In today’s connected commerce landscape, brands need to be just as active off Amazon to help drive growth on the e-commerce platform.
At WWD’s L.A. Beauty Forum, Christopher Skinner, chief revenue officer of Front Row, gave an introductory keynote speech, followed by Alexandra Carmody, senior vice president of commercial operations and Katelyn Winker, vice president of digital growth, both of Front Row, sharing how connected commerce and social media drive Amazon performance.
In 2024, one of the top five stock keeping units sold on Amazon was the Dyson Airwrap, Skinner shared. It was later replaced by Nutrafol for its hair growth system and being three out of five top-selling skus on Amazon, converging health, beauty and wellness. To Skinner, this is a sign that consumers are changing their shopping and engagement.
He also noted that Amazon and other marketplaces are continuing to capture the moment of conversion and have become a search discovery platform — but it’s not the beginning point of discoverability. The majority of the discovery happens before searching on Amazon.
“Digital flagships are becoming ever more prevalent, particularly with AI, because it’s authority building, but also the SEO foundation is what sets [brands] up for success with agentic search and agentic commerce,” Skinner said.
Skinner said that focusing on delivering quality content over mass volume is key to answering consumer questions and proving the concept.
From retail stores to pop-ups, Carmody said that where consumers engage with a brand’s products informs how they are searching for them.
“Physical retail, the search around AI and everything that’s shifting how consumers are being fed what they’re looking for, paired with social community and creator activations, is where the brand’s going to win in a marketplace like Amazon,” Carmody said. “If brands don’t have all of these pieces working off platform, it’s going to be very hard to build a brand in 2026 and grow at the levels that some of those Amazon native brands used to.”
Winker noted that social proof through content creators gives consumers the validation that they need when seeing branded content.
Front Row also looks at a variety of demographics to target — brands are looking to futureproof themselves to Gen Z while staying relevant to the mature Millennial mom. But as Winker said, the two groups have many cohorts within themselves. Millennials on the go need a quicker hook given their busy lifestyle, for example, while Gen Z are constantly scrolling on TikTok.
“Creators are not the only thing that is driving demand; TikTok search has become such an important tool for brands. They are using it for driving that discoverability for the first time,” Winker said. “They are going to use that as a discovery moment and then go directly to Amazon to search and be a warmer lead for our Amazon team to retarget them.”
