The 2026 Amazon Playbook: What Brands Must Do Next to Win Ecommerce | EP. #211

Scott Ohsman 00:03
I was the Amazon guy. I was everybody before the Amazon guy. I was the m1 of the Amazon guys, right? That's so I did. I expertise. Built all that.

Narrator 00:11
Welcome to the E comm Show podcast. I am your host. Andrew Mapp, owner and founder of blue tusker, from groundbreaking industry updates to success stories and strategies, get to know the ins and outs of the e Commerce Industry from top leaders in the space. Let's get into it.

Andrew Maff 00:25
Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the E comm show as usual. I'm your host, Andrew MAFF, and today I am joined by the amazing Scott Oshman, VP of digital commerce over at quickfire and co host over at the always off brand podcast that I have to say that might have been the most fun I've had on a podcast. And I don't even know how long this is. This is going to be adorable compared to the amount of fun that we had on your show. We got to do a game show. There was a whole I'm doing this wrong. So all of my listeners leave and go listen to the always off brand podcast.

Scott Ohsman 01:04
Thank you.

Andrew Maff 01:05
How you doing, buddy?

Scott Ohsman 01:06
Oh Andrew, you're adorable, you're adorable. I'm doing great. It's so fun to have you on and yes, our shows unique. But it was so had fun because all the stuff you talked about, I told you this, I'm like, Oh my God, I know this guy. I know this guy even though I just met you. Your life experiences, how you look at the industry, how you look at brands, how you look at what we do is from agencies, from you know, it's like this guy, this is my guy.

Andrew Maff 01:38
Takes it takes a good host to kind of bring that stuff out. And that's all thanks to you, sir.

Scott Ohsman 01:44
Well, I have two co hosts who also, well, naturally, she's funnier and smarter.

Andrew Maff 01:48
That's surround yourself with better people. That's what I always do.

Scott Ohsman 01:51
Sorry, I have a little cup of coffee here.

Andrew Maff 01:56
Have at it.

Scott Ohsman 01:57
You know, it's cup of coffee here.

Andrew Maff 01:59
Naturally, little coffee in a little coffee in a chat. I'm all for it. It's coffee. You do this bit like this whole banter for just 30 minutes.

Scott Ohsman 02:11
Ah, Andrew!

Andrew Maff 02:12
So all right, so let's, let's. How do we do this? So let's, do the kind of normal thing. I You always, I know you're also a listener. So, you know, I start these kind of stereotypically, and just, I want to give you the floor. Tell me about your background. Like you've been in Amazon, I think you said, like, 19-20 years, something like that. And then you obviously are VP of digital commerce now. Like, tell me about tell me about Scott. Who is Scott?

Scott Ohsman 02:40
Oh, he's a crazy, flawed human. Is what he is. I started out as an independent multi brand rep, if that makes any sense. So I was with a guy with an agency. We were very lucky back then again. This is, I hate to even admit this listener. Do I sound younger? 30 years ago is when I actually started doing we've been involved in some aspect of retail, manufacturing, branding, whatever. So we had our big line. We had a bunch of lines, but our big line was Jansport backpacks, and this was in the mid 90s. So I hit that one right, and we're I started running, driving around in my Honda Civic, no joke with, with samples packed to the hills and the trunk and everything else, not knowing anything I was doing. I was, I was on commission. It was I didn't make much money. I lost more money in the first two years than I made. I had to drive around Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana. I never went. We had Alaska, but it didn't go there anyway, to little independent stores selling Jansport backpacks. And then I had to call on all the JC Penney's, and I had to do all that. So I and then I came in, it got to key accounts and all that kind of stuff. And I got a big break, got to work for North Face and manage a big Rei, which is huge national chain out here. And then got involved with Nordstroms and Costco and all the big national retailers, but all the mid tiers and specialties. So I've sold every category imaginable in mankind. If I haven't sold it, I've tried to and that I'm a retailer. I spent most of my 20 years, that 22 years, or whatever, in retail, and then boom, in 2005-2006. I was at Columbia Sportswear. We started selling Amazon. Therefore in 2006 is when I really started selling our manufacture, our brands, we represented. I was a part. I was in a partnership for an agency that time I went back into agency life, and I'm like, oh, man, this Amazon thing. I was just nerdy enough to get it, and I was like, this, yeah, thing, this thing. So that's and so then we, I've been working with hundreds and hundreds, I don't, you know, bazillion brands, mostly on the first party side, originally. And then I'm going to really land the plane, because people are bored. Probably. Probably at this point. But seriously, then knew the Amazon thing. Had an agency. Took over the agency 2013 created an Amazon only agency, which was very rare at that time. You have to understand, kiri masters had Bob sled. There's just a few people who had Sonoma? My friend had Sonoma. That wasn't very common back that in that time. It seems weird, but that wasn't so we did that, and then we was merged with Buy Box experts in 2018 because they had the 3PI had the 1p I knew 3p in marketplace was something I had to figure out. And did that. They went on. I left in 2020 went to go work for Quickfire as VP digital commerce, and they went in the company, sold to Spreetail in 2021. I was already out. I had a teeny tiny bit of that, which was fun, yeah, but that was an incredible experience, because we went around and did the pony shows to tie and sell. We talked to all the people at that time. I learned so much from that experience, and then we built it up to a ginormous agency, and I learned all the ins and outs and all the pitfalls of that. So now at Quickfire, we're a small little boutique, full service agency. We're the mini blush tusker, BlueTusker. We're you like the teeny, tiny, little, miniature version of you, because we do it all. We have the Amazon stuff, of course, I brought onion. But then we do paid social, we do paid search, we do influencer management, we do create a little product photography, more like that. So we do it all, but really, for small to medium sized brands. We're so is six of us, seven of us, great contract partners. So we, that's who we cater to, but we all the funny thing about Quickfire is, and this is my whole life. I'm come from the manufacturing side. I'm, I'm a pseudo manufacturer, a brand owner, and I've always thought that. So everybody at Quickfire, because of where we come from. That's another story. Is I always say this, we're more brand than we are agency. Because everything we do, and believe me, Andrew, to a fault many times, is we think about everything from the brand side, money, from the product, from everything. We're retail people.

Scott Ohsman 07:20
God, that felt really long.

Andrew Maff 07:23
I'm sure it felt great though.

Scott Ohsman 07:25
No, but I'm sick of myself. Obnoxious...

Andrew Maff 07:29
So you so it. I'm going to, I'm going to align on some of the overlap we had there that was very interesting. But the one thing I'm curious about you, you were really heavy in the Amazon space for a while. Quickfire a little bit more omni channel. You're not just omni channel. So what made you, what made you do that?

Scott Ohsman 07:48
I was a contractor for Quickfire, and the parent company of Allow tech. So in 2016 17, they had all these manufacturers like, Hey, we got to sell on Amazon that they were representing. So long story is they were also an independent, multi brand, national company for 30 years. So they worked with different brands, but they were mostly and we call the hook and bullet fishing, real sporting goods. I came out of sporting goods as well, bat ball, more outdoor specialty. So apparel, footwear, because of the Pacific Northwest here, enriched in that. But they had these brands. They didn't know anything about Amazon, so I would contract and basically manage their accounts. That's the connection with Quickfire. They didn't have an Amazon practice. They didn't have anything with marketplaces at all. And in 2020 when the world turned on its head, they were like, you know, and I had been talking to them a lot, and I got to know them, and they're phenomenal people, and they said, Hey, I knew I was getting out of the whole the whole Buy Box situation, so I'm very grateful for that, honestly. And I say this, it's probably the greatest gig I've ever had. It probably is because I work with unbelievably smart people, but yes, and the other thing that maybe we have in common is, I, you know, when you got I, yes, I was the Amazon guy. I was everybody before the Amazon guy. I was the one of the Amazon guys, right? That's so I did my expertise, built all that. And because you work with all these different brands, I worked with some of the biggest brands in the world, a lot of the smallest ones, nobody knows. The point of that is, is that I like seeing how it all worked together. Once I was just Amazon, only you lose you lose perspective on how it all works together. And as you and I talked about when you were on our show, always up brand, check it out, top five retail. There you go.

Scott Ohsman 09:41
Hey, there you go!

Andrew Maff 09:43
Got him. I told you, I've got some sounds ready for you.

Scott Ohsman 09:50
I know and I love it. The point is, as we know, in the last five years, you and I talk, right? I could argue there's more of an impact off Amazon. Than there is in on Amazon. And so that is what's interesting to me, is what's going on outside, and how it correlates, and how it the direction, and all those things, especially now, now with chit chatty I mean, good Lord, I don't know where we're going.

Andrew Maff 10:15
It's wild the sim, because I know you and I kind of joked of like we are kindred spirits, of our backgrounds here, like you and I, have such an overlap. I didn't do anything in retail like you did. You have, you have a running start over me, but I started in Amazon almost, I think the maybe the same year you did. So 05-06, somewhere in there, I had an agency left. That agency, went in house, started another agency, Amazon, focused in 2015 so we were, like the only ones around us, and like Bobsled. And there was like two, there's a few others that I was like. And then that was it exited that late 2019 stayed on for a little bit, started BlueTusker, 2020, so. And then went omni channel because of the same thing I used to see all the time, like you're getting people that are hopping from Amazon to your DTC site, or vice versa. And I think that covid sped that up, you know? I mean, like the user, even though everyone knew how to shop online, more or less, they they became professionals. Yes, thank you.

Scott Ohsman 11:23
Next time props.

Andrew Maff 11:24
Next time, yes, I'll do the props. Next time, they just became so much better at it, at shopping online. And so now it's like, okay, you've got to understand that they're doing their due diligence. They're going to shop wherever they want. I think that reg you. I think digital marketing is more like traditional now, where it's like, you know, back in the Mad Men days, like you're not, tell me the ROI of my billboard, like, No, can't do that.

Scott Ohsman 11:50
Yeah, I Yes, you and I talked about this, and I don't want to go down a rabbit hole. You don't want to, but!

Andrew Maff 11:56
Go listen to our episode on the amazing, always off brand podcast,

Scott Ohsman 12:02
Almost I hate myself anyway, but that's the challenge, right is I do agree with that, and there's so much of that at the same time, you have stakeholders and CFOs, mostly, and a lot of people who hold the accounting and the decision making of the finance go. That's great kids, but I need to see some type of numbers that return on that.

Scott Ohsman 12:25
I love all your hoity, toity. I love all your it's mad man. Let's go have cigars. Yeah, let's get hammered at lunch. But I got to see a return on the dollar.

Narrator 12:34
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Andrew Maff 13:06
Yeah, which makes it a lot more difficult.

Scott Ohsman 13:10
Yeah!

Andrew Maff 13:12
And now you've got well to that point too. Now you've got FBA fees going back up, going up, not back up, up again early January, again, 2026

Andrew Maff 13:23
Yeah, that'll be fun. So another issue with is that, what do you think to happen? Like, 3-5,years, give or take, somewhere in there we think to happen. You think like our brand's gonna finally start going into several other channels. You think that Amazon's gonna make some big changes, and it'll kind of go back to a little bit more of its heyday, like, what do you think is happening in the next few years here?

Scott Ohsman 13:49
I think that's a big question. Andrew, yeah, very big question.

Andrew Maff 13:54
That's the types of questions that we ask on this podcast.

Scott Ohsman 13:57
That's why it's just better, just, smarter this podcast? No, I, I've been getting, actually, I've been thinking about that, because it's not that I'm, you know, this coast, this is the problem with having hosts on is you you want to ask questions to the host.

Andrew Maff 14:19
I know!

Scott Ohsman 14:20
I think us in the nerdville that have been around, okay, again, I just met you, and I love to chit chat with you more about this, but it's a maturation. So I have been around, I've had the pleasure to being around for a long time, just like you. And everything has a life cycle, typically, and there's just a maturation to the Amazon platform. Is it going to go away? No, are brands going to leave? No, I just think there might be small to medium sized brands who kind of just, it's lower on the priority, it's lower on the investment. They don't, they don't try to make a go of it as much as they have been because of the margin. I mean honestly, I know it's not a topic no one wants to talk about. The tariffs have changed the game when you talk small, medium manufacturer who make things all over the world and that has added more pressure, to be honest, than, you know, six more cents on a large standard FBA fee or whatever the heck it is, yeah. So there's all kinds of margin compression, but the consumer is not going to leave Amazon. They have built such a massive mode in three to five years, which I do think is interesting. Like I said, it's not that I'm bored with Amazon. I think it's just can't it's a natural cycle of it. I think they're doing some really interesting stuff still. And I think this chit chatty, as I call it the chat GPT, which is really the one. Here's something interesting. And again, I Amazon, in their history has never really, I mean, they have here and there maybe I get your thoughts.

Scott Ohsman 15:54
They've never really had to compete with another tech company. So it back in the day of the Walmart, Amazon fight Walmart and retailers. So all the the hundreds of retailers that went out of business, right, the circuit cities, the Toys R Us, the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, they were blooming to big department stores, those are guys are being measured by, by Wall Street, by quarterly earnings yet Amazon went in and they're like, Hey, we're tech we're a tech shop. Man, we're not going to be profitable for five years. They were, they were viewed and measured differently. Open. Ai, to me, is probably one of the most interesting quote threats that they've had as they build the consumer demand, and so I'm interested that's going to play out.

Andrew Maff 16:39
Yeah, I mean, I would say that there was definitely a time there where people thought Shopify was going to be competitive in one way or another, when they, you know, they released, was it the shop app, or whatever it is, and they're going to aggregate all the products and then blah blah. But Amazon's biggest differentiator, and the thing that they lean in real heavy on more and more and more and more is their fulfillment 100% and I don't see OpenAI getting into that now all these other channels, well, maybe to but all these other channels opening up, like, you know, Tiktok shop, theoretically being competitive, I could definitely see how OpenAI being able to just check out on there, and it Just scrapes the entire internet and has checkout options there. It could be very competitive. So I can see how there's going to be other tech plays that get very competitive. But it's the fulfillment side that at this point, they have such a ridiculous footprint that I don't know how it's physically possible for anyone, but like, maybe a Walmart, who I think will never do it, because they're just so far behind on everything to actually compete with them.

Scott Ohsman 17:48
100% ring the bell. Do you have a bell? There you go. There's there's there.

Andrew Maff 17:54
I agree, and that's what I've been thinking about so three to five years. I mean, Amazon's had, like, tiny, little, teeny, tiny things. The Tiktok shop has done a great job. But again, it's a very segmented type of product that's had very big success there. I think the other levels of E Comm, as far as essentials and trading down and lower costs is building that up. You're right. I'm not suggesting Amazon's got a serious threat here.

Scott Ohsman 18:24
The thing that's interesting to me is the demand. I mean, it's just, when you see the just massive consumer adoption that is happening here with ChatGPT, and let's be clear, okay, it's them. It's anthropic and perplexity, and all these other guys are great. Coders, love them, and I'm a fan as well. But let's just it's, we're, unfortunately, we're set with one frickin option again, yeah, and this whole thing so that adoption and the agentic shopping and the fact that could it become another marketplace, it's not going to, it's not going to take things. It's not going to put Amazon down. Let's not get crazy. But the people, the way people shop, could be, could be interesting, and I'm maybe it's a self fulfilling, you know, bias of mine, the people that talk about how e commerce in its most raw form has really not been disrupted or innovated that much over the last 20 years. Maybe this is the disruption that we need. I don't know. I'm more fascinated with it. It could be just because I'm long in the tube.

Andrew Maff 19:30
Yeah, I agree, to some extent. I think that I still am a firm believer that, you know, we're everyone in this industry is their victim of being in the industry 100% like they 're in it all the time. So if there's a cool new tool out there, especially us marketers, we want to play with it. What can we do with it? And then we're going to be the first to adopt it, and we're gonna be the first to ruin it. And so we ChatGPT is definitely something that I see as being adopted by a lot of people that are in business that have the ability to use it, and then figuring out how they can use it in their personal lives as well. I think that the average consumer it's going to be a long time before they start to take it on. Boomers are going to have to die off. Millennials will slowly start to take it on, and then you'll have it from there, do you agree? Do you disagree?

Scott Ohsman 20:23
I know I was on this train with you, until recently, the amount, it's just 800 million a week. I mean, it's just the fact I even post is like they are advertising non stop across multiple screens everywhere in your life you get OpenAI, I mean, I just, I Yes, I'm with you, and I try to recognize the bias, the fact that I'm inside the nerd bubble, right? I got you on that. I just sit there and go, God, this thing, they are driving so much money. That's what's so funny, right? They're spending millions, they're losing millions, but yet they're getting billions in investment. So we're down to one chip and one little tech company. So I think it's going to take longer all the agentic and all that other stuff. I agree with you, but here's what I do think, which I would love your thoughts on, sir.

Scott Ohsman 21:20
I think D2C. I think Shopify sites. I think whatever your What are your choice? I mean, that's pretty much the dominant other than enterprise and Salesforce, what have you. I think they're I think they're doing great now, and it's not saying it's leveled. I'm just saying I think chit chatty is going to give them another heyday. I think the next two years and a half is a boondoggle for your D2C.

Andrew Maff 21:44
Yeah. Oh, I completely agree. So I think that to to kind of piggyback off your last comment, I want to say, like, it's not, not necessarily the ChatGPT tool, but open AI in general, like they have Sora that just came out that is, that's basically a carbon copy of Tiktok that is just way like a little bit more creative. Then you have, they just released their own browser. So there I see them as becoming way more quickly competitive with Google, and they're already starting to eat up some of the search results, which is what caused Google to cut their search results down to a 10th. So it'll be interesting to see how ChatGPT starts to scrape the internet and pull stuff out from there. But from a shopping perspective, I could see how all those different tools all of a sudden get adopted by the average consumer a lot quicker, because they get frustrated with Google and it doesn't have all the bells and whistles and stuff that they want. But I agree. I think the D2C side is going to have its heyday as as this kind of opens up, because it's going all those different tools are going to allow people to discover things more, whereas right now, D2C, it's like you get buried from people just going to Amazon and finding stuff there.

Scott Ohsman 22:58
Let me ask you this. I know we're running up against it here, but.

Andrew Maff 23:01
You know, I'm the host, right?

Scott Ohsman 23:03
Yeah, right. Shit, darn it. Cut that. Okay. Well, okay, do you mean, are you right? You're right.

Andrew Maff 23:15
You answer me. Tell me what you were gonna ask, and then I'll ask you.

Scott Ohsman 23:20
The whole point is, with Google, I agree with you on that, like they and I've been saying this, like the AI overview, the old Gemini, there's no money there. Andrew, how are they going to make money?

Andrew Maff 23:35
It's horrible.

Scott Ohsman 23:36
What are they going to do?

Andrew Maff 23:39
I don't, I honestly don't know. I don't have an answer for you on that one. That one. I wish. I'm glad you didn't ask me it, because I have no idea, although that was technically a question, yeah, I have no idea. I just it's this. I don't use it. It's not great. It drives me crazy. It's just eating up wasted space.

Scott Ohsman 23:56
Because all of this, let's just go here, okay? Because all of this is a real estate play, if you think about it, it's no different than prized real estate, where you only, you know the beach, right? You only have so many houses on the beach. There's limited supply, with massive demand. Same thing with Amazon. This is why it's getting so complicated and kind of demoralizing, is because and mobile is becoming such a big part of it is there's only so much real estate. Yeah, there's only so much real estate. So I think everyone's saying that search is dead and Google search is dead. I'm not quite there yet. I'm not there. I think the Google people, they're going to figure something out. They've got to find the money, and they're going to figure something out. And then they still have YouTube, and they have Waymo, which I love, and they have a bunch of other things.

Andrew Maff 24:43
Yeah, I agree. And then it's just, really, honestly, I think it's going to come down to especially from not only our category, but just for all of them in general. Like, who's going to make it a better shopping experience?

Scott Ohsman 24:56
Yeah, but that's even for the average consumer. Yeah, that's what I think. But what I like about chat is right today, just like it was. It used to be for Instagram, it used to be for Facebook, it used to be for all these tech things. It's so clean. It's just clean experience. You're not It's not mucked up by all this other ad serves and everything else. Yeah, but that's how we make a living.

Andrew Maff 25:20
That's true. Scott, my listeners get annoyed by listening to my voice after about 25 minutes. So I have to let them go. No means I have to let you go.

Scott Ohsman 25:30
No, I need, I need to be let go,

Andrew Maff 25:35
Oh man. Thank you so much for being on the show. This was awesome. Obviously we'll have to do it again. Tell everyone where they can find out more about you, more about Quickfire. Yeah, and always off brand.

Scott Ohsman 25:44
I'm on the Linky, again, another, another, obnoxious. Just I hate myself. How much I'm on the Linky, LinkedIn. Linky, that's where you can find me. Oh, h, S, M, a, n, scottio, it's just easier. And Always Off Brand. You know, we're on the YouTube, on the tube, just like you, Andrew the tube. and all the platforms, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

Andrew Maff 26:08
Beautiful!

Scott Ohsman 26:09
And quickfire.com

Andrew Maff 26:12
We'll see you there. Thank you, Scott. Everyone who tuned in, thank you as well. Please make sure you do the usual thing, rate, review, subscribe, all that fun stuff, on whichever podcast platform you prefer, or head over to the Ecomm Show.com to check out all of our previous episodes. But as usual, thank you all for joining us. Scott, thank you as well.

Scott Ohsman 26:28
Thank you.

Scott Ohsman 26:28
Have a good one.

Narrator 26:32
Thank you for tuning in to the E comm show. Head over to Ecommshow.com to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform or on the BlueTuskr YouTube channel. The Ecomm Show is brought to you by BlueTuskr, a full service digital marketing company specifically for E commerce sellers looking to accelerate their growth. Go to bluetuskr.com now for more information, make sure to tune in next week for another amazing episode of the Ecomm Show!