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Amazon News: Amazon Ads Surge, Tariffs Loom, and Your ChatGPT Queries Are Public?
Published 2 months ago • 7 min read
This Week's Top Amazon Seller News
Hey Reader,
I’m back with another jam-packed edition of your weekly newsletter—covering everything from Amazon’s ad dominance to data privacy, looming tariffs, and a surprising success story that might just inspire your next product launch. Join us live today at 1 PM Eastern / 10 AM Pacific!
We’ll discuss the latest Amazon news and how it impacts your business. Tune in for valuable insights to help you stay ahead. Catch the live stream on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook.
An OpenAI experiment temporarily allowed shared ChatGPT conversations to be indexed by search engines like Google and Bing, exposing some surprisingly personal content. Although users had to manually opt-in to share a chat, many were unaware that these links could show up in public search results.
This raises privacy concerns for those who used identifiable details, including job applications and resumes, without expecting broader visibility. OpenAI has since removed the feature, citing accidental oversharing risks, but the incident highlights the importance of caution when sharing AI conversations—even for Amazon sellers using ChatGPT for listing creation or business help.
Amazon’s Q2 report shows that seller services, subscriptions, and advertising are now generating more revenue than its online and physical stores, with ad revenue alone growing 23% year over year. For Amazon sellers, this highlights the increasing importance of advertising and third-party services to stay competitive on the platform.
While retail sales rose, Amazon’s real growth engines are ad tools, seller programs, and AWS, which are driving profitability and expanding Amazon’s dominance. As competition from Shein and Temu cools due to tariff changes, sellers on Amazon may find new advantages, especially with Amazon’s push into rural markets.
The European Commission has preliminarily found Temu in breach of the Digital Services Act for failing to properly assess and mitigate the risk of illegal and non-compliant products on its platform, including items like baby toys and electronics. Temu’s October 2024 risk assessment relied on vague industry data instead of specific platform insights, raising concerns over consumer safety in the EU.
If these findings are confirmed, Temu could face fines of up to 6% of its global annual revenue and be subjected to enhanced supervision. For Amazon sellers, this signals how seriously regulators are now taking marketplace compliance—potentially impacting how competing platforms like Temu operate moving forward.
Amazon has signed its first generative AI licensing deal with The New York Times, gaining access to news content, NYT Cooking, and The Athletic for use in Alexa and to train Amazon’s foundation models. This marks a major step as AI firms seek high-quality, proprietary content after exhausting open web data.
The deal highlights a growing trend of media companies monetizing their archives through AI partnerships, especially after legal battles like the NYT’s ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI. For Amazon sellers, this move signals Alexa’s future improvements in delivering real-time news and content—potentially increasing its value as a marketing and discovery tool for consumer products.
President Trump has imposed a steep 50% tariff on Indian textiles and apparel, which could spike costs by up to 35% and slash U.S.-bound orders by as much as 50%. This move is already causing U.S. retailers to cancel shipments and renegotiate supplier relationships.
For Amazon sellers in the fashion or private label space, this disruption may impact pricing, availability, and sourcing—especially if you’re importing from India or competing with brands that do. Sellers should monitor supplier costs closely and consider diversifying sourcing to countries like Vietnam or Bangladesh, which are still at lower tariff levels.
Starting August 4, Amazon is rolling out a simplified seller feedback system that allows buyers to leave star-only ratings without needing to write a review. Initial testing shows this could lead to more positive ratings and higher overall seller scores, especially from satisfied customers who previously left no feedback.
Crucially, customers giving fewer than 4 stars must select a reason, and if it’s unrelated to seller performance—like product dissatisfaction—Amazon will filter it out. Abusive feedback is now automatically detected and removed, with manual reporting still available for sellers.
Corey Ganim, a $13M Amazon seller and coach, shared how he replaced half his team using 7 AI tools, freeing up his team for higher-value work. He uses tools like Claude for writing, ChatGPT for research, and Make to automate repetitive tasks — saving over 20 hours weekly.
This shift highlights how Amazon sellers can streamline operations, reduce overhead, and scale faster by integrating AI into daily workflows. The takeaway: if AI can do part of your job, let it — and focus your time on strategy, sourcing, and growth.
Amazon sellers often get stuck deciding between Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display ads—but each serves a unique purpose. Sponsored Products are best for direct sales and ranking, Sponsored Brands build awareness and loyalty with branded banners, and Sponsored Display retargets shoppers both on and off Amazon.
Each maps to a different part of the customer journey: conversions, awareness, and re-engagement. Choosing the right type based on your launch goals, brand presence, and budget can help you scale faster and more strategically.
Product Targeting in Amazon PPC allows you to place your ads directly on competing product pages, giving you a huge edge at the point of purchase. It’s a smart way to show up when shoppers are already browsing similar products, especially if yours has better features or a lower price.
This strategy can boost visibility, steal traffic from competitors, and often costs less than keyword campaigns. Sellers can even defend their own listings by targeting them to prevent competitors from hijacking buyer attention.
Amazon PPC and Google Ads may both be pay-per-click models, but they serve very different purposes—Amazon focuses on high-intent shoppers already looking to buy, while Google reaches users earlier in the research stage. For Amazon sellers, this means PPC directly boosts sales and rankings within the marketplace, while Google Ads can support top-of-funnel traffic and brand awareness outside Amazon.
Amazon PPC requires marketplace expertise, product listing optimization, and a sharp keyword strategy to be effective. Sellers can benefit most by working with agencies that specialize in Amazon advertising and understand how to align spend with measurable ROI.
IP complaints on Amazon can result in sudden listing removals, lost sales, and even account suspensions—making a quick and strategic reinstatement process essential. This guide outlines the steps sellers must take, including identifying the type of IP complaint, gathering documentation, contacting rights owners, and submitting a strong appeal.
Sellers are encouraged to act fast and, in complex cases, seek legal help from an Amazon Seller Lawyer to increase the odds of success. Proactive compliance—like sourcing authorized products and using original content—can help avoid these issues altogether.
Amazon is tightening compliance due to regulatory pressure, AI-driven enforcement, and its mission to protect buyer trust—especially in sensitive categories like supplements, skincare, pet care, and baby products. Sellers are now seeing listings flagged for once-approved language and must adjust to stricter wording standards backed by documentation.
To stay compliant, sellers should run regular listing audits, avoid risky claims, gather certificates ahead of time, and enroll in Brand Registry for more control. Treating compliance as part of your brand strategy is now essential to avoiding costly suspensions and staying competitive.
Amazon sellers can gain a strategic edge by using AI prompts to ethically reverse-engineer competitor listings, extract high-performing keywords, and uncover review-based product weaknesses. These insights help sellers improve their own offers, avoid wasted ad spend, and move faster in competitive markets.
The guide includes copy-paste prompts for analyzing titles, bullets, pricing, backend keywords, ad strategies, and more—making it easy to spot what’s working and where competitors are vulnerable. Use these tactics to refine your listings, validate pricing, and discover new product opportunities without starting from scratch.
Amazon is hosting free live webinars to help sellers leverage tools, advertising, and programs to build and grow their businesses. The “Selling on Amazon 101” session on August 12 covers account setup, shipping optimization, advertising basics, listing creation, and account health tips—ideal for new sellers.
On August 13, a webinar focused on reseller best practices will walk sellers through listing edits, pricing tools, and how to improve product visibility. Both events include live Q&A sessions and are perfect opportunities to sharpen your skills with Amazon’s own guidance.
Online marketplaces offer massive exposure and convenience for sellers, but they come with trade-offs like high fees and potential loss of control. For Amazon sellers, they remain a dominant gateway to online revenue, especially for small businesses with limited resources.
While third-party platforms like Amazon, eBay, and emerging retailer-operated marketplaces are reshaping the landscape, sellers face risks—such as data misuse and Buy Box manipulation, as highlighted by legal action from UK retailers. Despite concerns, the continued growth of marketplaces suggests they’re a necessary channel for scaling and staying competitive.
A whistleblower-style post reveals how foreign sellers are using U.S. registered agents and low-tax states like Wyoming to create Amazon businesses without ever setting foot in the country. Websites such as Ecomera.us help these individuals set up U.S. shell companies that are allegedly draining billions from the U.S. economy by bypassing local taxes and regulations.
For Amazon sellers, this highlights growing competition from offshore sellers who may not face the same tax burdens, compliance expectations, or logistical hurdles. It raises serious concerns about fairness and the need for federal-level action to close loopholes that could be harming legitimate U.S.-based third-party sellers.
This Week's Top Amazon Seller News Hey Reader, This week’s news dives deep into new taxes, shifting ad costs, underwhelming Prime Day performance, and some surprising marketplace trends that could shape your Q4 strategy. Let’s get into it.Join us live today at 1 PM Eastern / 10 AM Pacific! We’ll discuss the latest Amazon news and how it impacts your business. Tune in for valuable insights to help you stay ahead. Catch the live stream on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook. Let’s dive in!Click...
This Week's Top Amazon Seller News Hey Reader, We’re back with another action-packed edition of your weekly newsletter. From AI shaking up e-commerce to Amazon’s latest payout policy controversy, here’s everything you need to know to stay ahead.Join us live today at 1 PM Eastern / 10 AM Pacific! We’ll discuss the latest Amazon news and how it impacts your business. Tune in for valuable insights to help you stay ahead. Catch the live stream on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook. Let’s dive...
This Week's Top Amazon Seller News Hey Reader, This week brought game-changing updates—from a massive FTC settlement to new seller tools, competitive threats, and marketplace shakeups. Here’s what you need to know:Join us live today at 1 PM Eastern / 10 AM Pacific! We’ll discuss the latest Amazon news and how it impacts your business. Tune in for valuable insights to help you stay ahead. Catch the live stream on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook. Let’s dive in!Click here to read on our website...