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Gold jewelry in a window case.
- Amazon has filed a patent for a "For Keeps by Amazon" brand, according to a filing with the US patent office.
- The filing notes that the patent can be used for the "online
retail sales of jewelry." - Another Amazon-brand line of jewelry featuring precious metals and stores could scare industry stalwarts which still haven't quite broken into selling all of their pieces online yet.
Amazon could be getting into jewelry.
The online giant has applied for a patent for "For Keeps by Amazon," according to a filing with the US patent office. The patent was filed September 19, according to the office. It includes a wordmark logo.
The filing notes that the patent would be used for both "precious metals and their alloys and goods in precious metals" the "online retail sales of jewelry."
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Though a patent filing does not indicate with complete certainty where a company will go next, it does give insight into a company's considerations and thinking. Amazon does currently sell jewelry on its website, including its own "Amazon Collection," which sells jewelry of generally plain designs at value prices.
Another private label jewelry brand would further solidify Amazon's presence in the space, and a real brand would allow it to position itself among the other brands of jewelry it sells. Many jewelry sellers, like Tiffany and Co, do not sell their entire collections online.
Amazon has been collecting private labels for a while now. It is now up to at least 76 brands ranging from bathing suits to consumables like paper towels.
Amazon's private brands have been under fire lately, as it relates to the company's overall strategy as both retailers of goods and marketplace platform for other sellers. Critics, including European Union's competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager and US Senator Elizabeth Warren, say that limits competition as Amazon uses data from all of these sales to help launch its own brands which can, in turn, steal away that business.