Josh Shaw

They compete for the buy box, undercutting one another until a seller runs out of stock and the price snaps back up.

• Supply-chain leakage can add another seller, leaving the brand with little control.
• Shaw says selling business-to-business is easier than running Amazon directly, but leaves real margin on the table.
• Instead, brands can send the same pallet to an Amazon fulfilment centre to capture retail margin and organic demand before adding ads.
• They predict more brands will leave the distributor model and take control of their own D2C by 2027.

A listing with three or four authorised distributors, each undercutting the others for the buy box until stock runs out and the price rebounds.

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They share an M&A specialist’s checklist of what buyers scrutinise before acquiring a brand: account health, where one unresolved complaint reads as existential risk; transferability, because accounts are not casually assignable; concentration, where one hero ASIN at 80% of revenue is a discount rather than a strength; organic versus paid, because rank you built is worth more than rank you are renting; and supply chain, because a supplier free to sell the same SKU to a competitor leaves no moat.

• Shaw sums it up: 'Revenue tells the story.
• Profit sets the price.
• Risk sets the discount.'

A single hero ASIN generating 80% of revenue is treated by buyers as a discount, not a strength.

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A tour last winter changed how they understand what happens once pallets and stock go in.

• Logistics and fulfilment are the topics clients ask about most, so Shaw booked a tour for the team.
• What stood out was not the impressive technology but how people-focused the operation remains.
• Tours are free; Shaw invites people to ask about booking one.

After seeing how many client questions centred on logistics and fulfilment, Shaw booked a fulfilment centre tour for the team.

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They point to Boots UK stocking brands trending on social, calling it good for Boots and its customers—and especially valuable for small challenger brands’ marketing and awareness.

• One example is SULT, with a sachet featured on the Boots website.
• Shaw’s point is that ecommerce growth can directly affect physical retail.

Boots UK stocking SULT, a brand Shaw says is trending on social and selling through Amazon and TikTok Shop.

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They say The Launchworks was co-founded with Max after almost ten years of combined Amazon selling experience. Shaw calls the agency boutique and says it helps brands build and grow on Amazon 'without the fluff.' The content shares the good, the bad and the ugly of selling on Amazon, including the frustrating problems brands face, and invites readers to suggest topics.

The reintroduction post names the audience—niche challenger brands—and says the agency avoids fluff.

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It gives newcomers a clear frame for the rest of their work.

Josh Shaw introduces themselves as an Amazon brand specialist and says they co-founded The Launchworks with Max after close to ten years between them selling on Amazon.

• They describe the agency as boutique and focused on niche challenger brands, explicitly “without the fluff,” and say the content they publish covers the good, the bad and the ugly of selling on Amazon, including problems brands run into.
• The post is a self-description, not a case study, so it establishes positioning and the kind of brand they want to work with rather than proving results.

For brands planning a campaign

A useful early filter when deciding whether to approach them: they focus on challenger brands on Amazon, not general ecommerce or retail consulting. An Amazon channel-building brief will land better than a broad digital marketing request.

The post answers “why are several sellers undercutting my listing, and what is the alternative?” with a specific mechanism and recommendation.

Shaw describes a common pattern among established brands: the brand looks healthy, but three or four authorised distributors are reselling on Amazon.

• They undercut one another until a seller runs out of stock and the price snaps back up.
• A supply-chain leak can add another seller the brand cannot control.
• Shaw says the appeal is understandable—selling business-to-business is easier than running Amazon directly—but argues that it leaves margin on the table.
• Sending the same pallet to an Amazon fulfilment centre instead lets the brand capture retail margin and organic demand before adding advertising.
• They predict that more brands will move away from the distributor model and take control of their own direct-to-consumer business.

For brands planning a campaign

Directly relevant to a distributor-conflict brief: the post diagnoses why brands get stuck and proposes an alternative route. It is a point of view and a forecast, not a documented client result; test the agency’s argument in conversation rather than treating it as verified performance data.

The post answers “what would a buyer of my Amazon brand actually look at?” in a structured way.

Shaw says Amazon conversations usually focus on optimisation, not preparing for a sale, then shares what an M&A specialist in the Amazon space says buyers examine before acquiring a brand.

• The five points are account health, where one unresolved complaint signals existential risk rather than a bargaining chip; transferability, because accounts are not casually assignable and most sellers do not think about it until a deal is underway; concentration, where a single hero ASIN at 80% of revenue is treated as a discount rather than a strength; organic versus paid, where organically built rank is worth more than rented rank; and supply chain, where a supplier free to sell the same product to a competitor next week means there is no moat.
• Shaw sums it up: revenue tells the story, profit sets the price and risk sets the discount.
• They also offer introductions to people who can help with a valuation.

For brands planning a campaign

This is the clearest signal that Shaw’s advice reaches beyond day-to-day channel management to exit preparation, account structure and concentration risk.

• A brand aiming for a future sale could raise transferability and concentration early in a scoping conversation.
• Ask for the underlying conversation with the M&A specialist: it does not appear in the posts, and the five points are Shaw’s summary.

It answers “do they actually deal with logistics and fulfilment, or only marketing?” with a concrete example.

Shaw calls touring a fulfilment centre non-negotiable for anyone shipping serious volume into Amazon.

• Touring one last winter changed how they understand what happens after pallets and stock arrive.
• Since clients ask the team most about logistics and fulfilment, they booked a tour.
• What surprised Shaw most was not the technology, which they call genuinely impressive, but how people-focused the operation remained.
• They offer to explain how to book a tour and note that it is free.

For brands planning a campaign

A low-cost, concrete action a brand can take before scaling shipments, and a sign that Shaw treats logistics as part of the job rather than a third-party concern.

The post answers “what does success on Amazon open up beyond Amazon?”

Shaw highlights Boots UK stocking brands trending on social, calling it good for Boots and its customers but especially valuable for small challenger brands seeking awareness and marketing.

• They name Amazon and TikTok Shop as core drivers of retail opportunities and point to SULT as an example, noting a sachet visible on the Boots website.
• Their closing point: ecommerce growth can directly affect physical retail.

For brands planning a campaign

Supports the case that Amazon can lead to broader retail distribution, not just serve as a sales channel.

• That matters when a brand weighs marketplace investment against other retail approaches.
• The post is an observation about a retailer and a named brand, not an outcome from Shaw’s client work.

They acknowledge the appeal — selling B2B is easier than running Amazon yourself — but argue it leaves real margin on the table.

• The same pallet could go into an Amazon fulfilment centre to capture retail margin and organic demand before ads are layered on top.
• They predict more brands will move away from the distributor model and take control of their own D2C, naming 2027 as the horizon.

Starts with channel structure, then compares two routes — distributor resale versus fulfilment-centre/D2C — on margin, control and scalability, not volume.

For brands planning a campaign

For a consumer brand scaling its Amazon channel, this offers a ready-made strategy: audit the number of authorised sellers on the listing, map buy-box and pricing behaviour, then build a plan to consolidate the channel around owned inventory and retail-margin capture before adding paid media.

Examples: Source 1

The five checks: account health, where a single unresolved complaint signals existential risk rather than a haggling point; transferability, since accounts are not casually assignable and most sellers have never had to consider it; concentration, where one hero ASIN at 80% of revenue is a discount rather than a strength; organic versus paid, because rank you built is worth more than rank you are renting; and supply chain, since a supplier free to sell the same SKU to a competitor means no moat.

• They close with "Revenue tells the story.
• Profit sets the price.
• Risk sets the discount," and offer to make introductions for a valuation.

A specialist interview distilled into five due-diligence checks, with an offer to connect sellers to valuation and the right buyers.

For brands planning a campaign

For a brand or founder weighing an exit, this is a concrete pre-sale audit: test account health, transferability, ASIN concentration, organic rank and supplier exclusivity before going to market. Treat each unresolved risk factor as a price discount, not a negotiating position.

Examples: Source 1

A tour the previous winter changed their understanding of the operation once pallets and stock go in.

• Logistics and fulfilment are the areas where clients have the most questions, so they booked a tour for the team.
• What stood out was less the technology — impressive as it is — than how people-focused the operation remains.
• Tours are free, and Shaw invites people to reach out about booking one.

A firsthand site visit as the basis for understanding, repeated for the team so the whole agency shares the same operational view.

For brands planning a campaign

For a brand scaling its Amazon channel, use this to prompt a site visit or equivalent walkthrough of the inbound path. Clients question this area most, and a shared operational picture can inform inventory, packaging and inbound decisions.

Examples: Source 1

In their framing, Amazon and TikTok Shop are the core drivers behind those retail opportunities, with SULT as an example.

This is an observation about a trend, not a documented campaign result — the retail benefit is asserted, and the post supplies no sales or distribution data to support it.

For brands planning a campaign

For a challenger brand, treat marketplace and social momentum as leverage in retail buyer conversations, not just as D2C revenue. A brief can sequence TikTok Shop and Amazon traction to support pitches to legacy retailers.

Examples: Source 1

They say The Launchworks was co-founded with Max after almost ten years of combined Amazon selling experience. Shaw calls the agency boutique, focused on helping brands build and grow on the platform "without the fluff," and says the content will cover the good, the bad and the ugly of selling on Amazon — what works incredibly well and the frustrating problems brands face — while inviting followers to request topics.

States the audience and agency model publicly, while inviting readers to request topics.

For brands planning a campaign

For a brand seeking candid operational input rather than a polished pitch, this is the working relationship on offer: a small agency focused on challenger brands. Test whether that approach matches the brand's stage and appetite for hands-on Amazon work.

Examples: Source 1

The material draws on firsthand experience (a site visit) or a directly sourced conversation (the M&A specialist), rather than generic platform advice.

For brands planning a campaign

Expect practical, example-led commentary a brand can act on, and specialised questions routed to named contacts rather than a claim to cover everything in-house.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3 · Source 4 · Source 5

They describe it as a boutique Amazon agency focused on helping brands build and grow their presence on Amazon, and say they use posts to share what works and what frustrates brands on the platform.

View example

Both explain what happens underneath a healthy-looking sales dashboard.

Kacinski's material focuses on brand protection and unauthorised-seller removal, with named case figures for large health, wellness and household brands and an emphasis on monitoring several marketplaces as one connected market. Shaw focuses on channel structure and margins for smaller challenger brands, covering distributor models, exit due diligence and the case for owning the Amazon channel rather than policing it.

Read original · Original 2 · Original 3 · Original 4

Both write for sellers who run their own accounts rather than for agencies.

Tariq works inside paid search and seasonal planning, explaining Amazon PPC campaign structures and the Q4 fee and deadline calendar with worked numbers.

• Shaw works one level up, examining who controls the listing, who sets the price and whether the business can be sold.
• They treat advertising as something to layer on after the channel structure is fixed.

Read original · Original 2 · Original 3 · Original 4

Ali focuses on account health, compliance and inventory mechanics, such as the documentation Amazon expects for distributor-sourced stock and how to clear meltable inventory without paying removal fees. Shaw focuses on commercial structure, covering distributor models, buy-box control and D2C transition rather than how to survive a review.

Read original · Original 2 · Original 3 · Original 4

The posts map the same buyer task Shaw addresses — scaling an Amazon channel without losing control — from the enforcement and visibility side.

• Laurie Kacinski describes five underlying signals: unauthorized sellers, pricing violations, Buy Box loss, inventory diversion, and listing changes.
• One example names a global health and wellness brand with 3,395 unauthorized sellers; another says third-party offers for a household goods brand on Walmart averaged 41% below the brand's everyday price.
• The same post reports 72% of unauthorized sellers removed and 1P sales up 65% for the health brand, and 77% of sellers and 78% of listings gone within a year for the household goods brand.
• A second post explains that Amazon's new multichannel selling tools make cross-channel spread faster: an unauthorized seller on Amazon can appear on Walmart faster, one low price can spread across channels in hours, and diverted inventory has more places to land.
• Choose Laurie Kacinski when the immediate need is a documented system for seeing who is selling the product, where the inventory came from, and which sellers truly represent the brand — especially across Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Shopify, and TikTok Shop at once.

The tradeoff is a narrower emphasis.

• The posts focus on enforcement, monitoring, pricing control, and multichannel visibility, but do not set out the distributor-model decision or a path from distributor resale to an owned direct-to-consumer channel.
• A brand using Laurie Kacinski may get better control of leaks and Buy Box loss without Shaw's channel-model comparison or exit-readiness lens.
• Ask for audience size, engagement, and commercial terms before assessing reach or sponsorship fit.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

Shaw's posts focus on channel structure, distributor conflict, and moving toward direct-to-consumer control; Muiz Tariq's address how a brand wins and protects demand once it is selling.

• The PPC post lists five campaign structures top spenders use: single-keyword exact-match campaigns as a ranking engine, ASIN targeting on keyword rankers, stealth targeted product placement using the brand's own ASIN, brand defense on branded terms, and Sponsored Brands video pointed at the ranking keywords.
• It cites one Amazon PPC campaign reported at 5.1% ACoS and Amazon advertising revenue of $19.8 billion in Q2 2026, up 26% year on year.
• The Q4 post gives a specific 2026 Amazon calendar: Prime Big Deal Days on October 6 and 7, peak fulfilment fees from October 15, Black Friday deal submissions closing October 20, and FBA stock arriving by October 28.
• It also runs the math on a $40 product with a 20% Black Friday discount: profit per unit down 39%, requiring 1.65 times the units to stand still.
• Choose Muiz Tariq when ad structure, branded defense, and the cost of Q4 promotions are the main constraints on scaling the Amazon channel.

The tradeoff is that the posts do not cover distributor undercutting, supply-chain leakage, Buy Box control through seller enforcement, or a distributor-to-owned-channel transition.

• A brand that buys Muiz Tariq's advertising approach may still need a separate plan for who is allowed to sell the product and how margin is protected across resellers.
• The Q4 playbook is offered through a comment or message; ask for the full contents before relying on it.
• Ask for audience, engagement, and commercial-availability details as well.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

The reviewed account-health post explains that Amazon removed the account health interview and now requires documents only, raising the bar for proving a clean supply chain.

• For distributor-sourced inventory, the post lists a document chain: brand-to-distributor letter of authorisation, distributor-to-seller letter of authorisation, warehouse agreement and invoices, distributor-to-prep-warehouse tracking or bill of lading, and prep-warehouse-to-Amazon signed bill of lading.
• It notes that there is no universal document checklist and that what saves one account may mean very little for another.
• The meltable inventory post covers a different risk: Amazon moved meltable inventory into standard inventory status and now requires removal orders, leaving sellers facing removal fees, warehouse storage, and shipping label costs.
• The proposed workaround is to create an FBM offer on the same ASIN and fulfil with Amazon MCF, which the post says is often cheaper than removal fees, storage, and return shipping combined.
• Choose Osaf Ali when the brand is dealing with suspension risk, a supply-chain document request, or stranded meltable inventory that must be cleared before the channel can grow.

The tradeoff is a tight operational and compliance focus.

• The posts do not lay out a full channel strategy, a distributor-versus-owned-channel comparison, a Buy Box enforcement system, or an advertising plan.
• A brand using Osaf Ali may resolve an urgent account or inventory problem without getting the broader channel-control and D2C transition plan.
• The two posts include no case studies or measured outcomes; ask for these, along with audience data and commercial terms, before making a decision.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2