#488 - New AI Universal Commerce Protocol & Amazon Superstores Coming? | Weekly Buzz 1/16/26

Is there a new universal order for AI e-commerce that doesn't include Amazon? Imagine being able to set your PPC bids based on your keyword rank. Will you be able to have your product soon in an Amazon brickandmortar supererstore? These stories and more on today's Weekly Buzz. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the AMM podcast by Gilliam 10. I'm your host [music] Bradley Sutton and this is the show that is our Helium 10 weekly buzz where we give you a rundown of all the goings on in the Amazon Tik Tok shop and e-commerce [music] world. We let you know what new features Helium 10 has and we also give a training tip of the week. So, let's get started and see what's buzzing. All right, guys. It's uh actually a little bit slow of a week again here in news. Sometimes no news is good news, right? You know, no fee increases or uh no Amazon warehouses burning down. But there are a couple things that could have some short and long-term effects for you sellers. So, let's go ahead and hop into the news. Uh, the first article is from TechCrunch. Now, this is interesting. There was I picked TechCrunch, but like literally every major outlet out there was talking about this and TechCrunch called it Google announces a new protocol to facilitate e-commerce using AI agents. Now, this is interesting because it's like it's kind of a been a free-for-all, right? You know, lately as far as what's going on or going to happen for e-commerce when it comes to AI AI agents, but now they're trying to like, you know, see, hey, can we all get on the same page, have like a United Nations of of AI here. So, basically, this article starts out says Google announced Sunday a new open standard called the Universal Commerce Protocol, UCP. Fancy little uh title here. And it says it's for AI agentbased shopping at the National Retail Federation Conference. And it says this standard and notice the platforms that it has and namely uh which ones it doesn't have. It says this standard develop with companies like Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart. Let's know Amazon, right? lets agents work across different parts of the customer buying process including discovery and postpurchase support. The core idea is that the standard could facilitate these various parts of the process instead of requiring connections with different agents. article keeps on going saying that the company said it's soon going to use this UCP for eligible Google product listings in AI mode and then the Gemini apps are going to be able to let shoppers check out directly only based in the US uh while they're researching a product they'll be able to use Google Wallet, Google Pay, and eventually even PayPal. Now, this is interesting because first of all, as you know, we've been reporting on this for months. Amazon has been like the one guy uh out there who doesn't want to play ball like a lot of these other platforms Shopify, Etsy, Walmart, etc. When it comes to AI, they actively block AI from, you know, manipulating the website and and trying, you know, block the ones who are trying to shop. Eventually, Amazon's going to have to make a a decision, especially if all the other platforms kind of join together and they're all going to be using a lot of these, you know, protocols and AI agents. I can't imagine Amazon forever just, you know, not being, you know, in the same game as everybody else. So, this is something to be looking out for. This is, you know, changing every week, it seems. This is a brand new thing. Not a lot of people yet are using AI to just like, you know, shop and then check out and pay and everything. You know, probably a very very small percentage of people are doing that. You know, it takes takes trust. You know, just like in the early days of credit cards being used online, you know, a lot of people are like, "Oh, I don't feel comfortable using my credit card." So, you know, there's people out there like, "I don't feel comfortable just, you know, giving my credit card to Gemini or or ChatBT and allowing them to to check out." But this is just going to keep going up. All right? You know, shopping with agents is something that's going to be adopted by more and more people. So, even though not many people are using it now, this is something you need to be thinking about and being ready to pivot in case Amazon does make a move. Well, what is that going to mean for our sellers? We better start uh being ready to to make those changes right now. Interestingly enough, we had reported before that, you know, Walmart even made a deal with OpenAI chatbt for Agentic Shopping. So, some people were wondering, well, what does this have to do like h how is this different than this Gemini thing? And so that's the exact article here that Business Insider uh brought out in this article entitled Walmart's head of AI reveals the key difference between its shopping deals with Google Gemini and ChatGBT. All right, it's not going to be the same thing. Now, it says here in this article, while both services promise to allow customers to find products and complete transactions uh in a more conversational and automated way, uh Walmart's head of AI said that the way Gemini handles transactions is actually more seamless even than Chad GBT. He said that, hey, we're essentially having their AI agent Gemini partner with our AI agent. I'm not sure is that the one that's called Sparky? Maybe. Uh maybe, maybe not. Uh, it says, but basically it's going to partner with Walmart's AI to create a unified shopping journey. He says, imagine it like a window inside of Gemini where our Walmart's shopping agent kicks in and helps you complete the purchase. So, you it's like you're never even going onto the Walmart website. Technically, you're kind of viewing it inside of Gemini. uh with Gemini. He said Walmart's going to be able to link a customer's chat session with their existing Walmart profile and shopping sessions where Gemini wasn't involved. Now, this part is key and kind of like similar to what I've been talking about here uh in the past. It says he expects a shopping to help Walmart capture more sales from people who didn't set out intending to make a purchase. He said this new approach could enable an almost seamless transaction when a person enlists a chatbot to help solve a problem. And I I've talked about this kind of like in the context of Amazon's Roffus. If you know what you're going to buy, right? Still the number one way and like I don't know 99% of people what they're currently doing is they look for that keyword on Amazon and they buy it, right? like you're not going to chat GBT like I know I need a you know a 10day pill case for my supplements or something if I know the exact keyword for I know exactly the product or even the brand name I'm going directly to Amazon not having a conversation with Chad GBT uh trying to convince myself I don't need this product right but a lot of times I don't know half the time whatever you know you might need something you might not know exactly what you need like hey I'm traveling to you know Japan man, uh, I need, you know, to prepare for the cold weather. Like, what what does that mean? You know, does that mean a thick jacket? Does that mean thermal underwear? Like, in those situations where you have no idea what you're you're supposed to be buying. That's where, you know, historically, maybe you went to Google and just like Google things, start reading blogs, and then all of a sudden, uh, you know, Chad GBT, you would start asking Chad GBT those questions. Then you'd figure out what you you you'd see, oh, I need a insulated wool jacket. And then now you go to Amazon again with the keyword kind of skipping Rufus. But then for Rufus, it's like Amazon wants you to do that all that research in Rufus itself. Forget about Google, forget about ChachiBT. Ask Rufus what you need for this and then we'll show you the, you know, products that you need. And so that's kind of like, you know, Walmart here is talking about not like, oh, hey, you know, if you want to buy something at Walmart, you know what it is. you know, you're you're looking for this exact, you know, top space card, you know, deck, retail deck from Walmart. You know, you're not going to Gemini first and trying to talk about it and then try and purchase it there. You know, you're still probably just going to go directly to Walmart uh and get it. But it, you know, this Walmart wants you to like discover products that maybe you weren't even looking to shop. You were just like researching something, right? Talking to Gemini, talking to Chad CBT. Hey, what do I need for you or what's the weather like in Japan during this month? Oh, it's it's really cold. Oh, by the way, would you like to, you know, look at some some coats? You know, this I'm I'm kind of oversimplifying it, but this is what we need to prepare for when I talk about getting prepared for a future where more people are discovering what they need. and then instead of you know going to a platform and just typing in a keyword maybe there are uh in some situations they might go ahead and buy something right there based on a recommendation by AI. So kind of interesting what's going on with Walmart what's going on on Amazon. We should definitely uh be on the watch. Now, speaking of Amazon and especially Amazon advertising, Helium 10 obviously has had a tool for uh advertising for years called Helium 10 Ads. And for me, the number one thing that I wish ads had all this time and the number one thing that customers ask for is, "Hey, Helium 10 has an amazing keyword tracker, right? Where I can see where I'm ranking organically, where I'm ranking in sponsored. I would love to be able to make rules for my bids based on or sponsored or organic rank. In other words, like, hey, all of a, you know, I I want to be in the top three or four sponsored positions on Amazon for this certain keyword for my product. And I usually am, but if all of a sudden my rank starts dropping to 5, 6, 7, 8, you know, pushing me to page two, I want to, you know, know about this so I can increase my bid on Amazon in my campaign and maybe get my top three position back. Well, that that's kind of been a pipe dream for years, but guess what, guys? We took the first steps. It's in beta now for Elite members. I think some Diamond members might have it. So, what I want you guys to do, those of you who have Helium 10 ads, uh if you have a Diamond or Elite, I know Elite has has access to this. A lot of Diamond customers might already by now, too, go into the uh rules and automation. And then what you're going to want to do is you're going to want to go into the share of voice section. All right. You're going to hit this rule. And now this allows you to create a rule based on certain metrics. Now, for now, it's going off of our share voice tool. A lot of you don't even realize we have a share of voice tool. Kind of like tracks how you're doing on page one for all your, you know, placements. Um, so you have to be tracking keywords and your products in Sheravo currently to use this. We're probably going to change this soon. This is like I almost don't want to say beta. This is like an alpha uh you know launch mode right now. But basically I I'm going to be able to say hey for my as share a voice if my organic position on average over like you know 5 days or 6 days is like greater than or equal to 10. In other words, I drop out of the first 10 and at the same time maybe my keyword performance like my a cost or my PPC orders or my spend or whatever is under a certain amount then you know go ahead and increase or decrease my bid. So like this has so many applications like let's say my organic rank starts going down, right? Well, what do you want to do? Hey, I need to go push advertising. let me go ahead and increase my bid so I can maybe get my rank back. If my sponsored rank goes down, what if I'm already position one or two in organic or sponsored? And I'm like, you know what? I wonder if I roll back my bid a little bit. Can I maintain staying up there and not have to pay so much? So then maybe I might have a rule that says, "Hey, if my average sponsored rank is one and I don't care if I'm one through three, take my bid back by 10 cents or 15 cents and until you know it's drops like four and then it'll increase again." So like all this stuff, it's not like new uh you know like like you're probably doing that manually and you were using keyword tracker and then you'd go back two days from now and check where you're ranking and then you change your bid again. Imagine a world now soon, guys. You can automate this all based on your keyword rank. So again, if you want to play with this now, um you're going to need to first of all have a Helium 10 Elite or maybe Diamond account for uh for some of you and you need to be using Helium 10 ads and you have to be using our share a voice tool. But again, I'm I'm I'm trying to work with the team to try and you know get that to be based off of our keyword tracker instead of the share of voice since most of you use that. So uh really exciting times guys. one of the most exciting things, probably the most exciting thing for me for Helium 10 ads in like 3 four years. So, really cool stuff. Uh, look forward to being able to control your advertising based on your keyword rank. Switching platforms now talking about Tik Tok shop. Here's an article from social media today entitled Tik Tok adds more AI powered tools to assist Tik Tok shop merchants. All right, so there's a lot of interesting AI things that uh you you can try out. For example, one of the things mentioned is says Tik Tok's rolling out access to its new AI fashion video maker which will be able to generate highquality videos that showcase your product within minutes. Says using this process, shop sellers will be able to upload still images of their products and then Tik Tok system will be able to convert them into AI video clips that includes voiceovers, it'll have music, etc. It's been actually uh testing this even with human models that you could like uh have say stuff and you know they can use your voice but have like a a different face or body. It's like kind of crazy what the kind of things that it's talking about here. So make sure to check out this article to see some of the new features that Tik Tok shop has for uh sellers. Guys, if you're not on Tik Tok shop, go to ht.mme/ttart. h10.mettart. It'll help you uh set up your very first Tik Tok account. That's gonna, you know, give you some like special bonuses since you're signing up through Helium 10. We don't get any money from that, but it's just like something that'll help you with um getting some access to special customer service. And then just migrate your listings with Helium 10's uh listing converter from Amazon to Tik Tok in seconds or at most maybe a minute. You'll have all your Amazon listings on Tik Tok shop and then it's off to the races. Go into Tik Tok shop, start using these AI tools, use Helium 10's AI tools. Man, guys, there is money you are leaving on the table if you're not on Tik Tok shop yet. Next up, we've got our strategy of the week. Um, you know, when you've launched a new product, uh, do you ever, you know, have it closed because you want to wait until the inventory distributes around the country more? Um, how do you know where where your inventory is, uh, in Amazon's warehouses? How do you know if your sales are being isolated to a certain region or your inventory is? Well, Carrie's going to show you a strategy how to find that out. Inventory heat maps is a tool exclusive to Helium 10 that can help you to see your inventory and your sales distribution. Now, why is this important and how can it help you make money? Well, it's kind of a reverse way of making money. When we run out of stock, launch a new product, or run low on inventory while we're waiting for more to arrive, something happens to our listings. So, you probably know this. So let's say for example we send in 500 units to Amazon. Now do all 500 become active right away? No. And sometimes only two or three units get checked into inventory initially. So what does this mean? It means that those few units are usually located near the warehouse where you sent the Amazon FBA shipment. Let's say for example if you send it to Oakland in California. So when those 5, 20, or even 50 units go live, they're only available in that region. So now imagine there's a shopper in Florida that's searching for your product. So, say for example, we we have our coffin shelf. Because this inventory is still in California, Amazon shows a horrible shipping estimate. So, it might actually take 3 days, but Amazon will say it'll arrive in 2 weeks. And that actually is going to kill your conversion rate. Now, why is that? It's because when someone adds it to their cart and they see, you know, it's 2 week, maybe 3 week delivery time, they're going to not want to wait and they're just going to go and find another coffin shelf to buy instead. So, what is the solution? Um, usually it's better to keep your listings closed for about a week until the inventory spreads out across the country. And here is the way that you can manage this. Now, what we're going to do is you're going to go into Helium 10 and you're going to go into the profits tool under heat maps. And it's under this icon right here. And once you're in there, you can, you know, choose the product that you want to take a look at. And you can see basically, you know, which FBA warehouses have units for that product across the US. So, you can see we have our coffin shelf here. Um, and if you wanted to change the product, do that here. But, um, you can see where our coffin shelf is actually located and how many units. You can go back in time. If you want to go to a different day, you can go back and see historically where all of your inventory is actually located. So, say you see, okay, hey, all of my inventory is, you know, really well dispersed throughout the country, then that's probably a good time to actually make your listings live. Again, another use for the heat maps is you can actually analyze your sales performance by city, county, or state. So, if we go up here to this top toggle right here, we can click on the sales map. Maybe you notice your coffin shelf or whatever your product is um hasn't had any sales in certain parts of the country, like, you know, Montana or North Dakota. That might tell you that, you know, you need to send more inventory to Amazon so they can spread it out um across the country a little bit more widely. So, for example, we've got only one spot here. So, we might want to send in more inventory to really disperse this throughout the country. And then you can check your heat maps again after you restock. And as long as you're not incurring, you know, a ton of storage fees, then you can see whether Amazon is distributing your inventory more broadly. And um that's another powerful way to use heat maps. So, make sure you're taking advantage of heat maps to just monitor where your inventory is and where your sales are. >> Thank you very much, Carrie. Uh, next up or last up actually on our list of news for today is from Grocery Dive. Not often on the Weekly Buzz do we talk about Grocery Dive, right? But this article is entitled Amazon takes on Walmart with new store concept. It says there's going to be an approximately 225,000 square foot store that Amazon is planning near Chicago that will sell groceries alongside general merchandise. All right. So, it's basically like Amazon is having like a Walmart or Costco or or Target, right? And it's actually even bigger than Walmart's Superstore. And it says, uh, Amazon spokesperson said that the plan store is in a new concept that we think customers will be excited about. Now, as we know, Amazon has tried different formats of brickandmortar stores, um, usually not with a lot of success, you know, um, like what was it called? Fresh and easy or something like that. But what does this have to do with e-commerce? The reason I'm bringing this article up is what if this takes off and now all of a sudden Amazon starts opening up these stores across the country. That means a number of things. It means more distribution centers. It means being closer to customers. Remember, that's the one thing that Walmart beats Amazon on is its proximity to customers for its last mile delivery, right? There's more Walmart stores than Amazon distribution channels. So, this could kind of bridge that gap and make delivery even more crazy. By the way, I live in the middle of nowhere. Not the complete middle of nowhere, but like in north San Diego County in a semi-ural area. I ordered something today and it got to me in 1 hour and 20 minutes. That's insane. But this would make it even more. And then the other thing that could be potential is what if Amazon develops like 100, 300, 400, 500 stores in the next few years if this is successful? Well, guess where it's going to get a lot of products. It's not going to be a 200,000 square foot store filled with Amazon basic stuff. There's going to be a lot of Amazon sellers products and brands in there. Who knows? Go to the K or go to the home and kitchen aisle in this new store. You might see some coffin shelves in there or something. So, this could be a chance for us to get our products into brick and mortar for for some of us. So, kind of exciting. I'm not going to hold my breath on the success of this too much just because Amazon has not had any success with brickandmortar so far. But this is this is uh something new and something different. So, you never know what might happen. All right, guys. Thank you very much for tuning in. Make sure to tune in next week to see what's buzzing.