What to Expect from Amazon in 2026

Between Dia de Muertos (pardon me, Halloween) and January I typically get a lot more questions about business planning and projections for Amazon. While I already wrote on making sales projections, want to expand into what I see happen on Amazon in 2026 more certain than not.

Fees and prices

Let’s start with the topic everyone feels first - costs.

Amazon has published its 2026 fees rate for 3P sellers. On average, FBA fees will increase by $0.08 per unit. The company frames the increase as below inflation and below recent carrier hikes.

But brands are also feeling inflation. In my conversations with clients and brands I hear a lot of them raising prices, often due to supply chain increases, some to tariffs. Perhaps some can absorb costs, but it’s a tough choice: not raising prices compromises margins and health of the businesses. Raising prices means potentially losing cost-conscious customers. Pricing strategy is a careful act, often going hand in hand with communication of brand strength.

Fulfillment

On the logistics side, there are two big operational shifts underway:

(1) Amazon’s drive for faster, regionally distributed fulfillment, and

(2) the outsourcing of prep and compliance tasks to sellers.

FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) now behaves more like a network of mini-distribution hubs rather than a single national pool.

Faster distribution to customers is an indirect win for sellers, since it makes Amazon platform even more stickier for shopping that it already is. But brands also will have to shoulder more logistical complexity. 

Elements of behavioral logistics will have more impact than before. What I mean by behavioral: consistently running low on inventory means a low-inventory surcharge. Excess stock in Amazon fulfillment centers adds storage-utilization and aged-inventory add-ons. Not labeling, or mis-labeling cartons have fees. How you send inbound inventory matters as well: choosing broader shipments adds a per-unit placement fee.

While more burden of logistical compliance will shift more on sellers in 2026 than before, it does create an environment where operational strength directly translates to commercial advantage. Brands that build disciplined logistics - demand planning, AND execution of logistics - will outperform those treating Amazon operations as a back-office function.

Advertising

In 2026, CPG brands will need to navigate a more competitive, more personalized, and likely more expensive advertising landscape, while also exploiting new channels Amazon is creating for engagement.

CPCs (cost per click) continue go up, and, considering competitiveness and maturity of Amazon advertising network, I don’ see the trend reverse. In many CPG subcategories CPCs are climbing 10-15% YoY.

Rising cost of advertising and ‘trade spend’ on Amazon is one of the reason I keep saying Amazon went from a brand building to a transactional platform.

There is still room for efficiency of course, including a) doubling down on persona and contextual organic content on pages and Store b) for bigger brands and budgets: embracing multi-format approach, especially with Amazon expanding retail media network c) leaning into other platforms, like TikTok and influencers, for discovery, with Amazon ads as conversion and core/bottom of the funnel function

AI

AI in ecommerce is re-shaping both on buyer and seller side, in addition to the operational automation opportunities.

What all CPG business leaders need to watch, is growth of discovery through LLMs (agentic ecommerce), and adapting brand content to personalized shopping.

Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, Rufus, been out for a while. Amazon just added ‘help me decide’ feature for shoppers debating final purchase options.

THen we have Cosmo, AI algorithm that does image-based searches.

By late 2025, an estimated 15–20% of Amazon purchases involved some form of AI-assisted discovery (e.g. a customer used the chat assistant or a personalized recommendation) – and that is projected to grow to 35–40% of purchases by end of 2026.

What does it all mean? Discoverability on Amazon is shifting from bidding on the right keywords, and putting as many synonyms in product pages as possible without being overstuffed, to presenting products in a more intuitive, contextual, lifestyle way. That helps both humans and AI agents. In many ways it’s a more natural to shop.

More demanding, and more rewarding

Yes, costs are rising, ad clicks are rising, and let’s be honest: we still don’t have clear playbooks on how adapt to AI for product discovery and operations.

But for disciplines brands, 2026 is an opportunity.

There is more data and tools, there is more than ever visibility from Amazon in reporting and brand data visibility. There is lower tolerance, tougher compliance for fake reviews, hijackers, black hat players.

And even better news is, the fundamentals still hold: great product, reliable fulfillment, clear communication, financial discipline.

Amazon is evolving, pushing brands, and Amazon advisors like myself, to evolve with it, to make it the most rewarding year yet.

Saludos,

Irina

If you need help with your 2026 Amazon strategy, reach out for help.