Here are the five operational realities vendors must prepare for in 2026.

1. Annual vendor negotiations will be more margin-focused.

As Amazon continues to formalize cost recovery and efficiency standards, annual vendor negotiations are expected to prioritize funding structure, freight terms and profitability. Clear, defensible cost data will be increasingly important in these conversations.

What to do now: Build a cost-to-serve model. Quantify the value you already deliver, such as high Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) accuracy, low defect rates and consistent on-time performance. These metrics translate directly into cost savings for Amazon and help you defend your terms. Shifting the conversation from “price” to “total value” is essential.

2. Inbound compliance is entering a zero-tolerance phase.

Amazon is tightening rules across EDI, carton-level accuracy and packaging standards. The goal is a fully automated receiving process. Anything that requires manual review will lead to rejections and chargebacks.

What to do now: Automate validation across the entire workflow. Every PO, label and ASIN should be confirmed before shipment. If your systems cannot catch issues immediately, you increase the risk of inventory being rejected at the dock, which stalls sales momentum and disrupts replenishment.

3. Low-inventory-level (LIL) fees at the FNSKU level raise the stakes.

For 2026, Amazon will apply LIL fees at the individual FNSKU level instead of the parent ASIN, meaning each variation you sell will be evaluated on its own. A single popular SKU selling out can now trigger fees even when the rest of the line is fully stocked, creating new margin pressure.

What to do now: Run a variation-level profitability audit. If a specific size or color cannot maintain the inventory stability required under the new rule, consider removing it from Vendor Central or shifting it to Direct Fulfillment. Slow-moving variations can no longer hide behind top-sellers.

4. Purchase order (PO) delays and partial orders will remain common.

Despite Amazon’s broader push for efficiency, PO volatility is expected to continue in 2026. Delayed or partial orders can create major disconnects between supply chain planning and campaign execution. A cut PO during a product launch can turn your ad spend into wasted investment.

What to do now: Strengthen real-time PO visibility. You need immediate insight into order changes, shipment status and confirmation timelines. This allows your teams to adjust spend, pacing or retailer promotions before inefficiencies compound.

5. Tariff and sourcing shifts will pressure margins.

Global trade volatility and rising tariffs, especially on goods from China, will continue to affect landed cost and vendor profitability. Relying on a single sourcing region increases risk in a year where Amazon is tightening its financial expectations.

What to do now: Pursue a two-track approach. Explore diversification into regions such as Mexico or Vietnam while also stabilizing near-term costs. Forward buying in early quarters, reviewing contracts for tariff pass-through clauses, and rebalancing your ASIN mix can help protect margin throughout 2026.

Aligning with Amazon’s direction. 

While recent conversation around Amazon has focused on advertising improvements, the larger message applies across the ecosystem. Amazon is pushing for fewer bottlenecks and stronger operational discipline, and vendors who match that rigor will be better positioned in 2026 negotiations, replenishment and long-term growth. The opportunity remains significant, but the margin for error is shrinking. Success now depends on connecting your marketing vision with operational accuracy so talent, technology and data work together rather than in silos. Now is the time to tighten your foundation and ensure your Vendor Central workflows meet Amazon’s rising expectations. Reach out if you want help assessing your readiness for the year ahead.

It’s no secret that Amazon continuously innovates to improve the shopping experience for sellers and shoppers alike. Still, the company recognized that merchants (otherwise known as sellers, brands, or retailers on the Amazon platform) are looking for ways to broaden their reach beyond the Amazon platform. Amazon has historically been reluctant to send shoppers anywhere besides its platform but has recognized the need for further growth and success. Read on to learn more about the new expansions announced at Amazon Accelerate 2022.

1. Testing to Optimize

Manage Your Experiments allows sellers to run A/B Tests on individual product listing pages, comparing two versions of content against one another to identify the best performing version. Learn more about A/B Testing on Amazon here.



So what’s new? In October 2022, sellers will be able to utilize new capabilities for A/B testing to optimize product listings, including the ability to test bullet points and descriptions, which was not an option before. 



Another addition to testing capabilities is the “experiment to significance” option, which allows Amazon to determine when the campaign ends (after accumulating statistically significant data). Rather than analyzing results from a specific timeframe, the “experiment to significance” option focuses on consumer interaction.  

2. Tailored Audiences

A new capability within the Manage Your Customer Engagement tool was added to allow Amazon sellers to increase their email marketing reach and build stronger relationships with shoppers. Using the new “Tailored Audiences” tool, which is currently in beta but will be available to eligible sellers come 2023, sellers can proactively send email marketing campaigns to shoppers to increase brand awareness, customer loyalty and overall engagement.

Previously, shoppers had to follow the Brand Store to receive email campaigns from the brand. With the new additions, brands can now target three different audience types: repeat customers, recent customers and high-speed customers.

Put simply, when a shopper purchases on Amazon, they are automatically added to the seller’s email list and categorized appropriately. This update will help sellers build deeper relationships with repeat shoppers earlier, maintain current relationships and potentially increase overall sales. You can learn more about tailored audiences on Amazon’s blog.

But that’s not all that’s new to the Manage Your Customer Engagement tool. Since sellers on Amazon have expressed difficulty interpreting experiment results, Amazon rolled out a new feature that sends notifications during the MYE process if the new content versions do not lead to meaningful results. Also, sellers can authorize Seller Central to auto publish winning content to product detail pages if it is at least 66% better in November 2022.

3. Buy with Prime – Marketing Expansion

In April 2022, Amazon announced a new way for brands to grow their DTC store through its Buy with Prime (BwP) program. This invite-only program is a way for brands to connect with their off-Amazon audiences and provide them with Prime benefits. 

Here’s what’s new: Amazon amplified this program by adding a new Buy with Prime page within the Brand Store, to which sellers can drive shoppers through Sponsored Brand ads. With the ability to customize the page, shoppers can preview products and complete their purchases on the brand’s DTC store.

Additionally, Amazon has offered to invest in co-branded BwP Facebook and Instagram ads with approved sellers. Though this is an invitation-only beta opportunity, Amazon’s decision to fund and manage these ads shows the value and impact they believe BwP can have for sellers.

Sellers can utilize a new BwP badge in product listings to show they offer Prime benefits on their DTC store, further enticing shoppers to purchase from the independently run DTC site. You can dive into the new Buy with Prime additions here.

4. Premium A+ Content 

A new upgrade to the standard content management system (CMS), available to all brands worldwide, now supports larger modules on product pages. Modules include video, interactive features, image carousels and Q&A. 

5. Amazon Marketing Stream

While Amazon Marketing Stream was introduced as a beta program a few months ago, it wasn’t until now that this push-based marketing and metrics system can share data visualizations to improve a brand’s overall business performance. The provided heatmaps, callouts stack ranking, and more can be utilized to further optimize advertising copy, leading to sustainable growth on the Amazon platform.

6. Improved Seller Experience

Amazon Accelerate offered a few notable updates that improve the experience for Amazon sellers.

• A newly consolidated FBA dashboard: With a list of actions to grow sellers’ businesses, the new dashboard summarizes shipments and defects, identifies SKUs that need replenishment, and highlights any excess inventory/shipping needs.
• Account Health Assurance Program: This program prevents account deactivation with good ratings as long as sellers work with Amazon. To be eligible for this program, sellers must maintain high account health and have a valid emergency number on file.
• Call Me Now Button: This button is available on the account dashboard for compliance-related issues handled by another Amazon team.
• Customer Ask Alexa: This self-service tool lives on product pages to answer customer FAQs, though is only available to select groups in October 20222 as an invite-only program before expanding to all eligible sellers in 2023. Learn more about Alexa’s capabilities here.
• Pricing Health tool: With the pricing health tool, sellers can now view competitive pricing and see if any offers are at risk of being delisted due to non-competitive pricing. In addition, updates to this tool now allow sellers to bulk update pricing.

7. Amazon Global Logistics (STAR)

It’s no surprise that Amazon strives to provide opportunities for sellers to grow their business, which is why they launched the Marketplace Product Guidance for selling internationally. Recently enhanced to provide selection recommendations by identifying high-demand products, Marketplace Product Guidance can increase the likelihood of success globally, with automated pricing across all Amazon stores. 

The “List Once, Sell Globally” feature allows sellers to bulk upload products for global selling. Here’s how it works: 

1. Choose a template 
2. Select a product 
3. Select the marketplaces 
4. Generate template
5. Fill in template 
6. Voila! 

Behind the scenes, Amazon will purchase your inventory and ship the products to the appropriate fulfillment centers. On the shopper’s end, products will still be listed as “shipped from and sold by Amazon.” With this, sellers can leverage local fees rather than the cross-border remote fees. We can expect new listing language choices and additional global management tools to apply fixes across all marketplaces. 

8. Amazon Local Selling

Two new updates in the local selling category are BOPIS and Amazon Today. Buy Online Pick Up In-Store (BOPIS) is now available for sellers to utilize brick-and-mortar stores for local pickup, further connecting local sellers to shoppers. Amazon Today is geo-targeted to list your in-store inventory on Amazon and provides same-day delivery for shoppers.

9. Veeqo US Launch

Amazon announced the US launch of Veeqo, an inventory/shipping tool available to sellers at no cost. This multi-channel shipping software was built to help cut shipping costs while increasing the speed of fulfilling customer orders. Sellers can connect their sales channels (i.e., Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and Shopify) and access discounted shipping rates on UPS, USPS, DHL and FedEx. You can read the official release here.

10. Seller Payment Services

Amazon introduced two new updates to improve the steps that sellers must take to transfer their funds from Amazon into the sellers’ bank account. 

• Amazon Seller Wallet: This digital wallet makes it easier for global sellers to hold, view, convert and transfer store proceeds from their US store directly into their bank accounts, all within Seller Central. Dive into how Amazon made it easier for sellers to manage their funds. 
• Express Payout: Provides sellers with the convenience of moving and receiving funds within 24 hours instead of the usual 3-5 business days. Learn more here.

Wrapping things up

The ecommerce space has been rapidly growing, and Amazon continues to lead the way with its commitment to improving both the seller and buyer’s shopping experience. In fact, Amazon went beyond providing better experiences for sellers as the new tools can help to increase customer lifetime value.

Want to see more from Amazon Accelerate? Don’t worry if you missed out; you can watch Day 1 highlights here and Day 2 highlights here. There was a lot to unpack at Amazon Accelerate 2022, but our team is eager to explore these new rollouts with you!

With Prime Day a few months away, brands must align budgeting tactics, promotional campaigns, and inventory levels to ensure a profitable shopping event.

What is A/B testing?

In a digital environment where everything can be tracked and measured, testing your strategies is a no brainer. Content strategy plays a key role in driving organic traffic and converting sales, so by leveraging and optimizing your content, you can increase the chances of shoppers purchasing your product over your competitors. A/B testing is one of a handful of the best practices you can use to enhance content on the platform.

Also known as split testing, A/B testing on Amazon is a method of determining the best-performing product listing variation. By comparing two versions of the same content, you can identify the exact element that is driving purchase-ready shoppers to act, taking into account metrics such as conversion rate, sessions, and total sales. That being said, you should have a strong understanding of your current metrics, performance and challenges before building an A/B testing plan. This will allow you to have a solid base foundation before making any changes.

Start by running an A/B test experiment on Amazon.

Amazon launched its own A/B testing tool in 2019 called Manage Your Experiments, which allows US brand owners to test two variations of one product listing element. As a brand owner wanting to test different A+ content elements, you must have eligible ASINs, otherwise they will not be displayed in the A/B test experience. To be eligible, ASINs must belong to your brand, and they must have high enough traffic in their respective categories to determine content winners with confidence. 

Keep best practices for A/B testing in mind.

By following a few tips, you can begin your test experiment with confidence. Here are some recommendations:

• Strategically create a hypothesis to learn something from the experiment regardless of the outcomes.
• To get a larger sample size, experiment on high-traffic ASINs.
• Stick to making one change at a time to avoid confusion on which variables influenced the experiment outcomes. 
• Don’t stop early – you can run experiments for four, six, eight or ten weeks to ensure accurate results.

Get to know the elements of A/B testing.

Nearly any element of your A+ content can be A/B tested. However, you should use your own judgment to determine what to test based on your current performance. Consider working with an Amazon Ads Partner to strategically outline the testing method. Some variation ideas for your A/B experiment: 

• Utilize a comparison chart.
• Rearrange and update your modules and images.
• Present the same images and text using a different module layout.
• Include lifestyle images.
• Highlight one set of product features versus a different set.
• Add your brand name to the product title.
• Use different headlines to engage and motivate shoppers to learn more about your product.

Keep in mind that your experimental content should differ from the existing content, otherwise it is less likely to affect consumer behavior and you may not be able to confidently determine a winning variation. The key to a unified branding strategy is consistency, which applies to your color scheme, icons, layout, and even text fonts.

Wait for optimal data.

Patience is key here as most tests need several weeks to gather enough data to determine a winning variation. While Amazon recommends testing for eight to ten weeks, you can adjust the schedule or even turn off the test while it is running. You will start to see data within one or two weeks, although this preliminary data is not representative of the true impact of your experiment. Be sure to let your experiment run its full course before interpreting the results and making a decision. 

Gauge the effectiveness of your experiment.

While launching new marketing initiatives on Amazon can lead to an increase in traffic, you should know how to gauge the effectiveness of each initiative to dial in on what works best. 

Once your A/B test ends, you will get the following from Amazon: 

• Recommendations on which content variation is more effective
• A confidence level of the recommendations
• A confidence interval of likely outcomes from that content
• Estimated 12-month impact on sales

These insights will highlight the most effective content for your product detail pages to boost total sales and conversions for your Amazon products. By learning from these experiments, you can optimize and improve your other product listings. You might find it beneficial to run experiments during different seasonal periods as this will provide you with a better understanding of your consumers and their expectations. 

When analyzing your results, be sure to keep your audience in mind to make the most informed decision. Although it takes time and patience to run A/B tests, the optimization is worth it if you want to dominate your market. Happy testing and selling!