This week’s briefing brings big ad changes, fee moves in Europe, supply-chain shifts, and new tools and rules that could impact margins and visibility. Read the quick, actionable summaries below and click the links for the full articles. Join us live today at 12 PM Eastern / 9 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.
Amazon is rolling out a fixed-price “reserve share of voice” system that lets Brand Registered sellers lock in Sponsored Brands top-of-search placement for their own branded keywords. This eliminates auction volatility for brand terms but requires API setup, upfront payment, and validation that the keywords match your registered brand.
Because this guarantees visibility “most of the time” rather than 100%, competitors can still appear through Sponsored Products or other placements. For Amazon sellers, this shift mainly benefits larger brands with predictable budgets, while smaller brands must weigh whether fixed pricing is worth the cost versus traditional CPC bidding.
Amazon is making one of its biggest fee reductions ever in Europe, slashing referral fees for low-priced fashion, home goods, pet clothing, grocery, and vitamins to stay competitive with ultra-cheap marketplaces like Shein and Temu. These cuts drop some referral fees from 15% down to as low as 5–8%, along with reduced fulfillment fees across major EU markets.
For Amazon sellers, this creates a meaningful margin boost—especially in lower-priced categories—while signaling Amazon’s strategy to defend market share in a rapidly shifting, price-driven landscape. Sellers expanding into Europe or already operating there may find new opportunities as Amazon lowers the cost of entry and improves profitability.
A surge of Chinese Amazon sellers—780 in November alone—shifted their legal entities from mainland China to Hong Kong after Beijing’s new rule requiring platforms to report quarterly seller revenue data took effect. For Amazon sellers in the U.S., this shift matters because it reduces the tax advantages Chinese competitors have long used to undercut prices, potentially leveling the playing field.
However, experts note that Hong Kong registrations may not shield these sellers from Chinese tax enforcement, meaning many could face higher tax burdens or back taxes that erode their pricing power. As regulatory pressure intensifies, American sellers may see reduced competition from artificially low-priced listings that dominated Amazon’s marketplace for years.
Amazon is eliminating FBA commingling on March 31, 2026, meaning sellers’ inventory will no longer mix in pooled bins and every unit shipped to customers must be traceable to the specific seller who supplied it. For Amazon sellers, this dramatically increases accountability and reduces counterfeit risk—but it also forces operational changes, including new barcode requirements and the end of Amazon’s labeling/prep services.
Brand Registry sellers with Brand Representative status can still ship stickerless using manufacturer barcodes, while all resellers must apply Amazon barcodes to every unit going forward. These changes affect SKU structure, inbound workflows, and labeling processes, making early preparation critical to avoid defective inventory flags or shipment delays.
AI shopping tools from Amazon, Walmart, Google, and OpenAI are reshaping how customers search, compare, and buy gifts—reducing friction and pushing shoppers toward more personalized, AI-driven recommendations. For Amazon sellers, this means buyers increasingly rely on Rufus and similar tools to surface products based on relevance, reviews, and past behavior rather than traditional keyword searches.
New price trackers and auto-buy features give shoppers more control and transparency, putting pressure on sellers to stay competitive on pricing and inventory. As AI begins handling full shopping journeys—from research to checkout—Amazon sellers must optimize listings, reviews, and pricing to ensure their products are favored by these emerging AI shopping agents.
Amazon is promoting its “Thank My Driver” feature for the holidays, allowing customers to type or say “thank my driver,” which instantly notifies the driver and—until 2 million thank-yous are reached—triggers a $5 reward paid by Amazon. After that milestone, Amazon will award the most-thanked drivers daily with $100 bonuses, reinforcing goodwill within its delivery network.
For Amazon sellers, stronger driver morale and recognition support the reliability of last-mile delivery—one of the biggest variables affecting customer satisfaction, reviews, and repeat purchases. This program highlights Amazon’s investment in delivery speed and consistency, which directly impacts sellers’ on-time metrics and customer experience.
Amazon has extended both FBA and Seller Fulfilled Prime shipping cutoff dates to December 23, giving sellers two extra days to capture the huge wave of last-minute holiday shoppers. Super Saturday (Dec. 20) is expected to be a major sales driver, with Prime-exclusive deals and guaranteed Christmas Eve delivery pushing heavy traffic to the marketplace.
For Amazon sellers, this extended window means more opportunity to scale ads, run strategic discounts, and optimize listings to convert customers who purchase late in the season. Amazon recommends using price discounts, coupons, A+ Content, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Products to maximize visibility during the final shopping surge.
Amazon has added an ASIN Inclusion feature to FBA Grade and Resell, allowing sellers to hand-pick which products enter the program instead of enrolling their entire catalog. This lets Amazon sellers focus on items that are durable, frequently returned, and easy to liquidate—turning returns into profitable resale opportunities rather than sunk costs.
Sellers can now track performance and recovery rates through the Returns and Recovery dashboard, giving clearer visibility into which products generate meaningful recaptured revenue. This update strengthens inventory control and helps sellers improve margins in categories where returns are common.
Amazon is introducing Passkey verification on December 2, 2025, giving sellers a faster and more secure way to log into Seller Central using fingerprints, face ID, or a device PIN. This upgrade replaces traditional passwords with end-to-end encrypted authentication that’s safer than two-step verification and resistant to data breaches.
For Amazon sellers, this means better protection against account takeovers—one of the biggest operational risks in ecommerce—and smoother access across multiple devices and browsers. Amazon recommends all sellers set up Passkey immediately to ensure uninterrupted, secure account access.
TikTok Shop generated more than $500 million in sales between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, fueled by a 50% jump in buyers and massive growth in livestream commerce. Livestream hosts saw 84% higher sales year over year, with 760,000 livestream sessions drawing 1.6 billion views and major brands joining the format.
For Amazon sellers, this signals accelerating competition from social commerce channels where discovery, influencers, and live shopping drive rapid conversions. As big brands expand listings on TikTok Shop, Amazon sellers may need to diversify traffic sources and adapt to formats that combine entertainment with purchasing.
Amazon has introduced the Brand Name Evaluator, an AI tool that analyzes potential brand names for trademark viability, customer appeal, category fit, and simplicity. This helps sellers avoid costly naming mistakes and assess how well a name may resonate with shoppers before filing trademarks or building packaging.
For Amazon sellers building private-label brands, the tool streamlines brand development and reduces the risk of USPTO rejection or weak market positioning. Accessing it through Build Your Brand lets sellers check name ideas quickly and refine branding with data-backed guidance.
This piece breaks down how Amazon’s increasing competition, rising ad costs, and faster-moving trends are forcing sellers to rely more heavily on data-driven decisions and strategic capital. Jungle Scout highlights how stronger product validation, competitive analysis, and listing optimization are essential to scaling profitably, while Wayflyer addresses the other half of the equation—fixing cash-flow gaps so sellers can reorder inventory, fund ads, and expand without slowing down.
For Amazon sellers, the takeaway is clear: the brands winning in 2025 are the ones combining performance analytics with flexible financing to avoid stockouts, maintain ranking momentum, and confidently launch new SKUs. Data guides what moves to make, and capital ensures you can take action at the right time without giving up equity or growth speed.
This list ranks the leading global ecommerce fulfillment partners— including ShipBob, ShipMonk, DHL, FedEx, Shopify’s SFN, and ultimately Amazon FBA—highlighting how each supports fast shipping, scalable warehousing, and reliable customer service. Many of these 3PLs offer nationwide or global fulfillment networks, API integrations, and 1–2 day delivery options, letting brands expand beyond Amazon while still matching Prime-like shipping expectations.
For Amazon sellers, the key point is strategic flexibility: you can lean on FBA for Amazon traffic while using partners like ShipBob, ShipMonk, or FedEx for DTC sites, Walmart, TikTok Shop, and international markets without building your own warehouse network. Choosing the right mix of FBA + external 3PLs can lower shipping costs, protect margins, and give you redundancy if Amazon changes fees or storage policies.
This article explains how Amazon’s North America Unified Account lets sellers manage the US, Canada, and Mexico from a single Seller Central login, sharing listings and inventory while paying only one Pro subscription fee. For Amazon sellers, that means simpler cross-border expansion, combined reporting, and the ability to receive payouts in your local currency while selling in multiple marketplaces.
It also breaks down best practices like using separate SKUs for different FBA countries, leveraging NARF to test demand from US inventory, and protecting margins with dynamic pricing and smarter currency conversion. Canadian and other North America sellers are reminded to localize listings, stay compliant with each country’s tax and labeling rules, and monitor unified account health so issues in one marketplace don’t spill over into the others.
Amazon is encouraging sellers to dig into their Black Friday and Cyber Monday data to uncover what worked—and what needs a tweak before the next sales spike. The Promotions and Payments dashboards help you analyze deal performance, conversion rates, and revenue surges so you can refine future pricing and promotional strategies.
Tools like Product Opportunity Explorer and Growth Opportunities reveal which products consumers searched for most and where you have untapped potential, giving you data-backed direction for 2025 planning. Brand owners can also use the Customer Loyalty Analytics dashboard to segment shoppers and build targeted campaigns that keep momentum going long after peak season.
Amazon AI Creative Studio gives sellers a fast, scalable way to generate ad creatives—including lifestyle images, copy, and short videos—directly inside the Amazon Ads platform. This dramatically cuts production time and cost, while helping sellers launch more campaigns and maintain consistent branding across large catalogs.
Because it pulls data from your product listings and shopper intent, the tool produces assets that better align with what customers are searching for, leading to higher engagement and improved ad performance. For Amazon sellers managing many ASINs, this AI-driven workflow offers a major competitive advantage, allowing rapid testing, creative variation, and faster iteration during peak seasons.
Sellers are reporting a rise in buyers selecting false return reasons—such as “defective” or “not as described”—to avoid paying return shipping, which not only increases costs but also jeopardizes Account Health through higher NCX rates and “frequently returned” badges. Amazon moderators confirmed that sellers can report abuse and file SAFE-T claims when refunds were incorrectly issued.
Across both U.S. and UK forums, sellers shared examples of extreme buyer dishonesty, including customers claiming refunds after receiving extra replacement items and even using AI-generated fake damage photos. For Amazon sellers, the growing concern is less about the shipping cost and more about how false return claims can shut down listings or threaten the entire account.
Proposed high tariffs could reduce US e-commerce revenue by an estimated US$320 billion by 2029, with Amazon sellers already reporting sharply higher costs of goods and supply-chain pressure. Import-heavy categories like fashion, household goods, toys, and low-cost electronics are expected to be hit hardest, forcing many sellers to consider moving production outside China.
Consumer behavior is also shifting, with shoppers becoming more price-sensitive and showing low tolerance for increases above 5%, putting additional pressure on online retail margins. As sellers adjust to rising costs, evolving trade policies, and cautious consumer spending, strategic sourcing and competitive pricing will become essential for staying profitable on Amazon.
Daniel Orkun Duzgun highlights how Amazon Ads has transformed from a simple PPC platform into a full-funnel advertising ecosystem where DSP, AMC, and AI automation now dominate strategy. He warns that traditional PPC-only skills — keyword optimization, bid management, Sponsored Products expertise — are no longer enough to stay competitive.
For Amazon sellers, the message is clear: developing DSP skills, learning AMC with SQL, and adopting Amazon’s new AI tools is now essential for long-term success. Duzgun emphasizes that brands want true advertising strategists, not bid managers, and the sellers who adapt will outperform those who don’t.
Amazon’s rapid expansion into public-sector procurement is driving up costs for cities, counties, and school districts as dynamic pricing and marketplace fees quietly inflate what governments pay. Independent suppliers — who often offer lower prices and better service — are being pushed out, weakening local economies and increasing Amazon’s control over essential purchasing channels.
For Amazon sellers, this shift signals both heightened competition for government dollars and a landscape where Amazon’s dominance continues shaping pricing, supply chains, and buyer expectations across all markets. The report warns that Amazon’s expanding role could reduce transparency, erode trust, and funnel more public money into the platform unless policymakers intervene.
Todd’s Top Tip: Clean Up 2025 Inventory Like a CFO
Use the rest of December to clear dead inventory so you start 2026 with more cash and less storage drag.
Pull your aged-inventory report for 90, 180, and 270+ days and flag anything that’s tying up cash without turning consistently.
Sort those SKUs into three buckets:
– Can still move with a push
– Break-even clearance
– True duds
For SKUs that can still move, stack coupons, 7-day deals, or Brand Tailored Promotions aimed at past buyers and high-intent audiences to flush units before December 31.
For break-even clearance, set minimum prices to recover cash and free storage, even if the margin is thin. Cash in hand beats inventory collecting fees going into 2026.
For true duds, stop the bleeding: remove, liquidate, or switch to FBM so you’re not paying FBA storage on inventory that isn’t earning its keep.
Protect your winners—don’t discount healthy SKUs just to spike top-line revenue. Let your best products carry margin while you quietly cut the dead weight before year-end.
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