May the algorithmic powers be in your favor this BFCM 🤞 [MDSR #60]

Hot Off The Presses 📰

In our last poll, most of you said you’re either cautiously testing AI tools or still trying to figure out how they fit your brand — fair enough, but it’s already impacting sellers either way per the headlines.  

Yes, the AI arms race is accelerating. Amazon rolled out a smarter, more capable version of its shopping assistant, Rufus that can actually buy products for you automatically when prices drop. 

Meanwhile, Google is turning search into a personal shopper with AI-powered checkout and call-to-buy features, and Target is diving in headfirst with a ChatGPT-powered shopping app that can build multi-item baskets for curbside pickup.

But here’s the twist: these upgrades aren’t just “cool tech.” They’re reshaping how discovery, price sensitivity, and convenience collide — and which products get surfaced to both humans and AI agents. 

Sellers who understand how these engines evaluate product relevance will win long before the shopper even clicks “search” — or just buys whatever crosses their For You page as TikTok Shop picks up steam. 

Zooming out, macro signals are flashing mixed for everyone but Walmart. Holiday forecasts show steady but cautious momentum, and early Black Friday reports suggest more crowds but fewer meaningful bargains as prices stay elevated. 

Tariffs aren’t exactly helping: brands are already hedging Black Friday deals to avoid margin wipeouts, while the U.S. retail landscape braces for the next round of trade turbulence — not to mention the great supply chain reversal.

On Amazon’s side, a quiet-but-major change: third-party API fees may jump 10x, reshaping the economics of the software sellers rely on. They also dropped new Seller Fulfilled Prime and holiday prep updates, introduced a Seller Challenge tool to contest deactivations, and is experimenting with AI-powered ads that level the playing field for SMBs. 

Add in a $50B federal AI infrastructure investment, and it’s clear Amazon is doubling down far beyond retail.

This is the last calm hour before the storm hits. By the time shoppers wake up on Friday, algorithms, pricing rules, and platform quirks will be doing half the selling for you… and half the damage if you’re not prepared.

This edition’s poll 🗳️

Million Dollar Advice 💸 

If you want to scale profitably on Amazon, you need absolute clarity on what each SKU actually earns. Not spreadsheet optimism. Not guesswork. Real, reliable unit economics.

FBA makes fulfillment effortless, but it also hides complexity that can quietly erode your margins — from dimensional weight surprises to storage creep to returns that don’t behave like your P&L assumes. 

Dial in your FBA profit math and you’ll price smarter, reorder with confidence, and spot winners (and losers) long before they hit your cash flow.

Master the math behind real FBA profitability →Amazon FBA Profit Calculator Guide

Speak to the bot, win the click 🦾

As AI shopping assistants like ChatGPT and Rufus reshape product discovery, search is shifting from keywords to context. That means ranking high isn’t just about matching terms. It’s about helping AI connect the dots.

Helium 10 calls this shift “optimizing for inference” — and it’s all about making your listings machine-readable, not just human-friendly.

Here are a few quick wins to help your Amazon listings stand out in an AI-first world:

• Answer implied questions. Don’t just describe the product — address use cases, comparisons, or who it’s best for directly in the bullets.
  

• Write like you’re training a bot. Use structured, complete sentences that are easy for AI to parse and summarize.
  

• Don’t bury the good stuff. Put key benefits, materials, and specs early in titles and bullets — not buried in paragraph 3.
  

• Keep your info consistent. Make sure product details match across title, bullets, A+ content, and back-end fields.
  

As AI becomes the first stop on the buyer journey, optimizing for inference may be what gets you seen — and sold.

👉 Read the full post from Helium 10

Think this is helpful? Feel free to pass it along 🙂 

Creator energy meets seller strategy ⚡️

MDS just pulled off something big. In only three weeks, the team brought 300+ creators and 35+ brands together in Miami for the first-ever TikTok Creator Matchmaking event — and the turnout wrapped around the building.

It was a different kind of room this time. Not founders talking margins or PPC curves, but creators and brands trading ideas, forming partnerships, and lighting up new growth paths.

If you missed it, here’s the vibe at a glance:

• 300+ creators

• 35+ brands

• 3 hours of nonstop introductions, brainstorms, and deal flow

• A line out the door

Momentum like this is why getting in the room matters, no matter the format.

eCom Stock Watch 📊

Click on the table below or view the full size data here. 

Did you see that post 📲

Who’s gonna tell The Onion that Amazon’s big holiday plan is to replace everyone in this photo with a robot?

Until Next Time ✌️

As always, thanks for sticking with us until the end. 

If you’d care to share your thoughts on this newsletter, we’re all ears. Just hit reply to sound off. 

See you next time with more of the latest and greatest content you need to succeed this year 🔥

Sincerely, 

Looking for a mastermind community?

Million Dollar Sellers (MDS) is an exclusive community of 700+ like-minded Amazon and DTC sellers from all over the world. Collectively, our members generate more than 8 billion in annual sales and dominate some of the biggest categories on Amazon. MDS offers world-class events, chapters, industry discounts, resource libraries full of SOPs, templates, and video recordings of private trainings, workshops, events and so much more.

If you are looking for a business professional community made for ecom entrepreneurs, then consider applying today. 

*To qualify, you must be a full-time seller or brand owner and do at least 1 million in verified annual revenue. Will Amazon’s Returnless Resolutions solve the returns debacle? [MDSR #30]