Session Transcript
Paul Sonneveld
All right, everyone. We are back for our last session of the day, our Amazon Vendor Experts Panel. This is often one of the highlights for me because you get to ask whatever question is on your mind when it comes to Amazon vendors. So I'm thrilled to finish this two-day Summit with some of the most experienced people in the business. I'm just going to invite them back up here.
So, you have already met Oliver earlier today. James kicked us off at the start of today, Toni, and we'd also like to welcome Chris Koo to the stage. Chris is the founder of KhooCommerce, a platform transforming PO management, ASN accuracy, and shortage prevention for Amazon customers. So this is really your opportunity to ask anything. I would ask the audience, maybe if you do have additional questions, just pop them straight into the chat. I won't be able to go back into Mentimeter. I've sort of extracted all the questions from there. So yeah, keep them coming.
So the way it's going to run is I'm going to pick a question. I'm going to read it out. I'm going to ask someone to sort of provide the initial response, and then I'll open up to the rest of the audience, maybe one or two people if they want to add a little bit extra and complement the answer. Looks like we've just lost Chris, but I assume he'll be back at some point. So let's get started. All right.
Let me bring up my day two questions. Here we go. Let me just let Chris, he's still not back in. All right. No problem. Let's talk about the role of the Amazon Vendor itself. So this was a question that was actually asked yesterday, and we didn't get time to answer it. Is the role of the Amazon Vendor Manager going extinct or more scarce, I should say? And if so, who are we going to escalate all of our problems to in five years time? I'm going to hand this one to you, Toni, because you seem to be very amused by this question. So why don't you kick us off here? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Toni Turbanisch
Yeah, that's a good one. Actually, I'm pretty sure the long-term perspective of the Amazon Vendor business will change even more than it did already in the past ten years. If you have a look on the distribution or the percentage of sales that were coming from Vendor versus seller, then it's pretty obvious that Amazon is doing a massive shift in their focus. And now I think what they will be doing, and I know this also from internal perspectives, it might sound fairly ridiculous at this point still, but I'm pretty sure most of the part in handling in any terms of escalations will be done by chatbots and AI.
If you're looking at, for example, the Vendor and seller support, not necessarily the managers at this point, but I'm pretty sure this will be the next step. Then most parts are already getting into AI control territory, and this has to do with a lot of different SOPs that are being internally handled at Amazon, and I think just the really big players will get a direct support contact on Amazon's side at the end, because for smaller vendors, the Amazon business will disappear i'm pretty sure.
Paul Sonneveld
Thank you, Toni. Would anyone like to share a complimentary perspective on that? James?
James Wakefield
No offense, but the question kind of baffles me because what support has your Vendor Manager actually ever offered you? And I don't say that disingenuously. The Vendor Manager has a very specific role, which is typically to protect his GL, his general ledger, grow it kind of by any means possible. And I don't really see much alignment between that and the everyday maintenance of a Vendor account to actually have it running smoothly, growing effectively. Vendor Manager doesn't really know anything or get involved in anything to do with advertising, merchandising. They love deals, obviously, because that helps their bottom line. But that's probably the only thing that they're going to talk to you about, deals and how they can squeeze you more on your trade terms.
So I don't think the question should be, Should I be worried about my Vendor Manager disappearing? I think in most cases it won't actually make the blindest bit of difference. What you need to focus on is how you're going to manage and service the channel yourself, independently of Amazon. They're not there to help you. AVS is often not worth anything near what they charge for it. So it's actually about taking ownership internally, potentially with the support of the great partners that we've got on this panel and in this Summit. So yeah, sorry if that's maybe slightly contrarian view.
Paul Sonneveld
Happy with that, it's a good let's move on. Because I know this is a bit of a philosophical one. So, let's move on and get to some more practical ones. I love this question. This is sort of how I think about my business all the time, right? If let's say we think about 2026, I've got a budget to make one extra hire to appoint one additional person on my Amazon Vendor team what hire, who should I hire, or what role should I hire for to help me propel my business forward? Oliver?
Oliver Tomaschewski
Yes, I would say someone who is really able to manage data. This is one of the most important things on Amazon. Amazon is a machine, so you should own the data, you should understand where the issues are within the account, and someone who really has the time, who can work operational on the account. So this will be the key topic as we just also connected to the first question. There will be no person who can help you at the end. The Vendor Manager they are mostly just focused on deals on better terms. So at the end, they are purchasing managers, nothing else. Also, the AVS service level is decreasing from year to year with the offshore AVS, which are mostly based in India. So you need to own the data. You need to trick the system in a way that can help you.
Paul Sonneveld
Great answer. Who would like to provide a different perspective?
Toni Turbanisch
Not a different perspective. I think Oliver in the first sentence said exactly what is necessary. You need someone who understands data and know how to act up on it. I think that's the most important. And depending, of course, on the team size, if you have to fill different specific other operational roles. But I think handling and managing data is top priority.
James Wakefield
I've got a slightly different take, which is that this is often a question and scenario that internal teams face. We've got limited budget. Who do we hire? Where do we put that budget? But I think also considering an agency and an external partner should be within that decision-making process. Just as an example, in our agency, we've got six different departments that are all performing very different but solely Amazon-focused functions, and actually hiring somebody or even a small team to replace all those functions, everything from advertising to merchandising to catalogue management, FinOps management, devising the strategy, that's extremely difficult to do with a single hire when you've got extremely different skill sets required.
I think brands who are taking Amazon seriously as a channel need to invest in probably a kind of internal head of Amazon type role. So somebody who can own the channel internally but is working with external support partners to fill all those gaps because it's a supremely complicated channel. I'd argue that Vendor Central is potentially the most complex e-commerce channel. So, unless you're going to go and find six to ten people to fill all these functions, you're not going to deliver in all those areas effectively.
Paul Sonneveld
Thank you, James. Let's talk a little bit about the hybrid model. Really this question, I mean, the way it's written here is, is Amazon's finally, is it finally accepted by Amazon or they're still trying to actively trying to kill it? I would perhaps like to rephrase it a little bit differently, which is, so we looked at 2026, what is the role of the hybrid model? What does it look like? Is it going to grow in popularity? Is going to reduce? Are there more benefits to it, less benefits? And how should vendors really think about this as an option going into 2026? Oliver, I'll let you kick off.
Oliver Tomaschewski
Yeah, so for me, the hybrid model is very important for every vendor. It's like insurance. You pay for another sales channel for an alternative if Amazon puts too much pressure on you. I just had last week an AVN with a Vendor of us where the Vendor Manager said or tried to kill the seller account. At that point, you always have to say that is illegal. Amazon, the Vendor or the brand can just do whatever they want. So it's not allowed to block, kill or do anything else with a seller account. I would always recommend it. It's important to have it.
Paul Sonneveld
Would anyone like to follow up on Oliver's comment around the use of the hybrid role next year?
Chris Khoo
Yeah, I'll go. Thanks for having me back in as well. Sorry, I had some technical issues there.
Pau Sonneveld
That's all good. I'm glad you're here, Chris.
Chris Khoo
Yeah, no, it's a pleasure to be here. I would definitely say that brands should have a dual strategy. They should be willing to do both. I mean, obviously, I'm a big Vendor person. I think it's sensible for brands to be able to have both those channels open to them. If you get the letters from Amazon terminating your Vendor account, and you've got sixty days to spin up a seller central account, I think it's better to have that in place today rather than needing it in, let's say, six months time and you've got to scramble it all together.
As for accepting it by Amazon, I don't think it's their ideal, particularly if you've got the same product managed on both. I think that's definitely still a bit of a no, no on their side. But I think it makes sense. You know, it's, it's a bit of a buzzword just to say profitability, but I think brand should look holistically across the whole catalogue. What makes sense vendor? What makes sense seller? What makes sense in terms of broader company strategy? Should we be putting these products through Amazon at all? Do we do exclusive selections? Do we make specific bundles just for this particular channel?
But I wouldn't say they're trying to kill it. I don't think they like it for specific to take the same products and do both. But I would say that it's smart from a brand perspective, or it's due diligence to have both routes available to you. It might be that you go fifty, fifty, you go eight to twenty, you lean one more than the other, but in terms of having the infrastructure there and those internal processes able to manage both 3P and 1P distribution, I think it's sensible to be familiar with both environments. And so that if you get the knock on the door or something goes wrong for whatever reason, then you're able to cater for that change.
Paul Sonneveld
Thank you, Chris. Much appreciated. In a lot of sessions today, the word kind of TikTok has come up. I think it was pretty popular topic yesterday. I think at the start of today as well. Perhaps we can expand this question to make it sort of more broadly to sort of retail media off Amazon and other channels like social, obviously driving traffic to Amazon. Let me sort of put the question this way. What is the role of the likes of TikTok and other channels in the overall performance of an Amazon Vendor next year? Is it all hype, or is it an area that warrants substantial investment? I'll hand to you, Sam.
Sam Adams
Yeah, I think in terms of TikTok specifically, it's really important to develop once you've got a proper baseline on Amazon. I don't think you'll become more important than on platform PPC because that's where you are going to be getting your conversions. If people are being driven in by social ads off of Amazon, people aren't going to directly convert when they're not seeing your product there. Although there's organic, you still stand out with the advertising provided to it as well.
So I think the most important thing will continue to be PPC on Amazon, but retail media off Amazon will almost help funnel people down to it, similar to how DSP works, being much more awareness and consideration focused. I see it in a similar vein of TikTok and other media helping to drive people towards your platform and your brand, but not directly allowing the conversions from it. That's where the PPC comes in.
Chris Khoo
Yeah, I'd echo that, Sam. I mean, I'm not the biggest PPC guy in the world, but I think you definitely got to keep that as your core strategy. I mean, we see that with all the conversation around AMC. You're going to need those multi-touch points for your consumer journey to come through. It might be they see something on TikTok, and then they convert on Amazon. It might do vice versa. I think it probably slightly depends as well on your product type. Like, if you're in certain categories, we saw this with the Labubus and the kind of collectibles of this world.
I think for those kind of brands, having a big retail media strategy is very important to them. If you're perhaps more in a legacy space or like a kind of, shall we say, a bit more of a household brand or something like that, I think your retail media strategy will need to be maybe a bit more creative to really drive that kind of traction. But I wouldn't be dialling back the on-platform PPC budget to cater for that. I think I'd be thinking about having those strategies in tandem. A bit like running, you've got your Google ads running, and you've got your Facebook ads running, and whatever else campaigns going on. So I think it's, I know it sucks to say it depends. But I think it's probably a bit of both. And I think it's having that company-wide view of what's our marketing strategy is across our whole business.
James Wakefield
I think probably a bigger story than TikTok is DSP. So DSP has really started to come into its own. So if you're talking about retail media, that is Amazon's essentially programmatic channel. It gives you much more targeting options, both on Amazon and off Amazon. So if you're going down the route of a channel that is not associated with Amazon, such as TikTok, Meta, whatever, it is quite difficult to drive traction on those channels. And I think it's very product and kind of category-dependent. The advantage of DSP is once you've maximised your kind of lower funnel advertising on Amazon, it just gives you a lot more options in terms of targeting audiences, retargeting, going after very specific demographics. So that's what I would encourage brands to focus on if they feel that they've maximised the sort of native Amazon ad formats.
Paul Sonneveld
Thank you, James. That's a good build. Just seeing if we've got a question coming in here before I go to my final one here. Oh, it's not a question. It's just a comment. What I wanted to do is as we close out, I wanted to just go around and maybe, if you could talk for no more than let's say for thirty to forty seconds, really try and answer two questions. You know, what do you think? What new things do you think Amazon's going to bring to the table in 2026?
Could be anything. But what do you think they have on their sleeves? You know, what are they unwrapping for us in the new year? Good, bad, ugly. And what practical advice, one or two pieces, do you want to leave with vendors as they think about setting themselves up for success in 2026? So surprises, gifts from Amazon and tips for 2026. All right. Maybe, Toni, would you like to go first?
Toni Turbanisch
Sure. I hope for the gift and at least in some areas to some extent I'm seeing that is that Amazon will go even more global than it did already, making hopefully for vendors and sellers the international integration and sales channels more accessible and more easily serviceable. The trend that I'm seeing, and hopefully they will expand further upon this, and another point is basically an advice that was mentioned in one of the questions already.
Really consider a hybrid model if you haven't done so yet. even if it's just opening a seller central account and trying to get additional data from the product opportunity explorer or selection guidance, just to getting more insights on KPIs, but also, and this is, I think Sam said it before, a very important key factor, profitability can be much better overall if you're having a hybrid model.
Paul Sonneveld
Yeah, some great points there, Toni. I'm constantly surprised about the additional benefits a seller account can give a Vendor even if they're not selling anything through it. So absolutely. Over to you, Oliver.
Oliver Tomaschewski
Yeah, so what I think will be the next new thing in 2026 will be still a big focus on the topic of advertising and due to Rufus and all the AI topics that Amazon introduced, I'm sure that it just will be a couple of days or months until Amazon will increase or push vendors to invest also into Rufus advertisements. So this will be the big next thing like video sponsored ads were part of it one or two years ago. And as a practical advice for next year, know your relevance, be strong, be proud of your brand, and please do not accept everything so you are able to do it as a brand.
Paul Sonneveld
It's a great segue. It links really nicely with the first presentation today that Asha did in terms of how you can take a much more sort of strategic stance. You don't have to sort of roll over every time Amazon demands something. So great reminder. Thank you for that, Oliver. Okay. Chris, would you like to share your thoughts for next year?
Chris Khoo
Yeah. Sure. There's like a bazillion things in my head when it comes to this topic. We already see it in the AVNs that Amazon is pushing a lot for the WePay terms across European vendors. So expect a lot of that. Also PICS and SuperPICS. I know that was a thing last year, but I think they're still continuing to drive that. In terms of new things, we saw, for example, that infill delivery chargeback come out. That's not a present. It's like a restructuring of their chargeback system. They've also introduced pallet arrangements. So you need to tell them which specific box goes on which specific pallet. I'm expecting to see a new chargeback around that.
The flip side of that is I'm expecting to see more efficient receive processes accompany that as well. So that could be good news. And then the final thing, just to echo Toni's point to do with that cross-border global expansion, I expect to be something they continue to push both, let's say UK to EU and vice versa, and also North America specifically into Europe and vice versa as well. I'm expecting to see more conversations around, you know, having like 3PL companies facilitating that expansion, tax conversations, regulatory conversations. With brands looking to diversify a bit, you know, like companies in North America looking to get a foothold in Europe and businesses that have got to get strong foothold in Europe, trying to break into that American market. And I think Amazon should be trying to help businesses do that a lot more in the next year.
Paul Sonneveld
Great. Thank you so much, Chris. Paola, what is your predictions on Amazon and tips for 2026? You're on mute, Paula. I think we have an issue with your microphone now, Paola. I'm just going to, I'll come back to you in a sec. We'll try and get that working. Maybe you, Sam, let's head over to you for now.
Sam Adams
Yeah, so in terms of what's to come, I want to echo what Oliver said. I think AI and advertising, we've seen how AI has snowballed over since it's been launched. So I think there's a lot to come for that in the new year, especially on the advertising side as well. We're seeing creative AI, creative agents creatives such as videos and sponsor brand assets much more accessible to brands when normally they're quite expensive forms of media to develop especially videos the new creative AI agent there is certainly going to help brands build up a lot more personality on Amazon as well allowing the videos to really reflect their brand and their products.
And in terms of tips for next year, especially on the advertising side, I'd say be first movers and adopters for all the new things coming out, especially one example is the sponsored product videos coming out in 2026, which they announced in Amazon Unboxed recently. that's certainly something i'm going to be pushing forward my clients just because it's a new it's a new format that's going to be unknown on Amazon so consumers are going to be much more engaged with it to try it out rather than the other things that are available on Amazon. So I think making yourself a first adopter and first mover of the new tools that Amazon provide in advertising will really help you stand out from other players.
Paul Sonneveld
Thank you Sam. Yeah, that's great. Paola?
Paola Marzario
Yeah, so my suggestion is to, I don't know if it's something that all the brands in the southern area of Europe, they think that in Amazon vendor, they can ask us for exemption. And what I want to underline and also here is that in Amazon vendor, exception don't work anymore. And this is fully by design. So Amazon has progressively removed the human layer, so from the Vendor operation. And it will be obviously Amazon easy software.
So you can ask for a human interface and for a human override or exemption, and so on. So this is for four. So you have to implement all your operation thinking that you can ask. You can't ask for exemption. And the second is tips that obviously is build a behind Vendor central plan to avoid strategy independency. So in order to create Plan B, as soon as maybe you will be affected by a Vendor closure, for example, and so you need to be ready to start another business story.
Paul Sonneveld
Thank you, Paola. That's a really good reminder to make 2026 a year where you continue to diversify your business and put it in a stronger footing and don't become more and more dependent on Amazon.
Paola Marzario
Yeah.
Paul Sonneveld
We love Amazon but we don't we want to love a few other things as well.
Paola Marzario
Yes the the the problem is that i saw a really many many clients many brands especially in the last 24 months that with Vendor closure and completely they completely a business line disappear. And so it's really important to create a plan b in especially from the operation perspective that it's not something that you can start from scratch in one second. And so it's really important that they start planning also recovery plan. Also, if you will not use it.
So for 2026, but it's better just to be safe to to have this roadmap and as well also to start working with other marketplace just to test and to see that there are also other option in which you can as well also use the digital asset that you create for Amazon from Amazon. And so you can start testing and learn the console, the backend. And so look, I started in 2009 in Amazon and it was there were some brands that now are really multi-billion dollar brand. And so maybe if you start right now, so for example, in TikTok shop, maybe, I don't know, in ten years, you will be a multi-billion brand in TikTok shop. So you don't know.
Paul Sonneveld
There you go. There's always new business to be had. Okay, James, I'm going to hand the mic to you, really, as the last person, as the last expert to share your thoughts and to close out the panel.
James Wakefield
Yeah, sure. In terms of what's potentially coming, I think probably this time last year, we were all talking about Temu as a potential threat to the Amazon business model, which seems to have fallen by the wayside. I'm sure a certain president has been a factor in that, but also I'm sure a lot of people have ordered from there and realised that the customer experience just really isn't as tight as it is on Amazon. So Temu, I think maybe was a threat and is no longer.
But I think what has been really interesting recent developments is what's been happening with ChatGPT from an e-commerce perspective, particularly their integration with Shopify and some of the marketplaces which are direct competitors of Amazon. I do see that as potentially quite a big threat to the Amazon business model and the kind of marketplace model more generally, because if you're asking a chat bot for a specific product recommendation and it takes you directly to that product page, you've immediately lost that kind of intermediary experience where you're served with dozens of different potential product options, many different ad placements, which really makes up Amazon's current business model. So I do expect them to probably be panicking about that to some extent, whether we see anything launched in the next twelve months to fight back against that or mitigate against that. I'm not sure, but I do think that potentially poses a very significant long-term threat to Amazon.
And then in terms of practical advice, it doesn't really change year on year. I think brands, vendors need to understand the different components that make the channel run successfully and make sure that they are resourced and serviced appropriately. And you've really got to look at it as departmental. You've got your kind of account management and strategy at the top. But you really should have separate functions for advertising, separate functions for content, catalogue and support management, operations, FinOps, data reporting. As I mentioned previously, these are very different disciplines, and they require appropriate expertise to really make sure they're running effectively, and that's the only way you can drive the channel forward.
Paul Sonneveld
Thank you, James. That was a great way to close us out. So everyone, that brings us to the end of day two and also the end of this year's Global Amazon Vendor Summit. Just wanted to say a huge thank you to all of our expert speakers here. Thank you for all the time and energy you've invested in this and making yourself available during a very busy season. I appreciate your insights and generosity. To all of our participants as well thank you for joining us asking questions, and being very engaging as well so thank you and look forward to working together on the next Vendor Summit
Chris Khoo
Thanks Paul very much, pleasure.
All
Thank you Paul, very much.
Toni Turbanisch
And to Rachel, thank you.
All
Yes, Thanks Rach.
Paul Sonneveld
Yes, thank you, Rach.
