Groceries and Essentials Are Now Half of Amazon's Units. What Should CPG Brands Do?
Amazon says fresh groceries and everyday essentials were about half of Q3 2026 units, growing 3x faster than the rest. What CPG brands should change for Q4.
In its Q3 2026 results on October 29, Amazon said fresh groceries and everyday essentials grew about three times faster than the rest of its store and made up about half of all units sold. Andy Jassy said grocery gross sales reached nearly $250 billion over the trailing 12 months, that monthly fresh grocery orders from Prime members on free same-day delivery more than tripled in a year, and that shoppers who buy perishables same-day buy nearly seven times more everyday essential units. Independent sellers accounted for 61% of paid units. For CPG brands, the takeaways are that Amazon is now a frequency channel built around fast delivery, so in-stock rates and same-day eligibility matter more than ever, that the basket a perishable order starts is where essentials get added, and that Amazon expects ad growth to return to the high teens in Q4 with more automated buying through Amazon Ads Agent.
- Amazon says fresh groceries and everyday essentials were about half of all units sold in Q3 2026 and grew about 3x faster than the rest of the store.
- Grocery gross sales reached nearly $250 billion over the trailing 12 months, according to Andy Jassy on the October 29 call.
- Shoppers who buy perishables with same-day delivery buy nearly 7x more everyday essential units, so the fresh order is now the doorway to your category.
- Independent sellers sold 61% of Amazon's paid units in Q3, so most CPG shelf space on Amazon is still shared with resellers.
- Ad revenue grew 12% excluding currency to $19.6 billion, and Amazon guided to high-teens growth in Q4, with Amazon Ads Agent automating more of the buying.
On this page
- What did Amazon actually say about grocery and essentials?
- Why does same-day delivery change things for CPG brands?
- Who's actually selling all those units?
- Does slower ad growth mean cheaper Amazon ads?
- Are AI shopping agents taking Amazon's essentials business?
- What should CPG brands do before the holiday peak?
- FAQ
Most of the coverage of Amazon's third quarter went to AWS, and fair enough. AWS grew 39%, and that's the headline most people wanted.
If you run a CPG brand, though, the sentence that matters was in the retail section of Amazon's October 29 release: fresh groceries and everyday essentials grew "about 3x faster than the rest of the store" and represented "about half of all units sold in Q3."
Half the units. That's not a side category anymore. That's the store.
What did Amazon actually say about grocery and essentials?
More than the release did, once you read the call transcript. Andy Jassy gave four numbers worth writing down:
- Grocery gross sales, including perishables and everyday essentials, reached nearly $250 billion over the trailing 12 months.
- Fresh groceries and everyday essentials grew about three times faster than the rest of the store and made up about half of units.
- Customers who shop perishables with same-day delivery buy nearly seven times more everyday essential units than those who don't.
- Active grocery customers shop nearly four times more non-grocery categories and spend more than twice as much on them.
CFO Brian Olsavsky added that monthly fresh grocery orders from Prime members on free same-day delivery have more than tripled over the past year. Supermarket News also notes about half a dozen new Whole Foods stores are slated to open in November.
A caution before anyone builds a forecast on this. Amazon didn't define "everyday essentials" or break the unit share out by category. So I read it as a strong directional signal for household, personal care, pet, baby and pantry, not as your category's number.
Why does same-day delivery change things for CPG brands?
Because the fresh order has become the front door.
Read that seven-times figure again. A shopper who adds bananas and yogurt to a same-day order doesn't stop there. They add the dish soap, the paper towels, the protein bars. Jassy said as much on the call: to serve grocery customers well, Amazon needs a mass offering, "and it starts with perishables."
For years the Amazon CPG playbook was about winning the search for "laundry detergent" and the Subscribe & Save sign-up. Both still matter. But a growing share of essentials purchases now happen as add-ons to a basket with a delivery window measured in hours. That changes three things.
First, availability by location. Same-day only works if your product sits in the right building. If an ASIN isn't stocked where the shopper is, it isn't in that basket, and the shopper picks whatever is.
Second, the moment of decision. An add-on is a fast choice. The shopper glances at a thumbnail, a size, a price per count and a rating. Long lifestyle copy doesn't get read here.
Third, the competition. In a quick add-to-cart, your real rival is often the store brand or the cheapest acceptable option, not the brand you benchmark against in Nielsen.
Who's actually selling all those units?
Mostly not Amazon. The release's supplemental table shows independent sellers accounted for 61% of worldwide paid units in Q3. Paid units overall grew 12%.
For a CPG brand, that 61% includes your authorized partners, your unauthorized resellers and, if you sell 3P yourself, you. It's a reminder that on the half of Amazon that's now essentials, plenty of your listings may have several sellers on them. Who holds the Buy Box on your top ASINs during the holiday weeks is worth checking now, not in January. If you're weighing whether to sell to Amazon or on it, our 1P vs. 3P explainer covers the trade-offs.
Amazon also highlighted new Seller Assistant workflows that handle "routine tasks like restocking and pricing around the clock." Useful, maybe. But automated repricing on a contested essentials listing is exactly where a brand's price can drift without anyone noticing.
Does slower ad growth mean cheaper Amazon ads?
I wouldn't count on it.
Ad revenue was $19.6 billion, up 12% excluding currency, down from 26% in Q2. Marketing Dive called it a noteworthy slowdown. Amazon's explanation on the call was mostly timing: Prime Day moved into Q2 in most countries, which it said took 850 basis points off Q3 ad growth, Q3 had no NBA games on Prime Video, and Amazon lapped a 2025 change to its search-marketing programs.
The guidance is the part to plan around. Amazon expects ad growth to return to the high teens in Q4. That's the holiday quarter, with NBA back on Prime and every CPG brand pushing gifting and stock-up deals. Expect a crowded auction.
The other ad news is automation. Amazon launched full-funnel campaigns in Amazon Ads Agent for all U.S. advertisers. You set inputs like budget and duration, and in Amazon's words its AI "plans, executes, and continuously optimizes the rest," across sponsored ads, display, video and streaming TV.
That can save time. It also blends upper-funnel spend with the search ads that actually move essentials. If you test it, keep a separate read on your TACoS for your core repeat SKUs so a good-looking blended number doesn't hide a weak one. Our retail media glossary entry has the basics if your team is new to this.
Are AI shopping agents taking Amazon's essentials business?
Not yet, according to Amazon. Jassy said agentic shopping from outside horizontal agents isn't meaningfully affecting Amazon Ads because "few customers are doing much shopping this way yet."
What is growing is Amazon's own assistant. He said more than 400 million customers used Alexa for Shopping in the last 12 months, and that it can now adjust Subscribe & Save deliveries by voice or chat. We covered what that means for repeat-order brands in Alexa for Shopping and Subscribe & Save.
My read: for essentials, the assistant that matters most this holiday is the one already holding the shopper's address, card and order history. Outside agents matter more for discovery. That's why brands should track how they show up in both, which is the gap SearchPanel was built to measure.
What should CPG brands do before the holiday peak?
Here's where I'd spend the next two weeks.
Check same-day and fast-delivery eligibility for your top 20 repeat ASINs in your biggest metros, logged out, on a phone. Protect in-stock rates on anything people reorder. A stockout on an add-on item sends the shopper to the substitute, and some won't come back. Make the thumbnail do the work. Clear size, count and variant on the main image, because add-on shoppers decide from the search grid. Show price per unit clearly and check it against your multipacks. If Amazon built virtual multipacks on your catalog, they go live November 11. Audit who holds the Buy Box on your top listings this week, and set alerts for price drops below MAP. Decide your Amazon Ads Agent test budget on purpose, and keep core search campaigns measurable on their own. Pull Amazon, Walmart and your own site into one view so you can tell an Amazon shift from a category shift.
That last point is where most brands I talk to struggle. Amazon's grocery growth comes partly from shoppers who used to buy these items elsewhere. You can't see that shift from Seller Central alone. Our post on unified marketplace data covers how to build that view, and the Amazon revenue mix chart on Xenalytics shows how much of Amazon's business ads and third-party sellers now make up.
The short version: Amazon just told you, in its own words, that essentials are half its units and that speed is why. Plan your Q4 like you believe it.
If you want a second set of eyes on your catalog, XENA 360 is how our team runs Amazon and other marketplaces day to day for the brands we work with, and you can see who those brands are on our customers page.
Frequently asked questions
How big is Amazon's grocery business in 2026?
On the Q3 2026 earnings call on October 29, Andy Jassy said Amazon's grocery gross sales, including perishables and everyday essentials, grew to nearly $250 billion over the trailing 12 months. Amazon also said fresh groceries and everyday essentials represented about half of all units sold in Q3.
What counts as everyday essentials on Amazon?
Amazon didn't publish a category list with the results. In practice it's the repeat-purchase consumables most CPG brands sell: household, personal care, health, pet, baby and pantry items. Treat Amazon's figure as a directional signal for those categories, not a precise share for any one of them.
Did Amazon's ad revenue slow down in Q3 2026?
Yes, on paper. Advertising revenue was $19.6 billion, up 12% excluding currency, after 26% growth in Q2. Amazon said most of that was timing: Prime Day moved into Q2 in most countries, which it said took 850 basis points off Q3 ad growth, plus NBA timing and lapping a 2025 search-marketing change. It expects high-teens growth again in Q4.
Is shopping through outside AI agents hurting Amazon yet?
Amazon says no. Jassy said on the call that agentic shopping from external horizontal agents isn't meaningfully affecting Amazon Ads because few customers shop that way yet. Amazon's own assistant, Alexa for Shopping, was used by more than 400 million customers in the last 12 months.
What should a CPG brand do differently on Amazon in Q4 2026?
Protect in-stock rates on your repeat items, check which ASINs qualify for same-day and fast delivery in your top metros, write listing copy that answers the questions a shopper asks when adding to a grocery basket, and decide how much of your ad budget you're willing to hand to Amazon's automated campaigns before the holiday peak.
Find out which of your products AI recommends.
Score a product across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews with a free SearchPanel audit. Or book a meeting and we'll walk through a live AI Visibility Score with you.
Sources
- Amazon.com Announces Third Quarter Results (Oct. 29, 2026)
- Amazon Q3 2026 earnings call transcript, OpenFilings (Oct. 29, 2026)
- Supermarket News: Amazon touts perishables growth in Q3 (Oct. 30, 2026)
- Marketing Dive: Amazon's ad revenue growth decelerates due to Prime Day tweaks (Oct. 2026)
XENA results quoted in this article are as published by XENA Intelligence on the linked pages. Third-party facts are from the linked official documentation, checked Nov 1, 2026.
