The Amazon problems brands haven't figured out

Amazon is a must-have sales channel, yet brands find it increasingly challenging to manage.

Most brands are reassessing their Amazon strategies not to reduce their presence but because maintaining a presence on the platform is becoming more difficult despite its growing importance. What we're hearing below.

The knockoff problem

Retailers face a growing threat from knockoff competitors on Amazon who undercut prices, mimic product listings, and erode brand trust. These imitators often use similar images, names, and keywords to confuse shoppers and divert sales. Even worse, negative reviews on knockoff listings can spill over to authentic products, damaging reputation.

“We had a Chinese knockoff product come in for one of our pillar brands, and that reduced that account by 50%”

MANAGER, ECOMMERCE
$100M+ CPG/TOY BRAND

Limited access to advanced tools

Access to Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) remains limited to a select group of advertisers, often those with large budgets or direct Amazon relationships. While AMC offers powerful insights—like multi-touch attribution and cross-channel performance—it’s gated behind complex onboarding and requires significant data science resources to activate.

“Now AMC (Amazon Marketing Cloud) is available to agencies and everything's self-serve. ... only people will know who are using them. Because the data that you're going to get from the marketing cloud, it is so powerful that you can literally pick one person from a million to target exactly what you want or exactly what they're thinking about.”

MANAGER, MARKETING
$100M+ CPG BRAND

Paid media is the only lever—and it’s getting more expensive

Amazon's advertising costs have surged, driven by intensified competition and limited ad space. In 2024, average cost-per-click (CPC) on Amazon increased by approximately 20% compared to the previous year, reflecting the growing number of sellers vying for visibility. During high-traffic events like Cyber Monday, CPCs spiked nearly 16%, reaching $2.12, as brands competed for last-minute shoppers. (This year, CPCs have risen 10% according to Adbadger.)

“One of the biggest things we've been combating is just plain to spending way too much money to acquire a customer as well, whether that's mainly an ad spend... Amazon's really our heavyweight right now. We're spending, I think, close to $200,000 a month in Amazon ad spend.”

MANAGER, ECOMMERCE
$100M ELECTRONICS RETAILER

And yet—no one is walking away from Amazon. It’s still where product discovery, purchase, and reviews happen at scale. For many, it’s still the most efficient acquisition channel they have. But the frustration is mounting, and brands are looking for better ways to manage the tradeoffs.