Field notes
Insights
Operator notes on AI transformation, Amazon vendor economics, and eCommerce monetization, written from P&L experience, not press releases.
AI Transformation
0110 min
What Is AI Governance? An Operator's Guide
AI governance is a set of decisions, not a document: a register of AI in use, a policy with owners, gates, and a rule for who enforces each one.
028 min
Why AI Adoption Stalls: Six Obstacles
Six obstacles stall AI adoption and only one is mainly technical. A practitioner checklist, tested in a client readiness assessment, and where to start.
0310 min
Why Human Judgment Still Matters in AI Work
AI made producing answers cheap, so the value moved to checking them. Three jobs stay with people: framing the work, verifying it, owning the result.
0410 min
What Is an Agentic Workflow? Harness First
An agentic workflow lets the model pick the next step. Here is the definition, the three components to build on day one, and what the evidence shows.
057 min
Human in the Loop AI: Verify, Not Approve
Most human-in-the-loop AI advice describes approval. The gate that holds is verification: compare the output to a reference, cheaply, every single time.
066 min
Agentic Workflows: When Not to Use Them
When agentic workflows pay off, when a script or a single prompt is the better tool, and the five-question test operators run before building an agent.
076 min
Why AI Pilots Fail at Mid-Market Companies
Many mid-market AI pilots die in the gap between demo and daily work. A post-mortem pattern from the field, and the checklist that prevents it.
eCommerce Strategy
0110 min
Is Your Detail Page Ready for Black Friday?
By mid-October an Amazon detail page is a checking job: A+ and Brand Store review times, suppressed listings, Buy Box price risks and what to freeze now.
0213 min
Peak Amazon Ads: Budget, Bids and Pacing
Peak Amazon ads are decided before the event: the ACOS ceiling that governs the budget, Amazon's creative lead times, and what is still tunable in-event.
0311 min
Amazon Peak Deals: How Deep to Discount
The Black Friday deal deadline, what a peak deal costs in fees, and why the discount you take now sets the price your next deal has to beat.
0412 min
Peak Inventory: September's Last Fixes
Ocean sourcing for Black Friday is already late. The three inventory decisions still open in mid-September: allocation, air freight, and forecast honesty.
Amazon Vendor Economics
019 min
Peak Week WBR: Which Five Fires to Fight
How to run an Amazon weekly business review through peak: the deadlines left, inputs-first metrics, morning checks, and choosing the five fires to fight.
0213 min
October Prime Day Lessons for Black Friday
Prime Big Deal Days showed whether your stock held and your deals paid, and why October's deal price does not set your Black Friday bar. What to fix now.
0311 min
Peak PO Discipline for Amazon 1P Vendors
Amazon's forecast is not a purchase commitment. What Down Confirmed, Not Filled, Overage and Not on Time cost at peak, and the free window to reduce a PO.
046 min
Amazon Compliance Chargeback Codes, Mapped
The main Amazon vendor compliance chargeback categories, their triggers and fees, the 2025-2026 restructures, and what evidence helps dispute each code.
056 min
Amazon Co-op Deductions (Contra-COGS) Guide
What Amazon co-op deductions are, where they sit in contra-COGS, how the accruals work, the defects that overbill vendors, and how recovery happens.
066 min
Vendor Central vs Seller Central (1P vs 3P)
The real differences between Amazon 1P and 3P: margins, payment terms, control, and how to decide which model (or hybrid) fits your brand in 2026.
074 min
How to Sell to Amazon Directly (1P)
What selling directly to Amazon means, how Vendor Central invitations really happen, who qualifies in 2026, and whether you should accept one.
084 min
Is That Amazon Chargeback Alert Real?
How to tell a real Amazon chargeback notification from a phishing scam, where legitimate 1P chargebacks actually appear, and what to do about each.
097 min
What an Amazon Vendor Manager Actually Does
The Vendor Manager role from the inside: what VMs control, what they're judged on, and how 1P brands should work with them at AVN and beyond.
107 min
How to Dispute Amazon Shortage Claims (2026)
Amazon short-paying invoices? The 2026 shortage claim dispute process: the 35-day matching block, signed BOL evidence, the 2-year window, and settlements.
118 min
What Are Amazon Vendor Central Deductions?
What Amazon vendor deductions are, the five types, how to measure what they cost you, and which are recoverable, with dispute windows and evidence to keep.
126 min
SupplyPike or Carbon6 for 1P? One Owner Now
SupplyPike, Carbon6, and ChargeGuard all sit under SPS Commerce now. What that means for Amazon 1P vendors comparing deduction-recovery options.
The fastest way to get our thinking on your specific P&L is a working session, or start with the Margin Recovery Audit if you run a Vendor Central P&L. Unfamiliar terms are defined in the glossary.