# Don Brett

Don Brett shares practical analysis of eCommerce and retail for consumer-goods businesses, including marketplace strategy, digital growth, social commerce, and retail media. Brett also identifies with Pattern, The CPG View podcast, and the Retail eCommerce Club.

- Profile: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/creators/don-brett/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donbrett
- LinkedIn followers: 48,055
- Topics: artificial-intelligence, ecommerce, leadership, ai-adoption, social-commerce
- Based on 13 dated posts, latest 2026-10-08

## Summary

Don Brett is most useful for turning eCommerce and retail data into practical decisions for consumer-goods businesses.

- Best for: A marketplace services firm, retail media network, or eCommerce consultancy wanting analysis for retail and CPG practitioners.
- Not for: Consumer product launches needing creator-led demand, product demos, live selling, affiliate codes, or paid shopper placements.
- Check first: Confirm audience demographics and whether a sponsorship policy, rate card, or media kit exists.

### Takeaways

- Third-party Amazon sales grew faster across five categories, but food unit growth ran the other way.
- Track digital growth separately from a retailer's total growth before setting investment.
- Use social commerce to test demand and build a path to retail.

## Main ideas

- **Track digital growth separately from a retailer’s total growth**: Brett argues that a retailer’s overall sales can hide much faster growth online. They don’t frame this as stores becoming irrelevant; instead, they say brands should compare where a retailer is growing with where they invest people, media and capabilities, then plan for each retailer individually.
- **Choose an Amazon operating model by category, not by slogan**: Brett treats Amazon’s first-party retail and third-party marketplace as options with different economics, not as a one-size-fits-all choice. Faster sales growth alone doesn’t show which model is more profitable or whether customers are buying more units. They recommend examining category, volume, price and mix alongside margin, inventory and control.
- **Judge Amazon grocery by the behavior it can create beyond grocery**: Brett argues that grocery can matter to Amazon and its brand partners because frequent purchases may deepen engagement, generate customer insight and create opportunities in other categories—not just because grocery sales are rising. They suggest asking what a change in one category could mean for the wider shopping relationship.
- **Use social commerce to test demand and build a path to retail**: Brett presents TikTok Shop as more than a sales channel: brands can use creators to explain products, make buying easy and learn quickly, then carry signs of demand into retail conversations. They recommend a distinct TikTok approach rather than simply reusing another channel’s campaign.
- **Build AI advantage through faster organizational learning**: Brett argues that AI adoption is about improving decisions and sharing lessons, not accumulating tools. They emphasize applying what works across a portfolio, treating unsuccessful pilots as useful information and linking experiments to commerce execution.
- **Make executive publishing useful, not just frequent**: Brett says a point of view and shared learning matter more than posting for its own sake or chasing follower numbers. They describe the purpose of publishing as educating, encouraging and empowering, with community and career enrichment among its stated values.

## Work to read

- [Retail is growing; eCommerce within it is growing about four times faster](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/donbrett_ecommerce-digital-omnichannel-activity-7513908955497013248-wFYe)
- [Amazon as retailer or marketplace: the answer varies by category](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/donbrett_ecommerce-digital-omnichannel-activity-7512934714505228288-f7eK)
- [Why Amazon’s grocery push matters beyond groceries](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/donbrett_ecommerce-digital-omnichannel-activity-7513183829113675776-jQY_)
- [TikTok Shop’s first half of 2026: how emerging brands turned attention into shelf space](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/donbrett_ecommerce-digital-omnichannel-activity-7513546169210294273-74uG)
- [AI advantage comes from learning speed, not tool count](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/donbrett_ecommerce-digital-omnichannel-activity-7513267047406022657-nNP-)
- [How Don Brett describes their channel and its purpose](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/donbrett_ecommerce-digital-omnichannel-activity-7513679536576864260-SIBM)

## Brand relationships

- **Pattern** (employment)
- **NielsenIQ** (mention)
- **The CPG View** (disclosed_partnership)
- **Retail eCommerce Club** (disclosed_partnership)
- **The Retail Media View** (disclosed_partnership)

## Partnerships

Across six LinkedIn posts dated 5–8 October 2026, Don Brett does not publish a sponsorship policy, rate card, media kit, or stated partnership format. Each post points readers toward the same channels: Pattern (described as a global eCommerce accelerator), The CPG View podcast, the Retail eCommerce Club community, and The Retail Media View newsletter, followed by a newsletter sign-up link. These are Brett’s own or employer-affiliated properties, not a documented creator-sponsorship offering. The posts show no disclosed paid brand collaborations, sponsorship specifications, or dedicated partnership inquiry page. Buyers would need to ask directly about commercial terms, deliverables, and operational requirements.

## Alternatives

- Guru Hariharan: Choose Guru Hariharan when the buyer task is AI readiness rather than retail-media allocation: deciding whether a brand's product data and content are strong enough for AI-driven ad formats, or assessing AI governance and liability exposure before scaling adoption. One post walks through Amazon's AI ad layer, where a shopper's conversational prompt is answered from product attributes, bullet points and reviews, and cites Amazon's disclosed figures of 48% higher conversion and 21% larger baskets for shoppers who interact with Sponsored Prompts. Its practical argument is narrow and testable: if content is thin or stale, the conversion lift goes to a competitor. The second post supports assessing AI governance and liability exposure before scaling adoption, listing adoption failures with numbers (85% of AI projects never reach production, 47% of enterprise AI users making major decisions on hallucinated content) and tying them to who pays when an algorithm errs at scale. That combination fits a consultancy advising clients on content operations, AEO/AI visibility, or AI risk transfer better than a firm that needs retailer-level growth analysis.
- Vincenzo Toscano: Choose Vincenzo Toscano when the need is European marketplace expansion, peak-season advertising planning, or an in-person format with an agency team delivering the work. Both posts centre on live events in London: an Amazon EU Accelerate meetup attended by brands, vendors and operators, and a keynote at the Amazon Ads EU Business Accelerator. The Q4 post gives four tactical messages clients can act on: stop treating Q4 advertising as extra spend; use Amazon Marketing Cloud and DSP to see who is buying rather than who is clicking; build audiences before peak so cost-per-click spikes do not eat margin; and keep retargeting into January because the sales cycle does not end on Black Friday. The second post covers multi-country expansion across Europe and the US, AI moving into advertising and operations, fulfilment changes such as FBA Select and AWD, and lessons from smaller brands entering retail. It also demonstrates event and speaking capability, including a sponsor role and a recorded podcast interview.
- Christopher Dorsey: Choose Christopher Dorsey when the buyer task is the commercial argument underneath retail media: who actually pays for it, and what a brand should do about that in a retailer negotiation. The post on Costco Wholesale contrasts a $93.9 billion quarter and $5.9 billion in membership fees, collected from 84 million members, with Walmart's advertising growth of almost 50% and a CFO statement that ads plus membership are nearly a third of operating income. It also cites Kroger's advertising arm growing profit 24% in a quarter when it cut sales guidance. The practical point for a brand is that Costco's joint business plan has no media line—you pay in price, pack size and velocity—while other retailers want a slice of the marketing budget. The second post covers Microsoft's Agent 365 release and argues that an IT governance dashboard turns unmanaged AI agents from a productivity win into a flagged risk, offering a sharp read on enterprise AI buying for anyone selling or briefing on AI tooling.

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AI-assisted summary of public posts. Audience demographics are not available. Engagement appears only where we checked recent posts. Method: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/methodology/