Scott Needham is the Founder and CEO of SmartScout, an Amazon FBA product research software. He is also the former CEO of BuyBoxer, which he built into a top 100 Amazon seller, managing over 120,000 products. Scott hosts the Smartest Amazon Seller podcast, which shares insights on navigating the Amazon marketplace.

As global tariffs shift and economic uncertainty looms, brands are under pressure to make informed pricing decisions and maintain margins. Many rely solely on internal data for scenario planning, making it difficult to benchmark against the broader market. Without visibility into industry-wide pricing trends, how can businesses decide whether to raise prices or maintain their threshold?

After monitoring price movements across product categories, pricing and market intelligence expert Scott Needham noticed that only 3% of products available on Amazon experienced price increases during the initial tariff period. He emphasizes that brands need external market visibility to justify pricing structures internally. Additionally, brands can leverage TikTok Shop and influencer-led strategies as growth engines, especially in fast-moving categories like groceries and supplements.

Join Aaron Conant in The Digital Deep Dive as he hosts Scott Needham, Founder and CEO of SmartScout, to discuss pricing strategies and market trends in a shifting eCommerce landscape. Scott shares how brands can use data to avoid reactionary pricing, Prime Day discounting strategies, and the future role of AI shopping assistants.

Max Sinclair is the Founder and CEO of Azoma (formerly Ecomtent), which generates AI-powered product content across eCommerce sites. Before founding Azoma, he spent six years at Amazon, where he launched Amazon Business in the UK, Amazon.sg in Singapore, and Amazon Grocery across the EU. Max is also the host of New Frontier: The AI for ecommerce podcast.

Traditional search engines are losing their dominance as consumers turn to AI-powered tools for product discovery. This shift challenges eCommerce brands to stay visible in a digital landscape driven by conversational interfaces and personalized recommendations. How can businesses optimize their online presence when search requires context, intent, and interaction?

AI-driven search optimization expert Max Sinclair maintains that brands can remain competitive by aligning their content strategies with the mechanics of large language models. Appearing in AI search results involves more than traditional SEO; it requires crafting semantically rich content that aligns with customer personas, goals, and use cases. Max emphasizes the importance of visual elements, customer sentiment, and AI’s multimodal capabilities, allowing brands to improve visibility and relevance on emerging platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Amazon’s Rufus.

Tune in to this episode of The Digital Deep Dive as Aaron Conant hosts Max Sinclair, Founder and CEO of Azoma, to discuss the evolution of product search in the age of generative AI. Max talks about the rise of conversational and voice-based search, how direct checkout integrations could disrupt traditional online marketplaces, and his predictions for AI shopping assistants.

Justin Ruiss is the SVP of the Media Sector at BWG Global, a knowledge-sharing network hosting in-person and virtual industry events. In his role, he hosts Q&A forums with executives from various sectors, including social media, advertising, connected TV, streaming, and gaming. Before joining BWG Global, Justin was the Investor Relations Activations Developer at Cision and an Equity Analyst at The Benchmark Company.

Retail media, CTV advertising, and AI-powered search are evolving faster than many brands can adapt. Marketers are grappling with fragmented content strategies, fluctuating CPMs, and uncertainty around how to allocate budgets effectively across platforms. With performance expectations rising and consumer behaviors shifting, how can brands stay competitive without overspending?

According to media and eCommerce analyst Justin Ruiss, now is an ideal time to invest in CTV due to oversupply, lower CPMs, and advanced targeting capabilities. He recommends increasing production budgets to create modular, high-quality content that can be repurposed across channels like TikTok, Amazon, and streaming platforms. Brands can also adopt centralized content planning and leverage tools like Amazon Marketing Cloud to drive enhanced targeting and performance while planning for economic volatility and regulatory changes.

In this episode of TheDigital Deep Dive, Aaron Conant interviews Justin Ruiss, SVP of the Media Sector at BWG Global, about the future of digital media buying and AI in eCommerce. Justin explores CTV trends, the rise of agentic AI, and how brand guidelines shape content in gaming environments.