Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) is using its muscle as the world's biggest online retailer to put its own products in front of millions of consumers.

Amazon last week added a line of cutlery and tableware to its burgeoning Pinzon private-label brand. The line's new products are the first time Amazon has teamed with an industry "name," in this case chef and author Tom Douglas, who is based in Amazon's Seattle hometown.

Amazon's other brands are Strathwood outdoor furniture, Denali tools and Pike Street linens.

Amazon appears inclined to expand the offerings, in terms of both brands and merchandise within them. "We will certainly look at areas to expand, and different ways to do that over time," said Chris Nielsen, vice president of home and garden at Amazon.

Nielsen declined to elaborate on a strategy that puts Amazon in the position of competing with retailers and manufacturers that sell merchandise through its site.

Amazon's lines are positioned as being of "high quality and great value," Nielsen said.

Amazon is believed to be the first online merchant of any girth to take the approach of brick-and-mortar retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), Target Corp. (TGT) and Best Buy Co. (BBY) and carry its own lines along with brand names. "They are of a size that they can look at off-line strategies," said Scot Wingo, chief executive of ChannelAdvisor, a software firm that helps retailers sell online.

Amazon is already being compared with Wal-Mart, with research firm Cowen calling Amazon the "next-generation Wal-Mart."

Big retailers are increasingly offering lower-costing private products as a way of appealing to recession-strained consumers and also improving margins.

Nielsen said Amazon is not taking a greater private-label approach because of the recession and that the lines began in 2004 with a few items under the Strathwood name and have been growing.

"The private-label business, as it currently stands, will be a minor contributor to revenues in the near term, but will be another meaningful component to continue driving retail market-share gains over the next few years," said Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

Although they might be uncomfortable with the private-label program, Wingo does not expect much backlash from retailers and vendors that sell through Amazon. "You can't pull out of the Wal-Mart of the off-line world," he said.

-By Karen Talley, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2196; karen.talley@dowjones.com