About this episode

Brett and Andrew discuss insights from a survey of 300 store owners about the current state of e-commerce, highlighting trends in AI adoption and Amazon's market position.

Andrew Youderian disappears into a cave for six weeks every year to crunch data from 300+ seven, eight, and nine-figure store owners — and comes back with the most honest read on the state of e-commerce you'll find anywhere. This year's survey has a few takeaways that sting: AI adoption hit 73% but produced zero measurable financial edge in 2025, Amazon has quietly slipped from growth engine to supplemental channel, and the single biggest profit lever isn't a tactic at all. Brett and Andrew dig into what the numbers actually say — and what operators should do about it before everyone else catches on. Inside the episode: Why Amazon's share of revenue has fallen back to 2017 levels even as more brands sell there — and the "build a brand, sell on Amazon second" shift behind it The 92% vs. 17% gap: how store owners really feel about selling DTC versus Amazon (and why the P&L explains it — 47% COGS vs. 58%) The AI gut-check: 73% of brands "meaningfully adopted" it, so Andrew pulled their actual sales data instead of asking for ROI — here's what he found The financial-mastery cliff: going from a 4-out-of-5 to a 5-out-of-5 on financial fluency jumps net margins from 9.7% to 14.3%…

People in this episode

Host: Brett Curry

Guest: Andrew Youderian

Topics covered

• e-commerce trends
• AI adoption
• Amazon market share
• profit margins
• financial fluency
• direct-to-consumer sales

Keywords

• e-commerce
• AI
• Amazon
• profit margins
• financial fluency
• DTC
• survey
• store owners

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Amazon, DTC, 3PL

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