2026 will be the most competitive, most automated, and most expensive year to sell on Amazon yet.
I’m telling you this because I want you to win and most sellers won’t see what’s coming.
If you don’t understand what Amazon slipped into UnBoxed, you’re already behind.
Here’s the real version. Short, honest, and seller-first.
1. Sponsored Product Video Is About to Separate Winners From Losers
Amazon is putting video directly in search results. Early testers saw a 9% higher CTR and that’s before the masses catch on. If your competitors upload videos and you don’t?
You lose traffic
You lose rank
You lose sales
2. CPCs Are Going Up
Rufus now invents “possible” shopper questions and charges you to sponsor the answers. It’s absurd! This increases ad inventory out of thin air which means:
More places for you to spend
More competition
More money flowing to Amazon (as always!)
3. Amazon Will Make Ads Too Easy (And That’s a Problem)
Between:
Unified Campaign Manager: A single dashboard that combines Sponsored Ads and DSP so you can manage all your Amazon campaigns in one place.
Ads Agent: Amazon’s AI tool that builds and sets up campaigns for you using natural-language instructions.
Creative Agent: Amazon’s AI that automatically generates ad-ready images, videos, and creative assets for your products.
…it’s now effortless for ANY seller to run ads.
This sounds great, but here’s the catch:
“When ads get easier, more sellers run them. When more sellers run them, auctions get brutal. When auctions get brutal, your CPCs rise. You need to be sharper, not just “active.”
The Boring Truth: Most of Your Growth Still Comes From Search
Forget the AI hype, flashy formats and “shiny objects” from Amazon’s announcements.
If your listing isn’t:
clean
relevant
keyword-structured
priced right
backed by inventory
…your ads will just burn cash.
Growth still comes down to relevance + conversion.
The 2026 Seller Playbook (If You Want to Win)
Upload Sponsored Product videos NOW
Fix your listing and images before touching ads
Watch TACoS weekly, not monthly
Treat Amazon’s bid recommendations like sales pitches, not advice
Prioritize ranking and profit over shiny new tools
Here’s The Reality:
Amazon is optimizing for ad revenue.
You need to optimize for survival and growth.
The good news is that we can help! Check out our AI-powered Listing Optimization and Image Generation AI tools.
In this week’s issue:
Marketplace Madness: FBA Prep Ends, Funko Opportunity, Future of Returns
Seller Hacks: Lumian Listing Optimizer
Tweet Spotlight: FBA vs. FBM
Marketplace Madness
Amazon has announced that as of January 1, 2026, it will no longer offer FBA prep and item-labeling services in the U.S. meaning sellers must now handle all packaging, labelling, and compliance tasks themselves or through third-party providers. This change reflects Amazon’s view that most sellers now manage their own prep and aims to streamline its fulfillment network by shifting the responsibility back to sellers.
Why it matters:
If you’re still relying on Amazon to prep your inventory, you risk shipment rejections, added fees, and lost sales. And you must set up compliant prep workflows now, not later.
Funko Pop revealed it’s carrying around $241 million in debt and warned there’s “substantial doubt” it can continue as a going concern over the next 12 months. Once profitable, the company swung to a loss of about $1 million last quarter (down from $8 million profit a year ago), pressured by tariffs, licensing losses, and an oversaturated collector market.
Why it matters:
If Funko collapses, stores and distributors will dump their Funko inventory at huge discounts to clear space. That means resellers can buy these products extremely cheap and flip them for profit. The flood of discounted stock can also drive prices down fast.
Amazon is increasingly treating returns management as a strategic business function for third-party sellers, not just a compliance checkbox. Sellers must invest in automation, data-driven policy reviews, inspection workflows and customer-friendly return experiences to maintain visibility and ranking on the marketplace.
Why it matters:
If you keep treating returns as a cost to endure rather than an operation to optimize, you’ll risk lower search visibility, higher costs and missed growth as Amazon raises the bar.
Seller Hacks
Lumian just launched an AI-powered Listing Optimizer. It’s FREE and impressively thorough. It reads the entire product listing (title, bullets, description, and backend keywords) and compares it against true top competitors using similarity modeling.
The tool also identifies missing keywords, weak image elements, and compliance issues, then generates a fully optimized, Amazon-ready rewrite. Sellers looking to improve visibility and conversion should absolutely consider using it.
Tweet Spotlight
Meme Therapy
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Best,
CEO & Co-Founder, Lumian