sometime last spring, a homeware brand watched one of its best-selling products quietly stop moving on amazon. nothing looked broken. the listing was live, the reviews were fine, stock was sitting in amazon’s warehouses, and the brand still held the buy box. but the purchase orders got smaller, then irregular, then stopped. advertising the brand…
there is a conversation we have had more than once with brand owners who have moved to vendor central. revenue is up. amazon is ordering at volume. the founder mentions it almost apologetically — the numbers look fine on paper. then you ask about their net ppm. or when they last opened their vendor statement.…