Pacifica Beauty VS Amazon Basics: Can Customers Really Tell the Difference?

Purpose of Analysis

Private label products have grown to become increasingly popular in recent years, with major players like Trader Joes, Costco, Aldi, and even Amazon joining in on the fun.

But if these big retailers can offer products nearly identical to well-established global brands, and at a significantly cheaper price, what’s stopping customers from switching to the more affordable option?

There was obvious skepticism at first at the sight of “Kirkland Signature” or “Amazon Basics,” but it’s certainly cleared up as customers have continued to share their positive experiences with these in-house brands. Some have even gone as far as to say that some private label products are better than the branded products they meant to imitate.

This means that it’s more important than ever for major brands to differentiate their products in a unique way.

But how will they know if they’ve done enough to set themselves apart? How will they know where they need to improve or what unique benefits to emphasize in order to weed out their private label counterparts?

Well, that's what sentiment analysis is for. Let’s do some comparing and contrasting between Pacifica Beauty and Amazon Basics to show you what we mean.

The Analysis

To run this analysis, we used sentiment analysis to look at two types of products in particular.

The first comparison we made was between Amazon’s Apricot Scrub compared to Pacifica Beauty’s Sea Foam Face Wash. We collected thousands of reviews from both and ran them through Cotera’s AI program — and we found some pretty interesting results.

After our program sorted the reviews by negative/positive sentiment and filtered out any relatively neutral reviews, we were able to come up with an estimate of the proportion of customers who were likely to repurchase the product.

Surprisingly, Amazon’s Face Wash actually ended up with a higher proportion of customers who were likely to repurchase.

We found that those who liked Amazon’s version felt the wash was gentle, good for dry skin, and a great value play, and those who didn’t had complaints about sensitivity, scent, and packaging/delivery.

Customers who liked Pacifica’s version also seemed to find that the wash was gentle, had a lovely smell to it, and effectively removed makeup as a bonus. Common complaints revolved around issues with drying effects/dryness and sensitivity.

The second analysis we executed was a comparison between Amazon’s Makeup Wipes VS Pacifica Beauty’s Makeup Wipes.

Our program showed that this time around, Pacifica Beauty had a higher rate of likelihood of customers repurchasing than Amazon.

Common positives mentioned about Pacifica’s wipes mentioned suitability for sensitive skin, a good scent, and general effectiveness at removing makeup. Negative sentiment mainly mentioned the wipes irritating the eyes and leaving more makeup residue than comparable brands.

As for Amazon, positives included general effectiveness and suitability for sensitive skin as well, while negative reviews tended to lean toward the moisture of the wipes and slight makeup residue being left over.

Meaningfulness of Results

We can see here that there are not only opportunities for Pacifica Beauty to make greater distinctions between their products and Amazon’s, but also opportunities to improve their repurchase rate overall.

Their face wash, for example, could be immediately improved by developing a better formula for dry and/or sensitive skin. Especially considering Amazon hasn’t mastered a sensitivity formula for their face wash, this is their perfect opportunity to separate themselves from the competition.

Given Amazon has a higher rate of likelihood to repurchase despite having fewer differentiators, Pacifica Beauty should also prioritize crafting similar benefits to Amazon.

On top of that, Pacifica Beauty could enhance their face wipes by updating their formula to reduce irritation and remove heavier makeup in fewer uses. It seems they’re not only lacking behind Amazon in this regard, but also many other brands that sell makeup wipes.

And while people love a brand that offers a good deal, that’s Amazon’s job, not Pacifica Beauty’s. Instead, their job is to prove that their product is worth the extra few dollars by demonstrating that it is superior in every way, shape, and form. And they can’t do that if they don't know how to best differentiate.

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