Retail Recon: The Kids Snack Bar Category

Amanda Ashley

Posted by Amanda Ashley

August 29, 2022 at 2:00 PM

Retail Recon: The Kids Snack Bar Category

There are thousands of snack bars to choose from on Amazon, but did you know that just the top few players in the category are capturing more than 80% of the sales?

As part of our Retail Recon series, we’ll look at the size of the category, how the winners are winning, and how the customer shops for snack bars. You'll also see some of our favorite examples of these product listings and what they have to offer over the competition.

The kids snack bar category at a glance

Amazon shoppers spend $60 million on snack and meal replacement bars every month…and parents are among those who are stocking up! Bulk packs like 10, 25, and even 36 counts grab the most revenue in the category. While protein bars account for most of those sales, snack bars like fruit and nut and granola bars are a growing sub-category.

Looking at the top ten best-selling offerings

Familiar grocery store brands sit at the top spots on Amazon in the category with the top 3 sellers dominating more than half the space in sales.

 

Brand Share of Revenue
Clif Z Bar 32%
Quaker 20%
Nature's Bakery 10%
Orgain 9%
Made Good 8%
Larabar 6%
RXBar 4%
GoMacro 3%
Skout Organic 3%
KIND 3%

 

How brands talk about their bars

A look across the kids snack bar category reveals a similar strategy among the top-selling listings.

Copy and imagery in the category tells a “real” and “healthy” story. We see a strong emphasis on healthy vectors with phrases like ”free from”and “for your family” as well as ingredient buzz words like “whole grains,” “fiber”, “free from…” and “clean.” These listings also include certifications & badges like “Verified Non-GMO Project” or “Made In USA”.

Listing images play up convenience, ingredients, flavor and brand equity on the best sellers.

Collage of Amazon Listing Images for Nature's Bakery BarsImage source: Amazon.com

 

Shopper preferences: What parents want!

Unlike bars targeting adult eaters, shoppers in the category don’t seem to prioritize protein content. About half of the listings contain only 2g of protein. As protein content increases, revenue decreases.

We see the same sort of opposite correlation when it comes to fiber content and sales. Most of the revenue goes to bars with 1 or 2 grams of fiber.

So if they don’t focus on fiber and protein, what do they want?

Chocolate chips, blueberries, and variety packs. Almost a quarter of the top listings have “chocolate chip” in the title – and while only one top listing mentions blueberries, that one listing earns the second highest monthly revenue in the category. Last and far from least, variety packs make up about half of the top 30 listings.

Not surprisingly, when shoppers are searching for kid’s snack bars, they are brand aware, with many of the top searches including a brand name. Clif Bar dominates kid-related searches across different spellings and variations.

 

Selected Top Search Terms Search Volume
kids snacks 32,627
kids protein bars 4,392
zbar protein kids 2,586
think kids protein bar 2,286
kids protein 1,960
power crunch kids 1,875
kids snacks healthy 1,690
kids granola bars 1,454
kids cliff protein bars 1,452
cliff kids 1,434
protein bars kids 759
protein bars for kids 668
power crunch kids protein bars 611
clif kids protein bars 610 610

 

A closer look at 2 top listings

 

Nature’s Bakery

Natures Bakery Listing

Collage of listing images from Natures BakeryImage source: Amazon.com

Summary of Claims & Benefits
  • The copy around these products focuses on “thoughtful ingredients”: “real, sun-ripened blueberries, figs, wholesome whole wheat”.
  • Nature’s Bakery also places strong emphasis on health factors such as the ”free from” ingredients and certifications of certain diets (Kosher, Vegan, etc.).
Top Keywords by Page 1 Ranking
  • They’ve got a strong organic ranking across types of bars making them high ranking for many sub-categories.
  • Good showing for ‘healthy kids snacks’.

Phrase  Monthly Search Volume  Rank
Bakery 26,332 1
breakfast bars 26,247 9
vegan snacks 26,245 6
fig bars 15,049 2
natures bakery fig bars 13,871 2
natures bakery 11,426 2
breakfast & cereal bars 11,409 19
fruit bars 8,999 8
snack bars 8,182 7
kashi bars 7,169 23
made good granola bars 7,163 24
fig bars natures bakery 5,455 1
blueberry 5,453 25
healthy snack 4,833  18

 

Reviews

The reviews for the Nature’s Bakery top listing were overwhelmingly positive – with an average of 4.7 stars. Much of the negative feedback is related to the sugar content of the bars per serving. It also looks like product freshness has hurt this brand’s reputation.

Some of the lowest reviews have come from customers who received a stale product, which is often the result of too many resellers in the space selling unreliable products.


Natures Bakery Reviews-1

Natures Bakery Reviews by Feature





Clif Z Bar

Clif Z Bar Listing

Collage of listing images for Clif Bar

Image source: Amazon.com

Summary of Claims & Benefits
  • The copy focuses on the nutritional benefits, highlighting the bar’s 10-12g whole grains and source of fiber.
  • The listings also include plenty of ingredient buzz words, like no artificial colors and gluten-free, and convenience for kids language.

 

Top Keywords by Page 1 Listing
  • A strong showing for keywords on page 1 with4 kid non-branded keywords and 3 branded keywords.
  • Clif Bar is ranking for blueberry despite having no offering for that flavor.

Phrase Monthly Search Volume Rank
z bars for kids 6,356 1
kid snacks 5,207 12
kids protein bars 4,585 4
clif bar 3,846 24
cliff bar 3,846 23
balanced breaks 3,432 15
z bar 3,316 1
elfbar 2,707 17
kids snacks individually wrapped 2,703 16
zbar 2,701 1
energy bar 2,579 12
z bars 2,534 3
mosh bars 2,047 25
dino bars 2,043 22
zbar protein kids 1,793 2
 

 

Reviews

The reviews for the Clif Bar top listing were extremely positive – with an average of 4.7 stars and the highest marks for freshness. The small amount of negative feedback often mentioned the low protein content.

Some of the lowest reviews have come from customers who were looking for better quality ingredients, especially considering these are a higher price point than other category offerings.

 

Clif Bar ReviewsClif Bar Reviews by Feature


Takeaways from looking through the Kids Snack Bars category

A look at the top sellers in this category reveals lots of common factors between top competitors.

  • Benefit and nutritional language was a key point for all top sellers and the imagery most often highlighted kid friendly taste, whole ingredients, and convenience.
  • It’s a competitive category where brand loyalty is high and but there’s certainly room in this category for products that deliver on parent confidence and kid preference.

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