Benchmarking Isn’t About Competition, It’s About Certainty. The Amazon agency...
By Simon Ellicott · February 4, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Benchmarking Isn’t About Competition, It’s About Certainty.
The Amazon agency world is moving fast, and the old idea of “competition” is quietly becoming irrelevant.
More agency owners are finally zooming out.
Not to panic about rivals ... but to remove the guesswork from why they’re winning (or losing) pitches.
Because let’s be honest, most of us have been operating on assumptions that no longer hold up.
“Full service” means the same thing for everyone?
Gone.
Pricing is broadly standard across the industry?
Nope.
“We lost because they undercut us”?
Rarely true.
What’s actually happening is simpler, and harder. Agencies are realising they don’t need to serve everyone. And the ones trying to usually end up gasping for air.
Cast the net too wide and you stop catching the clients that matter.
What agencies really crave is certainty.
Not where they sit in the entire Amazon universe, but where they stack up in their slice of it.
Because with ~800 agencies globally (and a new one born every time someone downloads Helium10), it’s no wonder people feel lost at sea.
Here’s the twist:
You don’t need to know everything.
You just need to know exactly where you belong.
That’s when things click.
Your ICP sharpens.
Your offer snaps into focus.
Your messaging stops sounding like everyone else’s.
Because whether you play in 1P, 2P, 3P, or some hybrid Frankenstein of all three, each model attracts a completely different buyer.
Vendor access.
Seller of Record.
Logistics. Warehousing.
DSP. AMC. Consultancy.
Omni-channel. AI amplification.
Huge variety. Even bigger opportunity.
But only if you know precisely where you sit, and who you’re built to serve.
This level of clarity changes everything.
Which briefs to chase.
Which ones to walk away from.
How to move through pitches with confidence, not hope.
The agencies thriving right now?
They’ve done the internal work, or brought in outside perspective.
They’ve aligned teams, sharpened service lines, tightened positioning.
They’re operating without guesswork. And it shows.
Meanwhile, others are wobbling, especially those overexposed to the US Amazon-native brand slowdown.
The gap between thriving and free falling is widening.
And it’s not luck.
It’s clarity.
The agencies pulling ahead know exactly where they stand, who they’re up against, and how to win in their lane.
Everyone else is just hoping.
#AmazonAgencyGrowth #PositioningStrategy #CommerceConsulting