Don’t be a deer lost in the headlights! When it comes to Amazon Prime Day prep,
By Chris McCabe · May 5, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Don’t be a deer lost in the headlights!
When it comes to Amazon Prime Day prep, finalizing an appeal for ASIN reinstatement, or reporting competitor abuse to Amazon, the goal is to focus on sales and growth, not on defending yourself every time sales tick up.
Don't look up and stare at lights coming right at you, utterly shocked. Do the right analysis, and take the best actions now, this month. Not June!
Today as I wrap up my April Seattle trip with a good solid roster of meetings covering all of the above, I contemplated where sellers stand.
What’s become abundantly clear lately is that Amazon isn’t for the faint of heart (not that it ever was). What do I mean?
Be tough as nails, or stay asleep.
If you’re not ready to spend on ads, fight off attackers properly, appeal the right way, and push high-level communications beyond Amazon internal teams (even as they reply with generic, copy-pasted garbage) then you’re wasting everyone's time.
To an extent, you’re even gambling with the progress you’ve made in developing your brand and capturing customer attention.
I know many sellers we talk to keep asking, "why is Amazon doing this?"
Let's get into what they want, from their own side of the equation.
Amazon wants to see reinvestment in the platform, new SKUs launched and new brands if you have all of those ducks in a row. They’ll offer assistance and support with your growth, if you’re already in a position to grow.
What don't they want to see with brands they help develop?
They don’t want tentative stabs in the dark or half-hearted investment. So, if you’re poised to take business away from your competitors, now is the time to double down.
It may not seem like it, with fuel surcharges, fees ever-rising, and huge ad costs, but the alternative is watching your competitor do all of this, and watching your sales slump.
What else do they want? Playing by the rules:
Not appealing, telling them you have no choice but to try to get new 5 star product reviews, for example, however and whenever you can.
Not trusting an agency or a service, simply because they say they’re in Amazon’s Service Provider Network, or because they told you once on an unrecorded call that they abide by Amazon TOS.
We all know those are stopgap measures, one way tickets to Amazon Hell, anyway. Why risk it?
I’ll be addressing all of this and more in New York next week for our Prime Day prep meetup. Join us! (link below in comments)