Agencies Are Panic-Buying Ecomm Talent—Because They Have No Damn Clue How Amazon Really Works
Picture this: it’s Tuesday morning, and some midtown agency exec is frantically texting headhunters because they just lost another ‘Amazon marketplace strategist’ to a better offer across town. The Podeans, Harvest Groups, and EVOQs of the world are in a summer feeding frenzy, desperate to hoover up anyone who can spell ‘A9’. Not because they want to build expertise, but because they’re terrified of telling clients the truth: they have no idea how to actually grow a brand on Amazon or Walmart.
Let’s be honest—the agency playbook here is embarrassingly thin. Hire a specialist, slap their face on a pitch deck, and pray nobody asks tough questions about Buy Box algorithms or Walmart’s godawful ad dashboard. Why? Because these same agencies spent the last decade selling generic ‘search’ and ‘omnichannel’ decks without ever touching an Amazon campaign interface. Now, with retail media budgets ballooning faster than a Williamsburg rent, they’re making panic hires to cover up their knowledge deficit.
I’m calling it: this is peak cargo cult. Agencies are waving around job titles like ‘Marketplace Growth Architect’ and pretending that’s a strategy. Meanwhile, the actual work—SKU-level optimization, black-hat review suppression, wrangling with Amazon’s Byzantine support—gets dumped on whatever freelancer they found on Slack last week. At least Podean is honest about needing ‘scale.’ Translation: they want warm bodies to bill hours, not expertise to drive results.
Don’t get me started on the ‘specialists’ themselves. Half of them are ex-brand managers who watched a couple of LinkedIn Learning videos and now think they can outsmart Amazon’s algo. The other half are just smart enough to know their new employers can’t tell the difference. If you’re a brand, you have two options this summer: get your hands dirty and learn marketplace ops yourself, or prepare to be fleeced by agencies who will happily charge Manhattan prices for rural-Ohio results.
Uncomfortable truth: if your agency’s ecomm ‘guru’ can’t show you a real ASIN recovery case or get your products back after a retail readiness purge, you’re being played. Ask for receipts, not resumes. And if you’re still trusting agencies to build your Amazon business from scratch in 2026, you might as well hand your wallet to Jeff Bezos and go back to the beach.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are agencies panic-buying e-commerce talent for Amazon and Walmart?
Agencies are panic-buying e-commerce talent because they lack real expertise in growing brands on Amazon or Walmart and are desperate to cover up their knowledge gaps for clients.
What is the main criticism of agencies’ approach to Amazon marketplace strategy?
The main criticism is that agencies hire specialists for show, use them in pitches, and lack genuine understanding of Amazon’s operations, often outsourcing the real work to freelancers.
How do agencies typically handle the technical aspects of Amazon marketplace management?
Agencies often dump technical tasks like SKU-level optimization and dealing with Amazon support on freelancers rather than developing in-house expertise.
What warning does the article give to brands working with agencies on Amazon?
The article warns brands that if their agency’s e-commerce expert can’t provide real case studies or recover products after issues, they’re likely being overcharged for poor results.
What are the two options for brands wanting to succeed on Amazon according to the article?
Brands should either learn marketplace operations themselves or risk being overcharged by agencies that can’t deliver real results.
