at Whole Foods, Amazon is creating a powerful, self-reinforcing value proposition—a flywheel—that’s driving business. By offering new discounts and savings at Whole Foods only for Prime members, Amazon is acquiring new Prime users, who not only continue to shop at Whole Foods but are in turn drawn into Amazon’s greater ecosystem. At the same time, Amazon is attracting a growing number of existing Prime members into the Whole Foods stores because of the new savings, all of which creates a powerful competitive advantage that other retailers are challenged to address.

The impact of this strategy is driving significant lift in traffic for Whole Foods, especially from Amazon Prime members. According to the Sense360 research, 90% of Prime members who participated in Whole Foods deals planned to take advantage of them again on future shopping trips. Research data also showed that Whole Foods increased its conversion rate; the percentage of all grocery shoppers that visited Whole Foods grew from 4.8% to 5.8%

Amazon’s strategy is affecting almost every retailer—and the pain has just begun. The impact of Prime at Whole Foods is still early, and yet it is already helping Whole Foods gain share of customer and share of market. Factor in Amazon taking Whole Foods’ private label products online, making shelf-stable products available to any shopper across the U.S., and the opportunity for growth explodes. Amazon is now a direct competitor to every retailer and, increasingly, to well-known consumer product goods manufacturers.

By extending Prime into Whole Foods, Amazon is now collecting shopper-identified grocery purchase data. Put together with the 20 years worth of data collected across Amazon’s platform, Amazon most likely has the largest trove of shopper data of any company in the U.S. Data-decisioning is at the heart of how Amazon operates, and retailers attempting to compete without rich shopper data are increasingly disadvantaged.