Questions CMOs and E-Commerce Leaders Should Ask an Amazon Agency
October 9, 2026
The best agency-selection questions reveal how the team thinks when goals conflict, data is incomplete, inventory is constrained, or results are under pressure. CMOs and e-commerce leaders should test the proposed people, scope, decision process, financial judgment, measurement, transparency, and transition plan—not simply request a capabilities presentation.
Strategy and fit
What types of brands are—and are not—a strong fit for your model?
How would you diagnose our business before recommending priorities?
How do you balance revenue growth, margin, market share, and brand equity?
How do your recommendations differ for challenger, established, and enterprise brands?
What would make you advise us not to increase Amazon investment?
The team
Who will lead our account after the sales process?
Which responsibilities are handled by senior leaders, account managers, specialists, contractors, or offshore resources?
How many accounts does each proposed team member support?
What happens when a key team member leaves or is unavailable?
How often will our executives interact with your senior leadership?
Operations and retail readiness
How do you manage catalog issues, suppressions, cases, variations, account health, and Brand Registry concerns?
What is your experience with Seller Central, Vendor Central, and hybrid models?
How do inventory, price, reviews, content, and fulfillment affect your advertising decisions?
Which operational responsibilities remain with our team?
How do you prioritize urgent issues against planned work?
Content and conversion
How do you combine search-term opportunity with accurate product claims and brand standards?
Who creates copy, images, video, A+ Content, and Stores?
How do you validate fitment, regulatory, legal, or category-specific information?
What is your testing process, and how do results influence future content?
Who owns final assets and source files?
Advertising and retail media
Who makes campaign changes, and how frequently?
Which decisions are automated, which are manual, and what oversight is applied?
How do you use Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, and DSP?
How do you distinguish attributed sales from incremental impact?
How do you respond when ROAS improves but total sales or organic rank weakens?
How do you prevent advertising from accelerating stockouts or low-margin sales?
Profitability and measurement
What cost inputs do you require to evaluate profitability?
Which KPIs appear in executive reporting versus operator reporting?
How do you measure total advertising cost of sales, contribution margin, promotions, returns, and fees?
Can we see a sample dashboard and business review?
How do you explain a missed target and revise the plan?
Amazon and Walmart coordination
Do the same people work across Amazon and Walmart?
How do you coordinate assortment, pricing, content, promotions, inventory, and media across platforms?
What Walmart responsibilities can you own directly?
How do you prevent a successful tactic on one marketplace from creating channel conflict elsewhere?
Governance, access, and transition
What will happen in the first 30, 60, and 90 days?
What meeting cadence, action tracker, and escalation process do you use?
How are account access and credentials secured?
What data, campaigns, content, and documentation do we retain if the relationship ends?
What is your offboarding and knowledge-transfer process?
Commercial terms
What is included, excluded, or billed separately?
Are fees fixed, performance-based, media-based, project-based, or blended?
Which technology and creative costs are additional?
What assumptions could change the fee?
What contract length, termination rights, conflicts, and service levels apply?
How to score the answers
Score specificity, relevance, commercial judgment, transparency, and evidence. Strong answers acknowledge constraints, explain tradeoffs, and identify information needed before promising an outcome. Weak answers default to generic best practices, guarantees, vanity metrics, or capabilities that are not reflected in the proposed delivery team.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions should we ask in the first meeting?
Select the 10 to 15 most relevant questions, then use the full list during diligence.
Should we send questions in advance?
Yes for complex operational, security, and commercial topics. Spontaneous follow-ups can still test depth.
What is the most important question?
Ask who will actually perform the work and then have those people explain how they would diagnose your specific business.
How Gold Compass Commerce can help
Bring your hardest marketplace question to Gold Compass. You will meet with senior leaders who understand both the executive decision and the operational work required to act on it.