A note from our CEO

Hi everyone,

Happy February. 2026 has been no slouch in terms of action - we’re just getting fully thawed after a week of on-again-off-again freezes here in Austin. Fortunately (vs. 2021) I didn’t lose hot water for more than a couple hours :). 

Today we’re looking back on 2025 trends. This is not us predicting or picking favorites - this is hard data on what search terms actually spiked on Amazon over 2025 and the beginning of 2026. Some items will be unsurprising as they occupied news headlines, while others remind me of hearing about something at Expo West 5 years ago that might finally be having its moment. 

Speaking of Expo West - looking forward to seeing folks and catching up there. Reach out (you can reply to this email) if you’d like to say hello. Our team will be there walking the floors all week. 

And with that - 2025 in the words of Morgan Wallen: “🎵Last year we let the kava talk.🎶” Cheers to 2026.

Chris

Last Month’s Sales and Ad Spend Numbers

A Look Back at (Some of) 2025’s Amazon Trends

The Cartograph team collectively spends a lot of time monitoring the Amazon CPG space, which means we see most of the big trends come and go. As we head deeper into 2026, we wanted to take one last look back at 2025 to see which trends are holding strong in the new year and which ones are fading into the sunset.

1. Kava - A south-Asian herbal ingredient known as a “hangover-free” alternative to alcohol, kava started 2025 at a whisper in a niche corner of the Amazon landscape. But it was screaming at the top of its lungs by summer, and it shows no signs of slowing down. “Kava extract” joined the party around the holidays and immediately showed strong numbers; between “kava” and “kava extract,” search volume on Amazon has increased 423% year-over-year. Could this be the beverage industry’s answer to “sober curious” Gen Z? Time will tell.

2. Hydrogen Supplements (hydrogenized water, hydrogen water tablets, molecular hydrogen) - 2025 was an amazing year to be hydrogen. What used to be a niche wellness remedy is now popping up in CPG products like canned water and powdered supplements. There’s also a large variety of search terms contributing to hydrogen’s rise, which suggests that people are hearing about it from a variety of sources. Aggregating the 6 highest volume terms, hydrogen supplements catapulted from complete obscurity in 2024 to over 2.25 million searches per week in the second half of 2025. And based on current trends, it doesn’t look like hydrogen has even hit its ceiling yet.

3. Methylene Blue - This ingredient had its time in the wellness and longevity spotlight as a way to boost energy and cognition, but it lost momentum in the tail end of the year. It saw a huge surge in the late spring and summer, with weekly search volume across various terms averaging in the 4-500,000 range. But numbers began to dwindle in the fall, and by December things were looking grim; “methylene blue” terms saw nearly a 90% drop-off in search volume compared to their peak.
   
   All hope is not lost though, as early January numbers are showing some signs of rejuvenation. We’ll be following this one closely as the year progresses to see if it has another Hot Ingredient Summer in 2026 or if it eventually reaches equilibrium and settles into more stable demand.
    

4. Astaxanthin - "Skincare from the inside out” has been a rising topic in the beauty industry for a few years now. Astaxanthin is often at the center of that conversation. It’s an ingredient that naturally provides protection against sunlight, and in late 2025 it broke into the Amazon zeitgeist in a big way. It jumped up in mid-December and is showing extremely promising January numbers, with weekly search volumes hovering in the ~500,000 range (compared to <50k through most of 2025). Sunscreen typically spikes around March as spring break season starts, so it will be interesting to see if astaxanthin follows the same pattern or bucks established seasonality trends.

5. “Eggs 18 count” - This one isn’t necessarily a product trend, but it IS a signal that shoppers are changing. The number of people looking for eggs on Amazon has been on a steady climb since the middle of 2025 as more and more people are going online for their perishables. Between same-day delivery, Amazon Fresh, and Whole Foods, search volume in the last 3 months is 4-5x what it was in the first half of 2025. Bread, milk, and cottage cheese show growth as well. It’s still hard at the moment for emerging CPG brands to break into the perishable scene, but if demand continues to climb then lowering the barrier for entry will eventually be essential for Amazon to keep up.
   

6. Protein Coffee - This one saw a more gradual growth curve than many of the items on this list, with a slow and (mostly) steady ascent throughout 2025. Demand dwindled in early Q4, but protein coffee found its stride as we approached “New Year, New You” season. Both search volume and the number of search terms (particularly non-branded ones) sharply rose at the end of 2025 and continued the trajectory through January. Combined with Starbucks heavily promoting their protein-infused offerings, the beverage that provides energy and macronutrients might be due for its day in the spotlight.

7. Shirley Temple - Another late-comer to the 2025 Amazon Search Charts, Shirley Temple-flavored soda burst onto the scene from nowhere in Q4. Between various (mostly branded) search terms, search volume increased from literally 0 to over 271,000 searches per week. The meteoric rise is lead by Poppi, Olipop, and Bloom's respective takes on this nostalgic flavor. This trend started around the holidays, but it’s continuing strong into the new year. We’ll be eagerly watching from the frontlines to see who ultimately comes out on top of this Shirley Temple soda war.
   
   

8. Cat Grass Treats - Cat owners collectively decided their feline friends deserved healthier snack options in Q3 2025, and momentum is still going strong in early 2026. Demand started to spike in October, with search volumes jumping nearly 3300% by early November (from ~10k to ~340k). And January’s numbers are making November look like a weak month in comparison, with over 562k searches the week of January 17 alone.
   
   

9. Brands That Thrived in 2025 - As we do for cats, so we do for ourselves; some of the biggest CPG brands to jump in search volume in 2025 were Weetabix, David Protein Bars, and Drizzilicious. All these brands have seen significant growth in YoY branded search volume thanks to a combination of influencer fame (like the “coat your Weetabix in chocolate” trend that spread across TikTok) and the market’s growing desire for healthier (but still delicious) snacking options.
   
   

10. K-pop Demon Hunters birthday decorations - The chart goes up and to the right. Need we say more?