Strategies for Navigating Amazon Competitor Shifts

I discovered why my competitor was dominating with half our ad budget. He was spending $12K monthly on ads with incredible results. I was spending $25K and barely keeping up. I convinced my client to “diversify across all Amazon ad types.” Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, the works. Sounded smart. Felt strategic. Within 30 days, our ROAS couldn’t compete. That’s when I learned the uncomfortable truth about Amazon advertising allocation. Most sellers spread their budget too thin trying to be everywhere. Smart sellers concentrate where conversions actually happen. Here’s what I discovered during the competitor analysis: He was putting 90% of his budget into Sponsored Products. We were splitting ours across every available ad type. His ads looked native. Customers clicked without hesitation. Our fancy Sponsored Display campaigns had terrible conversion rates. The breakthrough insight: Amazon customers don’t want to be advertised to. They want to find products that solve their problems. Sponsored Products feels like organic search results. Everything else feels like interruption advertising. The reallocation strategy that changed everything: - Moved 85% of budget to Sponsored Products immediately - Kept 15% in Sponsored Brands only for products with strong video assets - Eliminated Sponsored Display campaigns that couldn’t prove profitability - Ignored Sponsored TV completely unless running massive branding campaigns The performance difference was immediate: - Overall ROAS improved significantly within weeks - Cost per acquisition dropped across all campaigns - Total sales volume increased despite same total spend - Ad efficiency reached competitor levels The mindset shift that matters: Stop thinking about ad type diversification. Start thinking about conversion optimization. Put your money where customers actually buy, not where Amazon suggests you spend. I am the founder of GigaBrands.ai, helping Amazon brands allocate advertising spend for maximum profitability rather than platform recommendations. What’s your current experience with Amazon ad type performance? Are you seeing better results from concentrated or diversified spend? Found this helpful? Subscribe to my newsletter through the link in my bio for more profitable advertising strategies.

If you looked at last week’s performance and thought, “Wow, we were down…” dig deeper. It wasn’t just you. Amazon Prime Day shifted buyer behaviour across the board. Many brands felt the impact, lower traffic, slower conversions, and customers holding off for bigger deals elsewhere. Amazon is only growing its share of wallet and burying your head in the sand won’t fix it. So what can you do? 1. Re-evaluate your channel mix You don’t have to sell on Amazon (or maybe you should?) but you do need a strategy for how to compete with it. That might mean exploring marketplaces, refining your owned channels, or even testing Amazon as a top-of-funnel discovery tool (many brands use it for visibility, not margin). 2. Get proactive around retail events Map out key retail moments like Prime Day, Black Friday, and EOFY now. Run your own promos early, lean into loyalty campaigns, or promote “non-discount” value (bundles, GWP, exclusives) to avoid being drowned out. What about free express shipping? 3. Focus on lifetime value A one-week dip isn’t the problem, failing to build long-term customer relationships is. Invest in post-purchase journeys, community engagement, and email/SMS retention flows that outlive Amazon’s flash sales. 4. Strengthen your brand moat Amazon sells products. You sell a brand experience. Use it. Whether it’s through storytelling, content, or service, your brand equity should be doing the heavy lifting, especially when price isn’t your edge. 5. Don’t panic — plan Performance blips are part of the game. But if they keep catching you off guard, it’s time to shift from reactive to resilient. Understand the macro forces at play, and build a commercial calendar that supports consistency, not chaos.

The reality of working with #Amazon has changed dramatically for brands in 2024. The online retailer focuses on: 💵 Optimising margin structures 💵 Reducing headcount resources 💵 Automating repetitive processes The list goes on. 🚩 Yet, most suppliers continue with business as usual. They keep deploying the same investment principles as in offline channels. And they keep their teams locally organised, ignoring Amazon's regional (pan-EU) expansion focus. This creates a gap between the reality of brands and Amazon, where brands increasingly invest in staffing while Amazon dramatically reduces its headcount. So how can brands ensure they align their organisation with the new reality Amazon is creating in 2024 and beyond? ✅ By following a simple 3-step approach: 𝟭. 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗽 Amazon's retail workforce is in decline. Layoffs and Automation have made many Vendor Managers redundant. As a result, Amazon has begun to focus its buyer resources at a regional EU level. Instead of 9 Vendor Managers covering each European marketplace, one Vendor Manager manages the EU9 trade relationship today. This requires brands to adjust their organisational structure to navigate the online retailer effectively. Brands that maintain a localised approach risk losing access to a dedicated Vendor Manager in 2024. 𝟮. 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 Aligning teams at a regional level can help brands achieve significant economies of scale. Centralising resources can help avoid duplication of work when it comes to negotiation or reporting processes, while the virtual shelf and shopper activation management can be maintained at a local level. Brands that successfully shape their business relationship with Amazon in 2024 will excel in realigning existing workflows at a regional level while meeting and considering the demands of local markets. 𝟯. 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗲 With Amazon increasing its efforts to offshore and automate tasks in its retail business, brands have to shoulder more tasks that Vendor Managers and Brand Specialists previously owned. This means that offshoring and automation must become a top priority for 1P suppliers themselves if they want to avoid a significant increase in their cost to serve. It's good practice for brands to start capturing repetitive workflows currently done manually and either outsource them to cost-efficient service providers or automate them completely. After all, the size and complexity of Amazon's business will only increase in the years to come. --- How are you adapting your organisation to Amazon's automation and offshoring focus in 2024? Let me know in the comments! #amazonvendor #amazonstrategy

A brand came to us because a competitor went from zero to number one in their category in under 6 months. They were panicking. They'd been the dominant brand in their niche for years. Strong organic rankings. Good reviews. Loyal customers. But this new competitor wasn't playing in their niche. They were playing in the broader category. Let me explain. The brand owned a specific segment — think of it like owning "organic dog treats" while the competitor went after "dog treats" overall. The niche had about 700,000 searches a year. Solid, but capped. One single broad category keyword had 57,000 searches PER MONTH. The competitor targeted the broad category from day one. Aggressive ads. Clean listing. Competitive price point. Within months they were selling 20,000+ units per month on a single listing. That's roughly $320,000 a month. On one ASIN. When I pulled the impression share report for the brand, they were number 40 for the broad category keyword. Number 40. They weren't even in the conversation. Meanwhile, they were number 1 or 2 for every niche keyword in their segment. Dominant in a small room. Invisible in the building. Here's the thing — the brand actually had better differentiation. Licensed IP. Higher perceived value. A product people already loved. But none of that matters if shoppers searching the broad term never see you. The strategy shift was clear: 👉 Target the broader category keywords aggressively, even at a higher ACOS initially 👉 Lead with the lower price point SKU to compete on the search results page 👉 Use the licensed products as the differentiator once you earn the click 👉 Run sponsored display on the competitor's listing — we already had conversion data showing it would work You can dominate your niche and still be invisible in your category. The ceiling isn't your product. It's the keywords you're willing to go after.

The early signals are here. And they look familiar. We’re seeing the return of two major patterns on Amazon: 📉 Consumers are trading down 📦 Some categories are showing stockpiling behavior This moment reminds me of early COVID—lagging economic impact, real-time shifts in behavior, and executive teams urgently revisiting their assumptions. At Momentum Commerce, we analyzed the top products on Amazon and found that the 𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞 (𝐀𝐒𝐏) 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝟎.𝟖% 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫-𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫-𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫. But it’s not because brands are lowering prices. It’s because 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐛𝐮𝐲. 🔹 In 𝐃𝐢𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬, historic top sellers (which have raised prices +6.0% YoY) are losing share to cheaper alternatives—today’s top sellers are down -3.9% in ASP. 🔹 In 𝐕𝐚𝐜𝐮𝐮𝐦𝐬 & 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐞, ASPs for historic best sellers are up +14.4% YoY—consumers are shifting to more affordable models. 🔹 In 𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐞𝐭 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬, we’re still seeing pricing resilience. These are the “affordable luxuries” consumers are holding onto—for now. 🔹 And in 𝐁𝐚𝐛𝐲 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐚, we just saw a 26x week-over-week unit sales spike. That’s a clear sign of stock-up behavior taking root. Brands are responding—fast. The smartest ones are running the playbook we saw work in 2020: 1️⃣ Renegotiating with suppliers 2️⃣ Raising prices selectively on inelastic SKUs 3️⃣ Accelerating shipments before tariffs hit harder 4️⃣ Tracking consumer behavior weekly, not quarterly And yes, this all reminds me of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The cover famously reads: “Don’t Panic.” For brands right now, it’s a useful mantra. But it only works if it’s followed by a plan. We’re helping our clients write that plan: ✅ Real-time category pricing trackers ✅ Trade-down indicators ✅ Margin risk diagnostics ✅ One-on-one strategy sessions and playbooks Our data tells the story. Our job is to help you write the next chapter.

🚨 Amazon is not “set it and forget it.” Launch it. Automate it. Walk away. That’s not a strategy. That’s abandonment. And Amazon punishes passivity. What actually works? A full-funnel strategy. 🔹 Start with content. If your images, copy, video, and A+ content are weak, ads just amplify failure. Amazon’s own data shows higher-quality listings convert materially better, lowering CPC over time. Content isn’t branding fluff—it’s a performance lever. 🔹 Buy awareness. You don’t earn visibility on Amazon. You rent it. Sponsored video, display, and category placements build recognition before intent exists. This is how you stop competing only on price. 🔹 Own the search terms. High-intent keywords are an auction. If you’re not spending behind them, your competitors are. Bidding isn’t just about conversion—it’s about teaching Amazon who should win the sale. 🔹 Move shoppers into consideration. Comparison charts. Reviews. Social proof. Clear differentiation. Most brands fail here because they assume the product speaks for itself. It doesn’t. 🔹 Close the purchase. Clean PDP. Fast load times. Strong offer. No friction. Even small conversion lifts compound hard at this stage. 💡 The uncomfortable truth: this only works if you’re willing to invest before you see return. Amazon is not a launch channel. It is a managed growth system. Counterpoint: yes, a few brands get lucky with organic traction. But those wins are usually driven by off-Amazon demand or temporary category gaps. They’re not repeatable. They’re not scalable. And they vanish the moment competition shows up. 👉 If your plan is to list, hope, and optimize later, Amazon will eat your margin and hand the category to someone who showed up with a real strategy.

If your biggest competitive advantage on Amazon is “we’re really good at bid management and keyword research,” you’re already behind. And that gap is widening. unBoxed made one thing painfully clear: The future of retail media isn’t keyword-first. It’s demand-driven, audience-led, and creative-powered. Brands who keep obsessing over micro-bids and negations are optimizing for a world that no longer exists. Amazon rolled out tools that fundamentally shift how brands will grow on this platform: ⭐ Competitive Advantages Going Forward 🔶 AMC Audiences Audience-level intent layered on top of search is the new frontier. You’re no longer just bidding on “electrolytes.” You’re bidding differently when the right audience is searching for electrolytes. 🔶 Expanded Video + Creative Sponsored Products Video is here… with more inventory, thumbnails, and disruptive placement. If you don’t have creative assets ready, Creative Studio’s Agentic Partner is now producing streaming-TV-quality videos on demand. No excuses. 🔶 Sponsored Prompts AI-powered product expertise inside customer journeys. Think Rufus meets automated, contextual recommendations that are sponsored. Discovery will look nothing like keyword-only search. Other Key unBoxed Rollouts - 🔶 Ad Agent Audiences — Agentic partner that recommends targeting based on campaign context, refined by natural language or document upload. 🔶 Sponsored Ad Prompts — Conversational AI ad extensions that let your product meet the customer at their question, not just their keyword. 🔶 Sponsored Products Video — Thumbnail-based engagement, AI-assisted variations, and a massive increase in video inventory. 🔶 Full-Funnel Campaigns — Unified, AI-powered activation across the entire customer journey, fueled by Amazon’s commerce + streaming insights. 🔶 Unified Reporting Experience — 15-month lookback across SP/SB/DSP in one view. Massive operational unlock. Your competitors aren’t beating you because they have better bid logic. They’re beating you because they’re: • Building audiences • Crafting better creative • Going full-funnel • Leveraging AI to scale what used to take teams Retail media is evolving into brand-building + audience intelligence, not keyword harvesting. If you want to win the next era of ecommerce, you must be able to: → Drive demand, not just capture it. → Speak to audiences, not algorithms. → Lead with creative, not bids. This is the advantage our team is leaning into every single day.

We currently support 30+ businesses with their growth on Amazon. 😎 The first step to becoming successful on Amazon is to develop a strategy or game plan. The second step? Figuring out what to do when that plan inevitably goes wrong. 🧐 When it comes to your strategy on Amazon, a top-down approach works best. Start with your highest ROI-driving products—those that make up 5% or more of your sales. Ensure they adhere to best practices, then move to your second-tier products (1–5% of sales). Refine PPC, SEO, and images, and ensure the products stay in stock. It’s straightforward—until Amazon throws a curveball. But, what happens when your plan gets disrupted? This exact scenario happened recently with a client of ours. To kick off the month, the client was pacing $89,000 in sales for November, with a goal of $220,000. However, their top-performing ASINs suddenly became ineligible for advertising. Immediately, our team pivoted to salvage the situation. Here’s how we navigated this challenge: 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝟏: 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐁𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐬 We redirected the budget to the B-tier ASINs, ensuring their campaigns were fully optimized across all targeting types. Once that was set, we ensured the campaigns had sufficient budget to scale. This shift improved the pacing from $89,000 to $140,000 for the month. 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝟐: 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐎𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐳𝐞 While continuing to work on resolving the ineligible ASINs, we refined our approach for the B-tier ASINs based on the initial data. By optimizing these campaigns further, we increased pacing to $𝟏𝟒𝟖,𝟎𝟎𝟎as we entered the final two weeks of November. 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝟑: 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐬 As some top-performing ASINs became eligible again, we shifted budget back to them. However, the client’s top seller was still ineligible. To capitalize on the remainder of the month, we collaborated with the client to maximize Black Friday performance. With this shift, pacing climbed to $𝟏𝟔𝟔,𝟎𝟎𝟎. 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝟒: 𝐅𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲 In the final week of November, the top seller regained eligibility. With all major products back online and budgets properly allocated, the client had a phenomenal Black Friday week. By month’s end, sales pacing reached $𝟐𝟎𝟓,𝟎𝟎𝟎. While $205,000 didn’t quite hit the $220,000 goal, the client started the month pacing at just 40% of the target due to the advertising ineligibility issue. By pivoting and taking swift action, we closed a 𝟓𝟑% 𝐠𝐚𝐩, ending the month at 𝟗𝟑% 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐚𝐥. In business, you can have the perfect strategy, but unexpected challenges will arise. Success depends on how quickly and effectively you reevaluate, adapt, and take action. If you’re prepared to pivot, you can turn a major setback into a near win. 🫵 #Amazon #strategy #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #ecommercegrowth

After 10 years selling on Amazon and managing $200M+ for brands, I've learned one crucial truth: The biggest mistake DTC brands make is treating Amazon like an afterthought. Here's why that's costing you millions: When you spend heavily on Meta ads, a spillover effect happens. People see your ad, get interested, but then go to Amazon to buy (because that's where they prefer to shop). If you're not there, guess who gets that sale? Your competitors. They're literally making money from YOUR ad dollars. Even worse — they're bidding on your brand name keywords. I see this every day with Ridge Wallets. There's an entire economy of people bidding on "Ridge wallet" search terms. The solution isn't complicated, but it requires expertise: → Capture at least 80% market share for your branded search terms → Track your most important keywords daily → Understand your conversion rate vs. the market average → Leverage Amazon's data (especially Search Query Performance Report) → Run deals strategically throughout the year Amazon is a bottom-of-funnel channel. People aren't browsing — they're shopping with specific search queries and ready to buy. Your job is to rank at the top for those queries and convert at a higher rate than competitors. This isn't theory. I've used these exact strategies to help brands add 10, 20 to up to 30% to their yearly revenue through Amazon alone. What's your biggest challenge with Amazon right now?

What’s unique about running Amazon PPC for supplements and why can it be so competitive? Some categories on Amazon are just more expensive to advertise in. Supplements fall into that group. Why? Because they are: ↳ Consumables ↳ Often have repeat purchase behavior ↳ Attract brand loyalty ↳ High-margin for sellers ↳ Highly saturated with competition That drives up CPC. By a lot. It’s not uncommon to see supplement keywords with: ↳ $10–$15+ cost per click ↳ ACOS margins 100–150% higher than other categories So what do you do about it? Here’s what we’ve seen work: 1. Narrow, exact match targeting Focus on your proven keywords. ↳ Run exact match ↳ Control bids tightly ↳ Don’t lose placement on your top performers 2. Explore underused ad types Most competitors run Sponsored Products. That’s where CPC gets inflated. Try Sponsored Brand Video. ↳ CPCs are often lower ↳ Conversion rates can be strong ↳ Gives you more control over visual messaging 3. Be strategic, not reactive You can’t win by just spending more. Outsmart, don’t outbid. If you know your competitors are all pushing Sponsored Products, test alternatives. Track results. Double down where you see strong ROAS. Final takeaway: Supplements are tough, but not impossible. They just require a smarter, more focused strategy. And a willingness to experiment beyond what everyone else is doing.