Amazon’s Online Drugstore Soap.com Adds Groceries To The List

Leena Rao

Leena Rao is currently a Senior Editor for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... → Learn More

Monday, October 24th, 2011
Soap.com_

Amazon-owned Quidsi has tackled diapers, drugstore items, pet supplies and toys in its empire of retail verticals. And today, Quidsi’s Soap.com is adding groceries to the list, with a new category for non-perishable food items.

For background, Quidsi launched with Diapers.com, which quickly became the biggest seller of diapers online. Last year, it expanded into drugstore items with Soap.com and this year (post Amazon acquisition); Quidsi expanded to pet supplies with Wag.com. and toys with YoYo.

Soap.com’s new Grocery category now lists more than 10,000 non-perishable food items, including coffee and tea, snacks, cereal, pasta, baking ingredients and canned items. The current selection features a fix of everyday, mass-use brands as well as more speciality, hard-to-find brands. Sample brands on-site include Cheerios, Kettle Chips, Senseo, Celestial Seasonings Tea, The Gluten-Free Pantry, Eden Foods Organic and Energ-G Foods.

As with all Quidsi products, ll orders arrive in 1-2 days, with free shipping for orders over $39. Quidsi CEO Marc Lore says that the addition of groceries was a natural extension of Soap.com, and customers have been asking for these goods since the site’s launch last year. Soap.com officially launched to the public in July 2010 and has since doubled its product selection.

Of course, Amazon also offers non-perishable grocery items and is expected to expand this service in the coming year.


Company: Amazon
Website: amazon.com
Launch Date: 1994
IPO: NASDAQ:AMZN

Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), is a leading global Internet company and one of the most trafficked Internet retail destinations worldwide. Amazon is one of the first companies to sell products deep into the long tail by housing them in numerous warehouses and distributing products from many partner companies. Amazon directly sells or acts as a platform for the sale of a broad range of products. These include books, music, videos, consumer electronics, clothing and household products. The majority of Amazon’s...

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Company: Quidsi
Website: quidsi.com
Launch Date: 2005
Funding: $78.5M

Quidsi is one of the world’s fastest growing e-commerce companies and parent of Diapers.com (baby care), Soap.com (household essentials) and BeautyBar.com (prestige beauty). The company’s mission is to make life easier by creating a new type of e-commerce experience, delivering in 1-2 days, and providing incredible customer service. Quidsi is redefining e-commerce by combining the focus and customer connection of a specialty store with the scale, efficiency, choice, value and reliability of a massive global retailer.

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