Execution Is Cheap That's the problem. A few years ago, "full-service Amazon man
By Simon Ellicott · June 9, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Execution Is Cheap
That's the problem.
A few years ago, "full-service Amazon management" was enough.
Run the ads.
Optimise the listings.
Send the report.
Collect the retainer.
Nobody really questioned it because the Amazon ecosystem rewarded activity and the more you did, the more value clients perceived.
Today?
Not so much.
Because increasingly, the doing is becoming a commodity.
Amazon is automating more.
Platforms are automating more.
AI is automating more.
The work still exists, it just doesn't differentiate.
And I think many agencies haven't fully accepted that yet.
You can see it in client conversations.
Agency #1 says:
"We'll manage your campaigns, optimise your listings and improve performance."
Agency #2 says:
"We've identified £120,000 of wasted spend sitting behind low contributing SKUs. We'll reallocate that investment into products with stronger commercial fundamentals and improve contribution by 6–8% over the next quarter."
Same account.
Same activity.
Completely different conversation.
One is selling tasks. The other is selling outcomes.
And that's where the market is moving.
A brand recently asked me what I thought was one of the most important questions I've heard this year:
"If Amazon execution keeps getting easier, what exactly are we paying agencies for?"
It's a fair question.
Because most brands don't struggle to find somebody who can run an Amazon account. They struggle to find somebody who can explain:
Why growth has stalled.
Why profitability is falling.
Why TACoS is improving while cash flow isn't.
Why the P&L says one thing and the bank balance says another.
Those aren't execution problems, they're commercial problems.
Which is why the best agencies I see are spending less time talking about clicks, impressions and optimisation scores. And more time talking about:
Product mix.
Contribution.
Cash flow.
Forecasting.
Profitability.
Strategic trade-offs.
In a 1P environment, they're not just asking:
"How do we sell more?"
They're asking:
"Are we driving the right sales mix?"
"Is this helping or hurting Amazon's Net PPM?"
"Will this make AVN negotiations easier six months from now?"
Those are fundamentally different conversations, and they command fundamentally different fees.
The agencies pulling ahead aren't necessarily doing more work.
In many cases they're doing less, but they're creating more value.
Because they're helping clients make better decisions.
That's what brands are increasingly paying for.
Not activity.
Not hours.
Not reports.
Clarity.
Confidence.
Direction.
So here's the question every agency owner should be asking themselves:
If execution became free tomorrow...
What would still justify your fee?
Because the answer is rapidly becoming the difference between agencies that thrive over the next five years...
And agencies that spend the next five years competing on price.
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