This Issue's TLDR...

• Three 2026 Amazon predictions that you should prepare for
• Predicting what will happen at the intersection of AI and Commerce
• Predicting what will happen with Rufus

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This is the time of year when people commonly prognosticate, and predict what is ahead in their particular domains of expertise.

As a form of entertainment, I enjoy reading predictions.

As a form of actionable business intelligence, I mostly disregard them.

Why do I mostly disregard them?

Two reasons:

1. In line with an old Jeff Bezos interview in which he was asked how Amazon and eCommerce will change in 20 years, I try to orient myself around things that are "durable in time". That is, I focus more on what isn't changing than what is changing.
2. Rather than worry about which predictions will come true, I try to position myself to win in a wider range of future outcomes.

To that end, as I think about might (or might not) happen on the Amazon marketplace in 2026, I'm trying to prepare for a wide range of outcomes, and position myself to succeed in most of them.

Here are 3 areas, in particular, where I'm positioning myself (and you can too!), based on what could come to pass on Amazon:

AREA 1: I'm Embracing Rufus

There are still skeptics out there in the Amazon community that doubt the importance of Rufus and GEO/AEO optimization on Amazon.

That's fair.

Lexical search -- which forms the foundation of the A9 algorithm -- has been core to the customer journey for 20+ years. And, traditional "Amazon SEO" tied to lexical search still works.

But, it's very clear that Amazon is putting organizational resources behind Rufus (and semantic search).

The fact that, in Amazon's Q3-2025 earnings call, they cited the incremental GMV driven by Rufus is just one indication of that.

So, even if Rufus doesn't matter much today, it will likely matter in the future. And, Rufus-based listing optimization will be something that you'll need to understand.

There are a number of ways to understand how "Rufus ready" your listings are (I link to one below). I'll go deeper on this topic in a subsequent issue.

But, preliminarily, some things that you can do to position yourself here:

• Rewrite Titles for Long-Tail Intent: Use natural phrases people would say to Rufus.
• Convert Bullets to a Structured Format: Use a clear Feature → Benefit → Proof format that Rufus can easily parse.
• Add Comparison Tables: These tables are heavily utilized in AI-generated overviews and answer synthesis.

AREA 2: I'm Investing in Full-Funnel Advertising

The ability to drive organic rank through just PPC are mostly behind us.

PPC might enable you to stay at the top (or near the top) of the SEO mountain, but it won't help you get there.

As a result, I'm suggesting something that I've often "poo poo'd" in the past on social media:

You need to invest in DSP sooner rather than later.

You might not have tapped the PPC well dry yet. You might not have a massive budget.

That's OK.

If that's you, here's what you do (initially):

Focus Exclusively on High-Intent Audiences

All I want you to do (and all that I'll be doing), in these early innings, is capture shoppers right before they buy. This means:

Retargeting should be your Bread and Butter

This is where the ROI lives (4:1 to 8:1 ROAS is typically what we see at my agency).

Specifically, retarget:

• Cart Abandoners
• Product Detail Page Viewers: That is, people who looked at your listing but didn't add to cart
• Past Purchasers (for Cross-Sell/Upsell): Target people who bought your protein powder with ads for your shaker bottle. Exclude recent purchasers from generic ads to avoid wasted spend.
• In-Market Audiences: Target users who are actively researching products in your category on and off Amazon.
• Competitor Conquesting: Target users who viewed competitor ASINs.

AREA 3: I'm Investing in Ugly, Authentic Human Content

Read on in this newsletter and you'll see me talk about AI "slop".

Amazon, and the internet more broadly, is moving in this direction.

First off, Amazon shoppers might love AI generated content and respond well to it!

So, part of my 2026 brand strategy is to build the AI infrastructure to generate static and video creative at high volumes.

But, the other part of my 2026 brand strategy is to continue to invest in authentically human content.

How?

Through Amazon's Creator Connections.

Now, there's no shortage of third-party UGC/influencer platforms.

But Amazon is throwing dollars and organizational resources at Creator Connections, and I think that means something.

So I'm leaning into that.

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There you go. That's how I'm positioning myself in 2026, to (hopefully) succeed in a wide range of outcomes.

I know positioning is less exciting than predicting.

So, if you like the entertainment of predicting, the rest of this newsletter will cover 2026 predictions from people that I respect in this industry, and related industries.

Enjoy!

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BEST from my Inbox

The first set of 2026 predictions that I'd like to share comes from my good friend Jo Lambadjieva, who writes an incredible newsletter called AI for Ecommerce and Amazon Sellers.

You should go read it in its entirety (it will take you 4 minutes).

Until you can spare 4 minutes to do that though, here are two of her predictions that I find myself thinking about:

Prediction #3:

And Prediction #8:

Now, while the Merriam-Webster word of the year in 2025 was "slop", I agree with Jo that the Slop Era has only just begun.

Part of me is despondent about this. And part of me is still holding out hope that slop won't end up as bad of a problem as many people fear.

The reality is that the internet has always been flooded with low quality content. There's always been "slop"; it just wasn't AI-generated.

The challenge, as ever, is to find and amplify the good stuff. The increased volume of junk will simply mean that curation will matter more than ever.

BEST from LinkedIn

I consider Andrew Bell to be the foremost expert on Rufus, and GEO/AEO on Amazon.

No one has read more relevant scientific literature (i.e., Amazon patents and research papers) or stress-tested Rufus to the extent that he has.

So, when he penned his 2026 predictions related to Rufus, GEO, and AI on Amazon, I paid attention.

Go read his full post:

PS: If you want to assess how prepared you are for this new world of Rufus-driven product discovery, I highly recommend heading over toe ZonGuru and getting a free COSMO/RUFUS readiness report for one of your ASINs. While people may debate the importance of GEO/AEO on Amazon currently, there's no doubt in my mind that this is the direction that Amazon is going. Even if I'm wrong (or only partially right), what's the downside to optimizing for both A9 and Rufus?

BEST from X

Almost NONE of these predictions are Amazon and eCommerce related.

Almost ALL of these predictions are interesting and thought-provoking.

Do with that what you will.

GREG ISENBERG @gregisenberg 2026 AI predictions 1. SaaS and agents merge completely in 2026. Every SaaS product becomes an agent platform, and every agent platform builds SaaS features. The ones that don't adapt die or get bought for pennies. 2. Google continues to crush in 2026. OpenAI feels the heat. 1:24 PM • Nov 25, 2025 712 Retweets 4556 Likes Read 424 replies

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BEST from X (BONUS)

This set of predictions is more "in the strike zone" for all of us living in the Amazon and eCommerce world.

The one prediction in this set that struck a chord with me was this one:

Agencies split into two camps: high-end taste/strategy vs AI-leveraged execution. The middle dies.

First of all, as an agency owner, I can state unequivocally that this is already happening.

But, secondly, I think this overarching concept -- the hollowing out of the middle -- will impact multiple industries.

Something to keep in mind...

Rishabh Jain @rishabhmjain 26 Predictions for 2026: Commerce, Ads and Tech Commerce 1/ Commerce sees a resurgence due to ChatGPT primarily driving agentic shopping via chat based search on ChatGPT Confidence: 90% 2/ Amazon sees acceleration in ad revenue due to new initiative to drive traffic offsite 4:15 PM • Jan 6, 2026 0 Retweets 7 Likes Read 3 replies

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