Heloise Finch examines how Amazon has rapidly become FMCG’s most competitive arena – and why so many brands still lack the strategy and capability needed to triumph
The Amazon aisle has become the new FMCG battlefield, and most brands are still showing up unarmed. For years, the sector has debated whether Amazon is friend or foe, and many still love to hate the platform. They see it as price-oriented, favouring ‘value’ brands, with an unforgiving rating system, and seemingly elevating unknown brands overnight. The outdated view that an Amazon listing can actually be detrimental to a brand’s value still hangs around.
However, the real fact is, despite the grumbling, Amazon is the most powerful retail engine in the UK.
What used to be just a marketplace for books has evolved into something far more important: a highly competitive digital aisle that is reshaping how consumers discover and buy everyday essentials.
Q1 data in 2025 shows that more than one in three units sold on Amazon is from grocery and household essentials, making it one of the fastest growing categories for the platform. Yet FMCG brands still think like they are playing the old game.
Perception and strategy need to change. Amazon is not a niche – it has a scale that rivals and, in some cases, surpasses bricks and mortar grocers.
More importantly, Amazon has evolved into a primary discovery point for FMCG. Consumers are now encountering brands for the first time not while wandering an aisle, but when scrolling on Amazon, often thanks to algorithmically curated recommendations.
The digital shelf
We explain to our clients that today there is a different dynamic happening which is best described as ‘intent’. The physical, in-store shopping aisle has always been all about visibility, standing out to grab intention and transform browsing into a purchase. The Amazon aisle is about intent. People don’t browse Amazon to kill time; they browse to buy, with a goal in mind.
This has also reshaped perceptions of value. Once, value related to price and what you could physically hold in your hand. On Amazon, value equates to speed — whether you can have it delivered tomorrow, or even today. People are willing to pay a premium for that value, and that alone gives Amazon disproportionate influence over early-stage brand adoption.
Historically, FMCG has relied on visual appeal and physical presence to win. The industry trained itself to optimise planogram real estate, impulse promotions and end-of-aisle features on the scientifically proven six-second shelf standout. But the digital shelf doesn’t work on those terms.
On Amazon, shelf placement is an algorithmic outcome based on a brand’s operational excellence, content quality, conversion rate, reviews, and advertising strategy. Packaging still needs to instil confidence, but equally important are the quality of the images, videos and copy, with the platform ‘punishing’ you instantly if your content or performance is weak. Many brands fall down by letting wholesalers sell their products on Amazon, rather doing it directly, leading to questionable multipacks and horrible product shots. Generic challengers, new entrants, and private-label alternatives are better mastering the digital game.
A new way of selling
In the past, the established brands were the barrier to newcomers forcing their way through because of their existing retailer relationships and proven sales performance. Now, the challenger brands have changed the rules. They begin life by embracing Amazon as a different way of selling. The UK’s fastest-growing disruptor brands across categories like hydration, nutrition, household, and beauty are building momentum online because they understood something that legacy brands routinely overlook: Amazon isn’t a shop, it’s an ecosystem, which needs to be treated in a new way.
Legacy FMCG teams are built around a world where success depends on two pillars: physical distribution and paid awareness. But Amazon collapses traditional value chains. Distribution, brand, search, conversion, performance, and customer experience merge into a tightly interconnected loop.
Winning on Amazon requires teams to be upskilled and the reality is most FMCG businesses currently lack the internal capability and experience. It demands precision in supply-chain forecasting and availability management; content that is engineered for conversion – not just aesthetics. Plus, real-time data interpretation and optimisation. Alongside this, mastery of Amazon’s multi-layered advertising architecture, continuous review generation and reputation management. Testing, iterating, and optimising week after week.
Challenger brands are evolving with these capabilities built into their DNA. They budget for it at the outset and they treat Amazon as a revenue engine, not a side project. This is happening in a competitive landscape where many household-name brands list only a few SKUs on Amazon, relying on repurposed pack shots and auto-campaigns before sitting back and assuming their offline brand equity will carry them.
Those who still cling to more traditional methods will find themselves unprepared for a world where supply chain issues instantly affect search visibility, and where reviews can override millions in brand investment. The reality is that Amazon demands operational excellence at a granular level and challenger brands can outrank a category leader within weeks. This is the heart of the challenge: companies failing to invest in the know-how or capability.
However, despite Amazon’s gravitational pull, the future isn’t exclusively digital. Consumer behaviour is increasingly hybrid. Discovery may start online, but replenishment happens in retail. Or vice-versa. Consumers may try a brand in-store but switch to Amazon for Subscribe & Save convenience. Modern FMCG brands embrace the online and offline worlds as complementary and as two touchpoints of the same shopper journey.
By getting the balance right, the hybrid approach generates disproportionate positive outcomes. Amazon fuels discovery and trial of new products, pack sizes and multipack combos. Reviews and search visibility validate the product for first-time buyers. Physical retail drives mass penetration and physical presence to reinforce credibility and convenience.
The Amazon methodology
At Sell Beyond, we have developed a methodology built precisely for this type of ecosystem thinking. Our approach centres on making sure Amazon works for individual businesses, developing and upskilling teams, and creating frameworks with multiple touchpoints to increase customers, revenue and profitability. The result is a system where brands grow not by luck or legacy, but by design.
Our track record shows just how powerful this approach can be. We have helped category incumbents regain lost share, enabled challenger brands to scale from obscurity to national retail listings, and delivered sustained triple-digit growth for FMCG clients across snacks, wellness, household and baby categories. Their success isn’t rooted in shortcuts or hacks but in building the exact Amazon capability stack most FMCG brands wish they had in-house: data-led decision making, intelligent experimentation, and creative that converts at every stage of the shopper journey. In a landscape where the Amazon aisle has become the most competitive battleground in FMCG, we can demonstrate what armed, disciplined, and strategically rigorous participation really looks like – and the competitive advantage it can unlock.
Being online is not enough. There is a dangerous misconception that FMCG success on Amazon is achieved by simply being present. But Amazon doesn’t reward presence. It rewards excellence. Brands need to recognise Amazon is a new battlefield and not stroll into it with the equivalent of a cardboard sword.
Dr Heloise Finch is the founder and CEO of Sell Beyond
