Of the many businesses that we speak to about Amazon, their performance rarely fails due to lack of effort. It fails because of unclear expectations.
It can be a challenge to articulate what “good” looks like. Strategy can be vague, ownership lines blurry, and the information required to make confident decisions is either missing or poorly presented.
Without this kind of clarity, even the most capable Amazon sales teams will underperform.
Amazon Requires Commercial Ownership
Many companies see their internal Amazon resource as a function, there to produce listings or commission advertising. But they’re expecting them to do drive profitability in a complex, margin-sensitive sales channel, in an information vacuum.
Amazon sales teams need to understand the full financial and operational impact of the channel, not just how to drive sales. They need cost visibility in order to make informed commercial decisions which they can be held to account for.
A Clear Understanding of All Amazon Fees
Amazon’s cost structure is multi-layered and constantly evolving. Internal teams must have a complete view of:
- Amazon referral and fulfilment fees
- Storage and inventory ageing costs
- Chargebacks and operational penalties
- Third-party logistics (3PL) costs associated with inbound and outbound fulfilment
If these fees aren’t fully understood and tracked, margin erosion becomes inevitable.
Inventory Is a Commercial Lever, Not an Operational Detail
Inventory decisions directly affect sales performance, advertising efficiency, and profitability.
Your Amazon team should understand:
- How inventory holding impacts margin over time
- The financial consequences of aged stock
- The relationship between stock availability, Buy Box performance, and sales velocity
Poor inventory management doesn’t just create operational headaches, it undermines the performance and profitability of the entire sales channel.
Knowing What Amazon Is Really Costing
Revenue alone is meaningless without context.
An effective Amazon team needs to be able to articulate what the channel costs the business in real terms, including internal resources, operational overheads, and opportunity cost.
This means being able to answer a simple but critical question:
What is Amazon contributing to the business once everything is accounted for?
If that answer isn’t clear, your team aren’t able to be proactive or strategic.
PPC Attribution at Product Level
Advertising is one of the most powerful (and potentially dangerous) tools on Amazon.
Effective teams know that blended metrics hide underperforming products. Therefore, they make sure that they understand PPC attribution at SKU level (not just at account level).
This understanding involves knowing:
- Which products benefit from advertising
- Where PPC improves contribution margin
- When advertising is compensating for weak unit economics
This insight empowers evidence based spend decisions that can scale your Amazon operation more profitably.
Turning Amazon Data Into Management Insight
Amazon provides vast amounts of data, but very little of it is presented in a way senior management can use.
Bridging the gap between Amazon reports and management reports often requires new skills, tools, or external support.
We coach companies Amazon teams to:
- Extract and analyse relevant Amazon data
- Translate performance into commercial insight
- Prepare clear executive summaries and cost reports
- Support strategic decision-making with evidence
Getting to grips with this data enables your team to understand exactly what’s working and what isn’t. Besides supporting them in day-to-day decision making, it allows them to make informed recommendations on future activity to be considered at a senior leadership level.
When Teams Need Support
We find a lot of Amazon sales teams are overstretched. This can impact the attention given to strategy and their ability to be proactive. Many are trying to manage operations, advertising, reporting, and strategy simultaneously, which commonly causes capability gaps to appear.
We guide businesses in how to optimise their Amazon sales operation. This can include appointing discipline-specific resource or positioning their Amazon sales lead to coordinate inter-departmental collaboration.
Our support often includes:
- Building robust Amazon P&L and cost reports
- Improving data analysis and interpretation
- Developing reporting frameworks for senior leadership
- Providing strategic context for performance metrics
With the right support, we see internal teams become confident commercial owners rather than tactical executors.
Clarity Drives Performance
As with many things, a strong Amazon channel doesn’t come from working harder, it comes from working smarter. It comes from knowing what matters, measuring it properly, and aligning teams around clear commercial outcomes.
When expectations are defined and understanding is in place, Amazon stops being a mystery, and starts becoming a predictable, profitable part of the business.
If your team would benefit from some coaching then we’d love to explore how we might help with that. For an informed discussion on the future of your Amazon sales let’s talk.
Have you read The CEO Playbook yet? Six smart pages of fundamental ‘need-to-knows’ for CEOs of businesses looking to sell more profitably on Amazon. Read it now