An Amazon agency for retail brands should start with what you already have, not with ads. A brand on the shelf at Whole Foods often has up to three Amazon footprints it does not control: items in a Whole Foods catalog sold by Whole Foods Market, reseller offers on its own products, and a seller account nobody has written properly. Fix who owns the listings first, then the packs and prices, then switch on the Whole Foods ad stack Amazon built between 2019 and 2024. Amplifyr Marketing runs that sequence month to month, starting with a free audit.
Most retail brands that are small on Amazon are not short of demand. Their best sellers are split across duplicate pages, their packs were sized for a shelf rather than a fulfillment fee, and their ads run from an account that cannot see the Whole Foods inventory.
Why are retail brands small on Amazon?
Because the shelf and the marketplace reward different things. A buyer at Whole Foods rewards velocity, margin and a clean label; Amazon rewards the page that converts, ships fast and is priced right for its fees. Five causes come up again and again when a retail brand is small on Amazon.
| Cause | What it looks like | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| Nobody owns the listing | Resellers and the retail catalog supply your titles and images; the page reads like a warehouse description | Conversion, and often the Featured Offer, go to someone else |
| Duplicate pages | The same product on several pages, with its ratings split between them | Every copy ranks below where one strong page would |
| Shelf packs on a fulfillment fee | A $15.99 shelf price copied to Amazon, or a multipack an inch over a size limit | A 15% referral fee instead of 8%, or a higher FBA tier |
| Ads from the wrong account | Whole Foods items read out of stock in the ad console while they sit on shelves | Campaigns that are built and never serve |
| Prices that fight each other | Amazon priced well above recent prices elsewhere, or a multipack that costs more per unit than the single | Amazon can remove the Featured Offer under its fair pricing policy |
Which Amazon relationships does a Whole Foods brand have?
Up to six, and they do not talk to each other. Being a Whole Foods supplier and holding an Amazon seller account are separate relationships, set up separately, and the confusion between them is where most of the lost sales hide.
| Relationship | What it controls | Where it lives | Who sets the price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole Foods supplier | Your items in the Whole Foods catalog, “sold by Whole Foods Market” and delivered from stores | The Grocery Central supplier portal, by invite on your Whole Foods account record | Whole Foods |
| Your seller account | Your own Amazon.com offers, FBA inventory and Brand Registry content | Seller Central | You |
| Vendor Central, if Amazon buys from you | Amazon buys wholesale and resells on its own account | Vendor Central, by invitation | Amazon |
| Amazon Ads | Sponsored Products, Brands and Display on your listings; DSP audiences | The Amazon Ads console | Not applicable |
| Whole Foods ads account | Ads on your Whole Foods catalog items | Created through the supplier portal, separate from Seller Central | Not applicable |
| Resellers and distributors | Their offers on your listings | Their own seller accounts | They do; Amazon does not enforce MAP |
Open your ad console and search for your Whole Foods items. If they read unavailable while they sit on shelves across the country, the most common cause is that no Whole Foods ads account was created through the supplier portal; until one exists, campaigns that target those items do not serve. Our Whole Foods and Amazon guide shows where the portal lives and how access works.
What should a retail brand fix first on Amazon?
Ownership, then economics, then advertising. Spending on ads before the first two are fixed buys traffic for pages that cannot convert it, or for offers that belong to someone else.
- Take ownership of the listings weeks 1 to 4Enroll in Brand Registry on your registered or pending US trademark, so you control more of your pages’ content and can report counterfeits; consolidate duplicate pages; decide which resellers your distribution agreements allow.
- Fix packs and prices for Amazon’s fees weeks 2 to 6Hold Grocery prices at $14.99 rather than $15.99, price every multipack at or below the single’s per-unit price, and keep packs inside the standard-size limit of 18 x 14 x 8 inches and 20 lb.
- Rebuild the content weeks 2 to 8Titles, bullets, seven images, A+ Content and a Brand Store, with attributes such as gluten-free filled in so filtered search can find you. Our listing optimization work starts here.
- Create the Whole Foods ads account week 2Through the supplier portal, so your Whole Foods items show in stock in the ad console.
- Advertise on pages that convert from week 6Sponsored Products and Brands on your own listings, Sponsored Display into the Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh storefronts, and DSP audiences from Whole Foods store purchases when the budget allows.
- Then retail media beyond Amazon once Amazon pays its wayRoundel at Target and Walmart Connect, with budgets agreed alongside your broker’s and buyers’ plans.
What does the Whole Foods ad stack include?
Five capabilities, and the newest is two and a half years old. The stack was built between 2019 and 2024 and has barely moved since, which is the opportunity: this is not a new format to test, it is a mature system.
The Whole Foods ad stack is years old: how long each piece has been live
Launch dates from Amazon Ads announcements, measured to October 2026.
Sources: Amazon Ads announcements (in-store attribution February 16, 2021; Whole Foods audiences in DSP November 15, 2021; Sponsored Display on Fresh and Whole Foods November 17, 2022) and Amazon’s in-store signage program, which added Whole Foods on April 1, 2024. DSP audiences carry up to a 365-day lookback.
Know the limits before you budget. In-store attribution connects a digital ad to a purchase in a physical store, which is rare, but it only counts Prime members who identify themselves at checkout, so anyone promising complete in-store measurement is overselling. Clicks tend to land on the main Amazon.com product page rather than the Whole Foods destination unless the campaign is built around it, and the premium Whole Foods placements are sold as a managed service only.
Delivery is where the shopper is heading. Amazon now merges perishables into the normal Amazon.com cart in more than 2,300 cities, and since announcing on January 27, 2026 that it would close every Amazon Fresh and Go store, it treats Whole Foods as its physical grocery business. For a brand on that shelf, the Amazon side and the retail side are converging on one platform.
In Whole Foods and small on Amazon? Ask for a free audit: we look at your listings, your Whole Foods catalog items and your competitive set, and email the three biggest opportunities within two business days.
Get your free audit →How should a retail brand price on Amazon without breaking the shelf?
Start from Amazon’s own rule. Its fair pricing policy says Amazon compares your prices with other prices available to customers, and it can remove the Featured Offer, remove the offer or, in serious cases, suspend selling privileges when a price is significantly higher than recent prices on or off Amazon, or when a multipack costs more per unit than the single.
Then the parts Amazon will not do for you. Amazon does not enforce minimum advertised price (MAP) policies, so reseller pricing is a question for your distribution agreements, not for Seller Central. If Amazon buys from you through Vendor Central, Amazon sets the retail price itself, which is one reason retail brands keep a seller account of their own: it is the route where the price stays theirs.
| Pricing move | On the shelf | On Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| A $15.99 single | A normal grocery price | Referral fee 15% of the whole price, $2.40, against $1.20 at $14.99 |
| A multipack | Often not on the shelf at all | A strong Amazon format, if it costs less per unit than the single |
| A temporary price cut | Funded through your retailer’s promotion calendar | A coupon costs $5 plus 2.5% of coupon sales, capped at $2,000, and every buyer sees it |
| A different pack for Amazon | Keeps the shelf price clean | Avoids a direct price comparison and can sit inside the fee lines |
Channel conflict is a business decision before it is an Amazon one. Our manufacturer-to-brand playbook walks through when to protect a retail account and when Amazon should lead.
Where does retail media fit beyond Amazon?
Amazon takes most of the money, and the smaller networks sit closest to your shelf. On eMarketer’s estimates Amazon held about 79.7% of US retail media ad spend in 2025, Walmart Connect about 8% and Target’s Roundel about 1.5%. For a brand already in those stores, the small networks still matter, because your broker and your buyers watch them.
Where US retail media ad spend went in 2025
Share of total US retail media ad spend, eMarketer estimates. “Everyone else” is the remainder.
Source: eMarketer estimates of 2025 US retail media ad spending, as compiled in Amplifyr Marketing’s Whole Foods briefing (July 2026). Estimates, not reported revenue.
We manage Roundel, Target’s retail media network, alongside Amazon advertising, in the same weekly reporting format we use for Amazon. The order still holds: Amazon first, because it is where the shopper searches and where the results come back fastest, then the networks next to your other shelves.
What does an Amazon agency for retail brands cost?
Full-service Amazon agencies typically charge $2,500 to $15,000 a month, by fee model and scope; our guide to what an Amazon agency costs breaks the models down. Amplifyr Marketing’s management is month to month, and the rate drops as you grow: 10% of monthly Amazon revenue on the Growth tier (minimum $2,500, for brands under $50K a month, launches included), 7% on full service from $50K (minimum $5,000), and 5% on revenue above $100K. Ad spend is billed to your own accounts, with no media markup.
If Amazon is still small for you, the minimum can be a large share of Amazon sales ($2,500 is a quarter of $10,000), so the honest first step is often a strategy session from $450: a written plan for listings, packs, prices and ads that you can run in-house or with us.
What should a retail brand ask an Amazon agency?
| Ask | A good answer | A red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Do my Whole Foods items show in stock in the ad console? | Checked on the first call, with the fix if they do not | Never heard of the supplier-portal ads account |
| Who controls my listings today? | A list: your pages, reseller offers, the Whole Foods catalog, duplicates | “We will start with ads” |
| Will Amazon pricing upset my buyers? | A pack and price plan that respects the shelf and Amazon’s fair pricing policy | Growth built on discounts |
| What can you measure in store? | Prime members who scan at Whole Foods checkout, and nothing more | Complete closed-loop in-store measurement |
| How are you paid, and can I leave? | A published fee, month to month, ad spend in your accounts | A lock-in, or a markup on media |
| Who runs my account? | The person on the call | A junior account manager you meet after signing |
$29 a week to $104,528 a month
An organic iced tea brand came to us with a listing that converted 0.29% of visitors and sold about $29 a week on Amazon. The product was right; the page was not. With Amplifyr Marketing running listings, advertising, creative and inventory together, it reached $104,528 in month fifteen at about 10% TACoS (advertising as a share of total sales), with more than 60% of sales organic. Read the case study.
Food and beverage brands weighing partners can compare the field in our guide to choosing an Amazon agency for a food or beverage brand. Brands that import their product, or make it abroad, should read how we work with imported food and beverage brands, and the Brand Registry setup guide covers the enrollment that step one depends on.
Four steps, and each one earns the next
- Free auditWe review your Amazon listings, your Whole Foods catalog items and your competitive set, and email the three biggest opportunities within two business days.
- 30-minute callIf it is a fit, we walk through the deeper findings on screen and answer what the audit raised.
- Strategy sessionFrom $450: a written plan for listings, packs, prices and ads, yours to run in-house or with us.
- Management10% of Amazon revenue under $50K a month (minimum $2,500), 7% from $50K (minimum $5,000), 5% above $100K, month to month. Includes the Helm dashboard.
Founder-run. You talk to the person who runs your account, and we take on a few brands at a time.
Frequently asked questions
What does an Amazon agency for retail brands do?
If my products are in Whole Foods, are they already on Amazon?
Why don’t my Whole Foods products show in Amazon Ads?
Can I control my price on Amazon if other sellers carry my product?
How much does an Amazon agency cost for a retail brand?
Grow the Amazon side of your retail brand with an operator, not a call center
Tell us where you sell today and what Amazon does for you now. You’ll hear back from the founder, not a sales team, with a free audit within two business days.
Get your free audit →See pricingMonth to month. No lock-in. Ad spend stays in your own accounts.