**When I was at Amazon, I watched brands spend 10X trying to catch P&G compared
By Millerberg · November 13, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
**When I was at Amazon, I watched brands spend 10X trying to catch P&G compared to what it would have cost them just two years earlier. AI shopping could make that look cheap.**
----- STORY TIME -----
When I was a VM at Amazon, P&G brands controlled 70%+ of my category sales. Why? They got to Amazon first, and the algorithm kept recommending them no matter what I did.
They DOMINATED my entire category. I needed more competition, so I tried REALLY hard to boost other brands. Every trick I could pull from inside Amazon failed. The algorithm kept feeding customers what they knew, and P&G kept winning.
Then came the spending... I watched as competing brands spent roughly 10–30X what P&G spent. Eventually, they got a toehold... but at a massive cost and with huge lost sales.
----- APPLICATION FOR TODAY -----
**The first purchase has never mattered more.**
→ Query: "I need a daily face moisturizer"
→ AI responds: "Here's what you bought last time."
One tap. Done.
We all love it. No 100 ads to scroll through. No irrelevant products. Just the ONE thing we want.
----- THE DATA -----
(1) Walmart published its rules for AI shopping agents (Oct. 21). ChatGPT, Gemini, and Meta can now shop inside a Walmart account, working from the shopper’s “usuals.” (Link in comments.)
(2) Amazon does it too. Ask for protein powder, socks, or moisturizer, and you get the same one you bought last time. Try it in Alexa or normal search.
----- SO WHAT FOR BRANDS -----
**THIS IS A LAND GRAB.** The next 24 months will set brand positions for years.
Once you're king of the hill, it's really hard to knock you off.
**Takeaway for brands:**
1. **TIMING:** Move now. My bet: In two years, it will take 10–20X the investment to displace a brand already in a shopper’s memory.
2. **CONTENT:** You must find the high-volume queries and personas shoppers bring to your category. (We can help.)
3. **MATCH:** Align titles, images, and attributes to those needs across every retailer an agent can shop.
oh... and sorry to Amy, Tyler, Brian, Kristian, and the rest of the P&G crew for trying to pull those levers. Take note... I tried :) to Kevin, Jerome, Danika, Mitch, Brian, Jim, Mario,