Hey Reader,
This week’s news is packed with updates that could directly affect your selling strategy. From Amazon reversing a controversial policy to new advertising opportunities with Macy’s and rising FBA costs—let’s dive in.
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News
Amazon has reversed its plan to remove variation themes from listings after strong pushback from the seller community. Originally, the policy would have impacted listings using themes considered irrelevant or redundant, sparking concern over lost search rankings and the need to rebuild parent-child relationships.
The updated guidance now limits removal only to variation themes with zero sales in the last 12 months, reducing disruption for active listings. For Amazon sellers, this means your existing variations for size, color, or style will remain unaffected — a major relief during peak season prep.
Walmart is piloting a new strategy that connects in-store shoppers with online third-party marketplace products using QR codes. Customers can scan these codes in a Texas store to view and purchase extended variations of products like appliances, TVs, and even beverages that aren’t physically stocked.
This could be a big deal for Amazon sellers expanding to Walmart, as it boosts discoverability and gives online-only SKUs a presence in physical stores — without extra fees. Walmart also rolled out new marketplace tools like an AI-powered listing assistant and improved fulfillment, signaling continued competition with Amazon.
Macy’s is launching a pilot with Amazon’s Retail Ad Service, allowing advertisers to buy Macy’s Media Network inventory through Amazon Ads and platforms like Pacvue. This move simplifies ad buying for brands by letting them access Macy’s ad placements without direct contact with Macy’s sales or tech stack.
This collaboration highlights Amazon’s growing influence in the retail media space and presents a potential opportunity for Amazon sellers to study new adtech strategies. Macy’s assures advertisers that customer data will be protected, with only anonymized transaction data used in AWS clean rooms.
Pattern’s IPO filing reveals a stark contrast to Anker’s Amazon-native strategy. While Anker built recognizable brands and diversified into retail, Pattern built backend infrastructure and doubled down on Amazon—with 94% of its $1.8B revenue tied to the platform.
For Amazon sellers, Pattern’s rise proves that marketplace mastery and operational excellence can rival brand-building if supported by exclusive partnerships, logistics, and data. Its debut will test if investors value reselling tech platforms as much as consumer brand equity—and shows there are multiple winning paths on Amazon.
Searches in essential categories like Health & Household and Grocery have surged on Amazon in 2025, while interest in categories like Electronics and Clothing has dropped. At the same time, prices for top-ranking organic products in many of these fast-growing categories have actually gone up.
For Amazon sellers, this trend signals opportunity. Essentials brands can justify premium pricing by leaning into strong value propositions and optimized listings, while those in discretionary categories must carefully track ASPs and stay competitive.
Amazon will lift meltable inventory restrictions on September 22, allowing sellers to begin sending heat-sensitive products like chocolate and gummies back into FBA. This is in preparation for customer order fulfillment to resume on October 13.
Amazon sellers should take advantage of this window to restock meltable ASINs in time for fall demand. Visit Seller Central’s “Send to Amazon” workflow and review the meltable ASIN list to get started.
Amazon has revised its earlier decision to remove certain variation themes by narrowing the focus to only those that saw no sales in the past 12 months. Core themes like size, color, and style remain unaffected, preserving the structure of most active listings.
This means your current variation families will not be disrupted, and child ASINs will remain active even if you decide to update variation themes. For Amazon sellers, this ensures continued listing stability while providing clarity on deprecated themes.
Starting September 30, 2025, Amazon will automatically enroll sellers into the FBA Liquidations program if they haven’t already configured their automated settings. This allows unsold inventory to be resold via secondary markets, but sellers can opt out.
In contrast, the FBA Donations program will become mandatory, re-enrolling any seller who previously opted out. This shift supports Amazon’s sustainability goals by reducing waste and extending product life cycles.
There are no changes to program fees, but sellers should review and update their FBA inventory settings accordingly.
Amazon will impose an additional FBA fee during the 2025 holiday season (mid-October to mid-January) in the UK and Germany. The surcharge is meant to offset higher seasonal operating and transportation costs.
Amazon sellers should prepare for added fulfillment expenses: ~£0.10 per parcel in the UK and €0.19 in Germany. Oversize and low-price items are exempt, but the extended surcharge window means sellers must adjust their holiday pricing and margin strategies early.
Seller Tips & Tricks
Amazon Ads often fail to deliver not because of targeting or budget, but due to hidden listing issues like missing the Buy Box, out-of-stock inventory, or incorrect product classifications. If you’re running Sponsored Product or Display ads and they’ve suddenly stopped showing, these are likely culprits.
Key problems include suppressed Buy Boxes (especially due to pricing mismatches), automatic or malicious adult classification, restricted categories, and misaligned keyword targeting. Sellers should also monitor bids—if they’re too low for the competitive landscape, your ads won’t be served.
Amazon sellers using Shopify can now easily list, sync, and fulfill Amazon orders directly from their Shopify dashboard, thanks to an improved multi-channel integration. This allows sellers to access Amazon’s massive customer base while retaining the brand control and customization Shopify offers.
With Cart2Cart, migrating from other eCommerce platforms to Shopify is seamless, and the integration supports syncing inventory, product details, and managing orders across both platforms. The August 2025 update highlights how AI now enhances title optimization, pricing, and inventory forecasting to help sellers stay competitive and avoid stockouts.
Amazon sellers are increasingly being suspended for “inauthentic” ASINs they never sold, often due to catalog errors or competitor abuse. These false flags now impact your Account Health Rating and can lead to full account suspension unless you respond quickly and with proof.
To win an appeal, sellers must submit structured evidence like flat-file reports, settlement history, and screenshots proving they never listed or sold the ASIN. Preventative steps like weekly audits, maintaining invoice folders, and monitoring catalog changes can reduce future risks.
Rufus, Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, now interprets and summarizes product reviews in real-time, allowing customers to ask direct questions like “What do people say about durability?” without digging through every review. It’s changing how customers evaluate products—and sellers should assume their reviews are being scrutinized by AI, not just shoppers.
This shift means authentic, detailed reviews now carry more weight than volume alone, especially since Rufus compares products using review insights. Amazon sellers must ensure their listings match actual product experiences and encourage richer customer feedback to stay competitive.
Amazon is warning sellers to follow specific formatting rules when listing products compatible with trademarked brands. Titles must use clear phrases like “for” or “compatible with” and correctly format listings (e.g., TonTon Sleeve intended for Kindle Fire), or sellers risk having listings removed and account health damaged.
Amazon allows trademarked brand names on product detail pages for compatibility clarification, but improper use in titles may trigger violations. Sellers should promptly edit flagged listings through Manage All Inventory to avoid suspension or negative impacts to their Account Health Rating.
Video of the Week
Todd’s Top Tip: Boost Sales with Amazon Attribution Tracking
Sellers, here’s a practical strategy for August 2025: leverage Amazon Attribution to track external traffic.
This tool measures how off-Amazon campaigns—like social media posts, email blasts, or Google Ads—drive sales to your listings.
Sellers report 10-20% higher ad-driven conversions by refining external campaigns based on these insights, especially in niches like beauty and tech.
Your plan:
- Log into Seller Central, navigate to the “Advertising” tab, and select “Campaign Manager.” Click “Measurement & Reporting,” then “Amazon Attribution” to activate it (ensure you’re enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry).
- Create a new campaign in the Attribution dashboard, naming it clearly (e.g., “Instagram_PetSupplies_Aug2025”) and select 2-3 key ASINs, like durable pet beds or tech gadgets.
- Generate unique tracking links for each external channel (e.g., Instagram, TikTok, or email) by choosing the publisher and pasting your product’s Amazon URL as the click-through link.
- Embed these links in your external campaigns, such as social media posts or Google Ads, ensuring each channel has a distinct tag for accurate tracking.
- Analyze performance weekly in the Attribution dashboard, tracking metrics like clicks, add-to-carts, and sales to identify top-performing channels.
- Adjust budgets to focus on high-performing sources (e.g., scale up Facebook ads if they drive more conversions) and refine underperforming campaigns.
This approach fine-tunes your external marketing to drive consistent sales growth across Amazon’s platform.
Top Upcoming Amazon Events
- AMAZON ACCELERATE 2025 – September 16-18, 2025, Seattle, WA, USA
- AMAZON MASTERS SUMMIT 2025 – October 2-3, 2025, London, UK
- WHITE LABEL WORLD EXPO LAS VEGAS 2025 – October 15-16, 2025, Las Vegas, NV, USA
- SELLERS UNITED 2025 – October 16, 2025, Newark, NJ, USA
That wraps up this week’s edition. Stay sharp, plan ahead, and keep adapting—because the sellers who move quickest win.
God Bless,
Todd Welch
Amazon Seller School
