10 Amazon Changes That Actually Matter for 2026

Hey there,

Amazon changed more this year than most brands realized. Some updates were helpful. Others created confusion. 

At AO2, we spent the past twelve months working hands-on with every new release across client accounts. 

That gave us a front row view of what truly improves performance and what is safe to ignore.

Every section below will help you understand what actually changed and how it affects your brand as you plan for 2026.

Amazon’s new AI driven compliance explanations finally remove the guesswork from listing flags. 

You now see exactly which phrase or keyword triggered the issue. 

Before this update, identifying violations required repeated submissions and wasted a lot of unnecessary time.

For brands managing extensive catalogs or making frequent updates, this makes your workflow cleaner while protecting your highest-value SKUs from repeat flags and account health issues.

Amazon’s performance analysis tool now gives you competitor benchmarking directly inside Seller Central. 

You can compare your product to your top ten competitors in real time.

This makes it easier to identify pricing gaps, track competitor stockouts, and adjust your strategy based on actual market behavior rather than guessing. 

It is one of the most practical data driven updates Amazon released this year.

Amazon’s expanded calculator now models these cost differences between AWD and FBA at the SKU level, giving brands a clearer view of where each product should live.

We’ve been using this tool across multiple catalogs to help clients identify which products fit AWD’s long-term storage model and which should remain in FBA for faster fulfillment. 

Products with predictable demand and longer shelf life typically perform best in AWD, where long-term storage is more cost-efficient. 

Fast-moving or seasonal SKUs stay in FBA, where they’re immediately available when demand spikes.

Smarter allocation between AWD and FBA leads to measurable savings. 

For brands with wide catalogs and different velocity patterns across SKUs, optimizing where inventory sits can meaningfully impact margins going into 2026.

Sponsored Prompts use Amazon’s AI to highlight key product details at the moments shoppers most often need clarity. 

While this feature is currently in beta and not widely available, it gives us a preview of how Amazon intends to use AI to guide purchase decisions across the marketplace.

We’re watching this closely because it signals a shift toward richer, automated on-page education. 

As Amazon scales this feature, brands that keep their product content accurate, concise, and compelling will benefit the most.

Direct Brand Site Shopping is a new beta experience that lets customers discover and buy products directly from a brand’s website while browsing in the Amazon app. 

Amazon uses public data from your website to build product cards and show them in relevant search results, even if the product isn’t actually sold on Amazon.

Customers who choose to purchase through this feature complete checkout using your brand’s site, not Amazon’s store via secure email address created by Amazon. 

Shoppers still receive Amazon confirmation and support, but the brand does not receive shopper data. 

Most importantly, Amazon does not use customer interactions from your website to inform search rankings, pricing, or merchandising on Amazon.

This beta is designed to support brands with MAP requirements, categories with high friction on Amazon, or products better suited for D2C. 

It helps capture shoppers who start their journey on Amazon but convert off Amazon when a direct site offers a better fit.

The updated Brand Store Sources report breaks down performance in a way that finally reflects how customers move through your Amazon Store. 

Instead of relying on broad metrics, brands can now pinpoint which tiles, which modules, and which navigational paths actually drive conversions. 

This clarity helps teams remove dead weight sections, amplify successful modules, and design store pages intentionally rather than aesthetically. 

Stores are becoming more influential as Amazon continues to treat them as an equivalent to a brand’s Amazon homepage, and this allows brands to match that level of importance.

Amazon’s new Seller Challenge pathway offers a way to request reversals when the system incorrectly applies fees, flags, or policy actions. 

It finally adds structure where there used to be little visibility, giving brands a more direct method to dispute decisions that previously required long back-and-forth exchanges.

This process doesn’t guarantee reversals and it isn’t a cure-all. 

It’s more of a safety net than a true solution to Amazon’s long-standing accuracy issues but it does create meaningful documentation and accountability where sellers have needed it for years.

Amazon has begun testing Sponsored Products placements across partner retailer sites within the Amazon Ads network. 

This allows your existing campaigns to reach shoppers who never begin their journey on Amazon, but still prefer an Amazon-native checkout experience when they click through.

Because this feature uses your existing catalog, creative, and campaign structure, brands see added reach without additional setup. 

Early signals suggest this placement introduces products to new audiences who convert well once they land back on Amazon.

AO2 is actually part of the beta, so if you’re interested in exploring this for your catalog, reach out and we can walk you through the requirements.

Amazon’s expanded Return Insights dashboard highlights why products are coming back, which SKUs drive the highest return rates, and what customers repeatedly mention in their comments. 

It lets brands separate issues caused by unclear content from true product defects or fulfillment problems instead of guessing.

Paired with the Returns and Recovery settings, this view turns returns into a real optimization tool. 

Programs such as Returnless Resolutions and Grade and Resell can reduce handling costs on items that are perfectly usable but would have been written off in the past. 

Across AO2 accounts, we have used these tools to cut non sellable returns and recover meaningful margin. 

For one client, enabling Returnless Resolutions on a portion of the catalog reduced non sellable returns by >50% and saved nearly $1000+ in logistics costs over two months.

Amazon introduced dozens of updates this year, but only a handful meaningfully impact how brands should prepare for 2026. 

Together, these changes signal a shift toward transparency and efficiency. 

The early adopters will make more informed decisions and avoid reactive scrambling when competition increases in the new year.

Jess
CEO, AO2

P.S. Which update are you most curious about testing in ‘26? Compliance explanations, the competitive analysis tool, or something else? Tell me what you want to dig deeper on.

P.P.S. Catching up on recent issues? Read about Why DSP is no longer enterprise-only.