# Víctor Lozano — Compound Commerce

> Commerce strategist writing about Amazon EU strategy, connected commerce, and AI-driven product discovery. Based in Europe, building Amazon inside global beauty (L'Oréal DACH). New essays in the newsletter.

## About

- [About Víctor Lozano](https://vlozano.com/about): Background, expertise, and career as a commerce operator. Senior Amazon KAM & Team Lead at L'Oréal Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Commerce strategist at the intersection of big CPG, Amazon, and connected commerce.

## Newsletter

- [Compound Commerce](https://vlozano.com/newsletter): Free newsletter on Amazon EU strategy, connected commerce, and the AI Shelf. Written for operators inside big CPG and the agencies that serve them.

## Essays

- [Your Amazon P&L is lying to you (how CPG reporting hides margin erosion)](https://vlozano.com/essays/your-amazon-pnl-is-lying-to-you): Most large CPG brands report Amazon as a growth channel because they look at gross invoiced revenue and gross margin. Trade compression, AVS, S&S, compliance chargebacks, and retail media sit in six different cost centers and never roll up. Once fully loaded, a 45 percent gross margin channel often becomes a low single-digit net contribution — and one bad AVN cycle from negative.
- [Protecting DTC from Amazon destroys both](https://vlozano.com/essays/protecting-dtc-from-amazon-destroys-both): The CFO instinct to defend DTC margins by under-investing in Amazon reliably makes both channels worse. Fully loaded, DTC contribution lands around 21%; Amazon 3P FBA lands at 33%. Shoppers cross-check Amazon ratings before buying anywhere, so weak Amazon presence depresses DTC conversion every day. The brands growing Amazon fastest grow DTC fastest.
- [Rufus doesn't read your A+ content (it filters your attributes)](https://vlozano.com/essays/rufus-doesnt-read-your-a-plus-content): The asset stack consuming most CPG content budget on Amazon is invisible to the system now choosing what to recommend. Rufus runs a two-stage retrieval: structured backend attributes filter the eligible set first, then unstructured content is ranked. Why fixing it is a 2-year catalogue architecture project — and the five moves to ship before the JBP.
- [TikTok Shop Europe is a distribution channel (stop running it like a content one)](https://vlozano.com/essays/tiktok-shop-is-a-distribution-channel): Most brands routed TikTok Shop EU to their social media team because the asset is a video. The actual problem is the catalogue, the warehouse, the SLA, and the org chart — and the brands compounding on it have already moved past the social framing.
- [The wrong person owns Amazon EU at your company](https://vlozano.com/essays/wrong-person-owns-amazon-eu): Most CPG companies have an Amazon manager. Almost none have an Amazon owner. Why the org chart, the budget, and the career path quietly decide your Amazon EU result before the JBP starts.
- [Why CPG brands lose on Amazon EU (and it's not the channel's fault)](https://vlozano.com/essays/why-cpg-brands-lose-amazon-eu): The structural mismatch between how corporate CPG is organized and how Amazon actually requires decisions to be made — and what the brands that are compounding on it are doing differently.

## Pillar Resources

- [Amazon EU Strategy](https://vlozano.com/amazon-eu-strategy): The definitive framework for building Amazon EU as a compounding commercial system — org structure, JBP, retail media, AMC, multi-country complexity.
- [The AI Shelf](https://vlozano.com/ai-shelf): How AI-driven discovery (Rufus, ChatGPT Shopping, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) is restructuring how products get found and bought — and what brands need to do now.
- [Connected Commerce](https://vlozano.com/connected-commerce): The O+O (online + offline) commerce framework — how Amazon, TikTok Shop, DTC, and physical retail compound when treated as one system.

## Glossary

- [What is Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC)?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/amazon-marketing-cloud): AMC explained for commerce operators and brand strategists.
- [What is a JBP with Amazon?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/jbp-amazon): Joint Business Planning with Amazon — what it is, what it covers, and how the best brands use it.
- [What is Retail Media?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/retail-media): Retail media defined and explained for brand operators.
- [What is Amazon Rufus?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/amazon-rufus): Amazon's AI shopping assistant — what it is, how it works, and what it means for brands.
- [What is Vendor Central?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/vendor-central): Amazon's wholesale (1P) model — how it works, the margin risks most brands miss, and when it's the right structure.
- [What is Seller Central?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/seller-central): Amazon's marketplace (3P) model — pricing control, operational complexity, FBA, and when to go hybrid.
- [What is Amazon DSP?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/amazon-dsp): Amazon's demand-side platform for programmatic display and video advertising — and why it's the key to unlocking AMC.
- [What is A+ Content?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/a-plus-content): Amazon's enhanced listing format — what it does for conversion, and why AI assistants like Rufus can't see most of it.
- [What is Prime Day?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/prime-day): Amazon's annual shopping event that drives 35–45% of full-year category turnover in many CPG segments, and how to build promo strategy around it.
- [What are Sponsored Products?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/sponsored-products): Amazon's keyword-triggered CPC ads — the foundational retail media format, ACoS vs TACoS, and how to use campaign data as a demand signal.
- [What is Amazon Brand Registry?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/amazon-brand-registry): Amazon's gate for brand owners — what enrollment unlocks, what it costs, and why brands that delay it lose pricing, content, and ad inventory access.
- [What is an ASIN?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/asin-amazon): Amazon's product identifier and the most underestimated unit of strategy — parent, child, variation, and how the family architecture decides search visibility.
- [What is the Amazon Buy Box?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/amazon-buy-box): The Add to Cart button on every product page — and the single biggest revenue lever on Amazon. Over 80% of purchases flow through it.
- [ACoS vs TACoS — what's the difference?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/acos-vs-tacos): Campaign efficiency vs brand health, and why your JBP media commitment should be tracked against TACoS, not ACoS.
- [What is the New-to-Brand metric?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/new-to-brand-amazon): Amazon's measure of customer acquisition — the 365-day window, the seven NTB sub-metrics, and why it should anchor JBP media commitments.
- [What are Sponsored Brands?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/sponsored-brands): Amazon's banner ad format — logo, headline, three products, top of search. The brand-building lever inside a search-driven platform.
- [What is Sponsored Display?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/sponsored-display): Amazon's audience-targeted ad format that runs on and off Amazon — and the most under-deployed retail media lever in CPG.
- [What is Amazon Subscribe & Save?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/subscribe-and-save): Amazon's recurring delivery program — 5% per item, 15% with five subscriptions in one delivery. The closest thing to a DTC retention engine inside Amazon.
- [What is the Hybrid 1P+3P Amazon model?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/hybrid-1p-3p-amazon): Running Vendor Central and Seller Central in parallel — the dominant model for CPG brands at scale, and why hybrid is the new default.
- [What is Net Revenue Management on Amazon?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/nrm-amazon): The CPG profitability framework — pricing, promotion, assortment, distribution. Three of its assumptions break on Amazon. Here's what to rebuild.
- [What is the digital shelf?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/digital-shelf): Every place a shopper sees your product before buying — search, retailer apps, AI assistants. Share of digital shelf is replacing share-of-voice for commerce brands.
- [What are GEO and AEO?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/geo-and-aeo): Generative Engine Optimization and Answer Engine Optimization — the disciplines replacing SEO as AI assistants take over discovery, with the commerce-specific angle.
- [What is a CRaP Item on Amazon? (Can't Realize a Profit)](https://vlozano.com/glossary/crap-item-amazon): CRaP means Can't Realize a Profit: Amazon's label for SKUs that lose money to ship at the consumer price. How it works and how brands escape it.
- [What is Net PPM on Amazon? Vendor Profitability Explained](https://vlozano.com/glossary/net-ppm-amazon): Net PPM is Amazon's measure of how profitable a vendor's product is to Amazon. How it is built, the benchmarks brands cite, and why it drives suppression.
- [What are Amazon Vendor Chargebacks? Costs and Disputes](https://vlozano.com/glossary/amazon-chargebacks): Amazon chargebacks are deductions taken from vendor remittance for compliance failures. Typical cost, what triggers them, and how to dispute them.
- [What is Amazon Co op Funding? Vendor Allowances Explained](https://vlozano.com/glossary/amazon-co-op-funding): Co op funding is the vendor paid marketing allowance in Amazon terms, with MDF, accruals and damage allowances. How it works and what it really costs.
- [What is Amazon Brand Analytics? Reports Explained](https://vlozano.com/glossary/amazon-brand-analytics): Amazon Brand Analytics is the free report suite for brand owners: search terms, search query performance, market basket and repeat purchase data.
- [What is Share of Search on Amazon? How to Measure It](https://vlozano.com/glossary/share-of-search-amazon): Share of search measures how visible your brand is across the queries that define your category on Amazon. How to measure it and why it predicts share.
- [What is MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) on Amazon?](https://vlozano.com/glossary/map-minimum-advertised-price): MAP is the lowest price a retailer may advertise for your product. How it works on Amazon, why Amazon does not enforce it, and why the EU is different.
- [What is ROAS in Retail Media? Break Even Math for CPG](https://vlozano.com/glossary/roas-retail-media): ROAS is revenue divided by ad spend. Why a 5x ROAS can still lose money, how to calculate break even ROAS from net margin, and what to track instead.

## Optional

- [Full site text for LLMs](https://vlozano.com/llms-full.txt): Complete text of every essay, pillar page and glossary term in one file.
- [RSS feed](https://vlozano.com/feed.xml): Essay feed.
- [Newsletter](https://vlozano.com/newsletter): About Compound Commerce and how to subscribe.

## Contact

- Email: contacto@vlozano.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victorlozanocortes/

## Focus Areas

Amazon EU strategy, Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC), Joint Business Planning (JBP), retail media architecture, Amazon Vendor/Seller strategy, TikTok Shop Europe, DTC strategy, O+O connected commerce, AI Shelf (Amazon Rufus, ChatGPT Shopping, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews), CPG commerce, beauty industry, luxury e-commerce.