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20 April 2026
Kroger × Ario · Amazon Consumer Panel

What Kroger's shoppers actually buy on Amazon.

A 24-month, consent-based Amazon purchase panel from Kroger's home regions — and what it tells us about loyalty, leakage, and the two plays that matter next.
Panel: 106 shoppers · 8 Kroger-footprint states|April 2024 — March 2026|Ground truth, not panel claims Confidential
Executive summary · what we learned
Three signals the panel returned — one defends, one acquires, one says don't bother.
Slide 02
3 findings
01 · Defend
idx 143
Loyal Kroger shoppers route more of their Amazon wallet to Beauty than non-loyal shoppers do.
Beauty is a high-margin leak hiding inside Kroger's most committed households. Loyalists buy cosmetics on Amazon at 5.08% share vs. 3.54% non-loyal — 94.7% penetration, 9.6 Amazon orders/yr.
Defend-and-grow lever
02 · Acquire
idx 40
Non-loyal shoppers route 2.5× more of their Amazon wallet to Grocery than loyalists do.
11.86% of non-loyal Amazon spend is grocery vs. 4.76% for loyalists. At $2,295/yr/shopper of Amazon wallet across 87 regional households, this is the clearest wedge to convert them to Kroger food.
Acquisition lever
03 · Don't chase
20%
Electronics and Office & Auto — structurally Amazon's game.
20% of loyalist Amazon $ sits in categories Kroger can't contest on selection or logistics. Toys & Sports (another 7.7%) is a conditional — winnable only with an explicit family-positioning bet. Recognising the durable non-market lets us stop diluting focus on campaigns that can't move the needle.
Portfolio discipline
Section 01

The Amazon
shelf, measured.

Twelve categories, two cohorts, one consent-based panel. Before we compare, here's the ground-truth view of how regional Amazon households split their wallet.
04 · Methodology & cohort definition 05 · Amazon wallet by cohort 06 · Twelve categories of spend
How we built the panel
106 real Amazon households — two cohorts, 24 months, one clean signal.
Slide 04
Panel & method

The panel

106 consenting Amazon shoppers across eight states in Kroger's operating footprint — who linked their Amazon account and shared full order history. Every SKU, every order, every date.

Kentucky
Indiana
Tennessee
West Virginia
Michigan
Georgia
Texas
Ohio
Cohort A · Loyal
19
Indicated Kroger on at least one of the three loyalty signals at right.
Cohort B · Non-loyal
87
Remaining regional shoppers — same states, same Amazon, no Kroger tether.

The three loyalty signals

Verbatim survey questions · Kroger named on any one = Loyal

Signal 01 · Primary retailer
"Which ONE retailer do you shop at most frequently?"
Signal 02 · Loyalty program membership
"Which retailer loyalty programs are you a member of?"
Signal 03 · Past-year shopping
"Which retailers have you shopped at (online or in-store) in the past 1 year?"
Why this framing
A self-declared Kroger tether is a stronger filter than a single basket. It isolates households who think of Kroger as theirs — and compares them against regional peers who don't.
The Amazon wallet, by cohort
Loyal Kroger shoppers spend 45% more on Amazon than non-loyal regional households.
Slide 05
Spend · orders · AOV
Loyal · Amazon $/yr
$3,318
per household, 19 shoppers
Non-loyal · Amazon $/yr
$2,295
per household, 87 shoppers
Loyal · Orders/yr
108.3
2.1× / week, tight cadence
Non-loyal · Orders/yr
78.5
1.5× / week
Cohort A

Kroger loyal (n=19)

$63k total annual Amazon spend · $30.63 AOV
Highly Prime-like cadence: 100% penetrated in Apparel, Health, Home & Electronics. The leak is discretionary: Beauty, Home, Apparel — plus a surprising lean into Amazon Fresh / Whole Foods. Loyalists route routine food to Kroger but trial premium Amazon grocery at a higher rate than non-loyalists do.
  • Beauty SoW idx 143, penetration 94.7%
  • Grocery SoW idx 40 — core food moment defended
  • 29.6 Home Goods orders / year
Cohort B

Non-loyal (n=87)

$200k total annual Amazon spend · $29.23 AOV
Looser Amazon relationship (78 orders/yr) but 2.5× the grocery share — Amazon is already their default basket-builder for the everyday food shop. They're the shoppers Kroger hasn't yet converted: regional proximity, similar AOV, no loyalty tether.
  • Grocery SoW 11.86% — 2.5× loyal share, the acquisition wedge
  • Gift Cards SoW 4.26% — 2.8× loyal share, fuel-points lever
  • Amazon Fresh/WF penetration 33.7%
Category SoW · loyal vs non-loyal · index
Where loyalists over-spend, under-spend, and look just like everyone else.
Slide 06
Pool-weighted · 100 = parity

Share of Amazon $ by category — loyal bar · non-loyal bar · index vs parity

Loyal Non-loyal ↑ over ↓ under
Section 02

Where loyal
shoppers
diverge.

Same region, same Amazon, different behaviour. Six structural signals separate the 19 loyalists from the 87 non-loyalists — and they point toward two entirely different playbooks.
08 · Six headline signals 09 · Emergent signals 10 · Two archetypes
Headline signals · loyal vs non-loyal
Six numbers that tell the whole story.
Slide 08
6 deltas
Spend
+45%
Loyal shoppers spend $1,023 more on Amazon per year.
$3,318 vs. $2,295. 108 vs. 78 orders. Higher AOV in every category. More Prime-like, not less.
Grocery
idx 40
Loyalists route less than half as much grocery wallet to Amazon.
4.76% vs. 11.86%. The Kroger food brand is winning the core food moment. Non-loyal shoppers are where we acquire.
Beauty
idx 143
Loyalists over-index on Amazon Beauty by 43%.
5.08% vs. 3.54%. 94.7% penetration. The highest-margin leak we could close.
Fresh / WF
42% / 34%
Loyalists trial Amazon Fresh more, not less.
42.1% loyal penetration vs. 33.7% non-loyal. Loyal shoppers are curious, cross-basket explorers — not food-category isolationists.
Discretionary
47.0%
Loyal discretionary share on Amazon is 9.6pp higher.
Loyalist Beauty+Home+Apparel share 47.0% vs 37.4% non-loyal — the structural HBA/Home leak.
Gift Cards
idx 36
Non-loyal shoppers use Amazon for gift cards 2.8× as often.
4.26% vs. 1.52% wallet share. Kroger's fuel-points stack is an untapped acquisition lever for non-loyal households.
Emergent signals · beyond category share
Three behavioural signals you can't see in a SKU list.
Slide 09
Fresh · Replen · Discretionary
Amazon Fresh / Whole Foods penetration
42.1% vs. 33.7%
Loyalists trial Amazon Fresh more, not less.
Loyal penetration is 8.4pp higher — a surprise. Loyalists are curious, cross-basket explorers: Kroger holds the core food shop in wallet share (idx 40), but Amazon Fresh & Whole Foods are winning the exploration trip. Premium grocery trial is active, even among the most tethered households.
Replen-item intensity (Home + Health + Pet)
45.3% vs. 42.1%
Loyalists route more repeat purchases through Amazon.
Paper goods, OTC meds, pet food, detergents. Loyalists are using Amazon as a reorder engine for the boring, routine parts of life — exactly the SKUs Kroger Boost with auto-ship could own.
Discretionary wallet share (Beauty + Home + Apparel)
47.0% vs. 37.4%
Loyalists leak high-margin discretionary to Amazon.
This is the margin fight. Nearly half of a loyalist's Amazon wallet sits in three categories Kroger can credibly contest — at higher gross margin than grocery.
Two shopping archetypes emerge
The Routine Optimizer. The Amazon-default Household.
Slide 10
Segmentation
Archetype A · Loyal

The Routine Optimizer

Uses Amazon as a replenishment engine around a Kroger food shop.
  • ~2 Amazon orders per week, small baskets, tight AOV ($30.63)
  • Core food already at Kroger — Amazon fills discretionary + replen gaps
  • Beauty, Home, Apparel are the recurring Amazon habit
  • 100% penetration in Apparel, Health, Home, Electronics
  • Curiously high Amazon Fresh/WF trial (42.1%) — exploring premium grocery
"Kroger is the weekly food trip. Amazon is everything I run out of on Tuesday — plus the occasional Whole Foods splurge."
Archetype B · Non-loyal

The Amazon-default Household

Treats Amazon as the whole basket — grocery, household, gifts and all.
  • ~1.5 Amazon orders per week, lower but steadier cadence
  • Grocery SoW 11.9% — Amazon owns the food moment too
  • 33.7% Amazon Fresh/WF penetration — already mid-funnel on Amazon food
  • Uses Amazon for gift cards (4.3% SoW) — no retailer fuel-points tether
  • Kroger is a nearby store, not a habit
"I default to Amazon. Kroger is fine, I just don't think about it."
Section 03

The strategic
read.

A 12-category map of where Kroger can credibly compete, where Amazon has structural advantage, and where the fight simply isn't worth having.
12 · Where Kroger wins · where Amazon wins · don't chase
Where to compete · where not to
Three lists. One shows the fight we win. One shows the fight we're already in. One shows the fight we don't take.
Slide 12
Portfolio map

Kroger can win

Credible retail offer + margin worth defending
  • Grocery (idx 40) Loyalists already defend this. Non-loyal is the acquisition wedge.
  • Beauty (idx 143) Highest-margin leak. 94.7% loyal penetration on Amazon.
  • Health & Wellness (idx 106) At parity — tip-able via Rx + HBA bundling.
  • Pet Supplies (idx 72) Loyalists already prefer store. Protect with auto-ship.

Amazon wins structurally

Selection, logistics, long tail
  • Electronics & Tech (idx 125) 14.6% of loyal wallet. Selection + reviews + returns are the moat.
  • Office & Auto (idx 160) Long-tail SKUs, B2B convenience — not a grocery-adjacent trip.

Contested — conditional bets

Worth investment if the thesis holds
  • Home Goods (idx 122) 27.74% of loyal wallet. Simply Home-brand play.
  • Apparel (idx 127) 14.19% loyal share. Essentials only — not fashion.
  • Gift Cards (idx 36) Non-loyal lean. Fuel-points is the angle.
  • Toys & Sports (idx 204) Don't chase — unless family positioning is the strategy. Then the 7.7% wallet opens up.
  • Media & Books (idx 87) Loyalists under-use Amazon here. Signal is too small (1.5% wallet) to prioritise.
Section 04

Two cohorts.
Two playbooks.

The same Amazon shelf but two very different strategies. Defend & grow the 19 loyalists. Acquire the 87 who aren't ours yet.
14 · Cohort A · Defend & Grow 15 · Cohort B · Acquire 16 · Three investments
Cohort A playbook · Defend & grow the loyal 19
Close the discretionary leak on existing loyal households.
Slide 14
6 priorities
PRIBetWhat we doMeasured by
P1 Beauty shop-in-shop pilot Convert 20 stores to a premium HBA destination — prestige brands, tester bars, loyalty pricing. Target the 94.7% of loyalists already buying Beauty on Amazon at idx 143. Beauty category $/loyal household/quarter — +25% yr1
P1 Kroger Refill (auto-ship) Launch sub-and-save for the replen 45%: paper goods, OTC meds, pet food, cleaners. Prime-style cadence with fuel-points on every reorder. Active Refill households, Amazon replen SoW displacement
P2 Kroger Boost+ for loyalists Loyalist-only Boost tier — 2-hour delivery, free Fresh & ready-meals. Close the 42% Amazon Fresh/WF trial that's pulling loyalists into premium grocery exploration. Loyalist Boost+ adoption, food basket retention
P2 Simply Home expansion Extend Simply Home brand into the Home Goods long tail — textiles, organizers, kitchen basics. Defend the 27.74% home wallet. Private-label home share, cross-category basket
P3 Rx + HBA bundle at pharmacy Offer an HBA basket-builder at Rx pickup — the 94.7% Beauty penetration makes this a natural tie-in. Rx-trip HBA attach rate
DON'T Chase Electronics or Office & Auto These are 20% of loyal Amazon wallet but structurally Amazon's moat (idx 125 / 160). Marketing investment here won't move selection-driven behaviour. Toys & Sports (idx 204) only if family positioning is on the table.
Cohort B playbook · Acquire the non-loyal 87
Pry the grocery basket back from Amazon, household by household.
Slide 15
6 priorities
PRIBetWhat we doMeasured by
P1 Grocery trial campaign Hyper-local $20-off-first-$60 to the Amazon Fresh / WF 34% penetrated households across the 8-state Kroger footprint (KY, IN, TN, WV, MI, GA, TX, OH). Kroger Pickup positioned as faster than Prime. Push pickup not delivery to drive store relationship. First-trip acquisition, 30/60/90-day repeat rate
P1 Fuel-points on gift cards Convert Amazon gift-card purchases (idx 36) by doubling fuel points on 3rd-party gift cards for first-time buyers. Own the unsolved gift moment for non-loyal. Non-loyal gift-card attach at checkout
P2 Meal-kit acquisition Low-commit 3-meal kit ($19) with a Kroger card enrollment. Captures Amazon-default households who've never built the habit. Kit → cardholder conversion, 30-day basket
P2 Pharmacy switch offer $10 gift card for an Rx transfer. Anchor the household with the stickiest SKU in retail. Amazon Pharmacy is still a small blip. Net new Rx transfers, HBA attach post-transfer
P3 Beauty retention hook Once acquired, push loyalist-tier Beauty pricing at card activation. Bring them into the discretionary fight early. Beauty SoW among new card activations
DON'T Broad-reach mass media These are behaviourally-specific households. Untargeted mass media will over-spend on already-loyal or already-lost. Use addressable + geo.
What to fund first
Three investments, one defensive, one offensive, one infrastructural.
Slide 16
Top-of-page bets
01

Beauty shop-in-shop

Convert 20 stores into premium HBA destinations. Loyalists are buying Beauty on Amazon at 94.7% penetration, idx 143 — this is the clearest, highest-margin defensive win available to Kroger.
Target — Close 30% of the loyalist Beauty leak within 18 months.
02

Grocery acquisition push

Hyper-local first-trip offer to Amazon Fresh & Whole Foods households. Non-loyal route 11.86% of wallet to Amazon grocery — that's the clearest offensive wedge in the panel.
Target — Convert 12% of the ~87 non-loyal households to 60-day repeat.
03

Kroger Refill (auto-ship)

Subscription replenishment as retention infrastructure. Loyalists are routing 45.3% replen share to Amazon today. Kroger Refill neutralizes Prime's gravitational pull on the boring reorder.
Target — 25% loyalist enrollment in 12 months; redirect 40% of replen SoW.
The decision
If you only take three things from this hour.
Slide 17
Close
The big idea
Loyal and non-loyal Kroger shoppers don't shop Amazon the same way. One playbook will not work for both.
Decision 01
Commit to Cohort A: fund Beauty & Refill as permanent defensive programs, not campaigns.
Decision 02
Commit to Cohort B: addressable grocery acquisition with fuel-points + pharmacy switch.
Decision 03
Stop spending on the structurally unwinnable: Electronics and Office & Auto. Reclaim the budget.
Appendix · methodology & caveats
How the numbers were built — and what they don't tell us.
Slide 18
Methodology

Panel

106 consenting Amazon shoppers across eight Kroger-footprint states (KY, IN, TN, WV, MI, GA, TX, OH). 19 self-identify as Kroger loyalists (named Kroger on any one of three survey signals: primary retailer, loyalty program membership, or past-year shopping); 87 do not. Raw panel rows were de-duplicated on ID before user-level partitioning. Full Amazon order history shared, resolved to SKU-level.

Time window

April 2024 – March 2026. 24 months. All per-user metrics annualized by dividing by 2. Cancelled orders excluded from every calculation.

Spend definition

Pool-weighted share: Σ(category $) ÷ Σ(total $) per cohort. Product Price used rather than Order Total to avoid line-item double-counting.

Twelve-bucket classifier

Amazon's own Category field plus a priority-ordered regex on product name for the ~5% NaN rows. Other is now explicitly broken into Electronics & Tech, Gift Cards, Toys & Sports, Media & Books, Office & Auto.

Indices

Loyal share ÷ Non-loyal share × 100. 100 = parity. Above 110 = loyal over-indexes. Below 90 = loyal under-indexes.

Emergent signals

  • Fresh/WF penetration = % of cohort with ≥1 Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods purchase in window.
  • Replen share = (Home + Health + Pet $) ÷ total $ per cohort.
  • Discretionary share = (Beauty + Home + Apparel $) ÷ total $ per cohort.

What the panel does not tell us

  • Off-Amazon behaviour — Kroger store visits, Target, Walmart, DoorDash.
  • Basket economics inside Kroger — we see Amazon's side of the wallet only.
  • True incrementality — interventions will need control-group testing.

What it does tell us

Revealed preference, SKU-level, consent-based — the ground truth of how these households split wallet between Kroger's region and Amazon.

Appendix · SKU-level showcase
What SKU-level consent data actually looks like — Beauty, loyal cohort.
Slide 19
Beauty SKUs

Where the $6.4k loyal Beauty wallet goes

Skincare
Serums, cleansers, retinol alternatives — 13 of 19 shoppers
28.4%
Hair care & styling
Salon brands, hairsprays, scalp serums — 14 of 19
27.7%
Wigs & hair extensions
Specialty category — 6 of 19, $26 avg ticket
13.2%
Color cosmetics & eye
Mass brands (Milani, Rimmel, Neutrogena)
8.8%
Nail care
Press-ons, cuticle oil, glue
5.4%
Two subcategories (Skincare + Hair care) account for 56% of the loyal Beauty leak. Both are shelf-ready for a Kroger Beauty shop-in-shop; the brands below are the ones the pilot should lead with.

Top Beauty SKUs on Amazon — loyal cohort (24-mo panel)

Brand Product Subcat Orders Shoppers Spend
The OrdinaryCaffeine Solution 5% + EGCG eye serumSkincare22$16
HerbivoreBakuchiol Moon Fruit retinol-alt serumSkincare11$62
Mario BadescuMoisturizing Rose lip balmSkincare31$20
Nip + FabGlycolic Acid Fix cleansing padsSkincare31$44
EQQUALBERRYBakuchiol plumping serumSkincare21$36
RedkenAcidic Bonding Concentrate shampooHair care21$66
DavinesThis Is A Medium hairsprayHair care21$78
Clairol ProBeautiful Collection gray solutions dyeHair care31$24
Marc AnthonyGrow Long Biotin leave-in conditionerHair care31$21
Infina EssentialsPurple shampoo & conditioner setHair care21$50
CHI3-in-1 hot smoothing dryer brushHair care11$95
NeutrogenaMakeup remover wipes (2×25ct)Cosmetics21$19
MilaniUnderstatement retractable lip linerCosmetics21$16
Rimmel LondonExaggerate waterproof eye definerCosmetics21$14
GlamneticCold Hearted short almond press-on nailsNail11$49
SchickHydro Silk dermaplaning tool (3ct)Hair removal32$18