#533 - Day 1 of Prime Day Event Results, New EU Import Rules & Amazon Accelerate | Weekly Buzz 6/24

Day one of the Prime Day event. Results are in. Amazon accelerated dates have been announced and more info on the European Union lowv value shipment rules. All this and more on this week's episode of the weekly buzz. Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the AMM podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Carrie Miller, 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 world. We let you know what new features Helium 10 has, and we also give you a training tip of the week. So, let's get started and see what's buzzing. All righty, let's go ahead and get into the first piece of news, and that is all about Prime Day because the this week is all about Prime Day. It's a 4-day event. So, the first day of Prime Day actually already has um gotten off to a record-breaking start. So, according to Adobe Analytics, the first day of Amazon's 4-day Prime Day event generated $8.3 billion in the US online sales, making it the biggest online shopping day of 2026 so far and a 5.3 increase over last year's opening day. And so, you can see some of these stats in this article here that we have from the retail brew. So, what's even more impressive is that this isn't just benefiting Amazon. Retailers across the internet are seeing a surge in sales as shoppers actually compare prices and take advantage of competing promotions from companies like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy, and also probably Tik Tok Shop. Analysts now expect the 4-day shopping event to drive 26.3 billion in US e-commerce sales, which would make it the largest online shopping event in US history. So, if you're an Amazon seller, this is a great reminder that Prime Day creates a halo effect across e-commerce. So, even if shoppers don't ultimately purchase from Amazon, they're actively searching for deals everywhere, making it one of the best opportunities of the year to capture new customers. All right, next up, and this is our new feature alert, and this is the most exciting thing I think that I have today, and that is our Helium 10 MCP connector to Claude. So, what exactly is this? It's basically a way to pull the data in from Helium 10 to Claude so that you can utilize Helium 10 data in Claude. You can do all kinds of things. Filter it the way you want want to filter it, combine different tools and um you know you can basically create dashboards of your own if you wanted to create your own dashboards or you already always have wanted to. But you can do this all using Helium 10 10 data and that's a huge part of the value of Helium 10 is our data. We've been in this business for 10 years, which is incredible, but we've got tons and tons of data that nobody else has. So, this is a huge deal. And so, I'm going to just show you one example of what I did with our MCP. Okay? And you can, again, there's so much you can do. This is just one example. I said, use the Helium 10 MCP to get all the keywords for these asens where they were one of the top three clicked and had at least 1% conversion. So, I put in those asens. Okay. Now, what was I trying to do here? It's basically like search query performance for your competitors. So you're going to get information from brand analytics. So that's what's being pulled in from Helium 10 is brand analytics data. And so what I can do is I can basically see and I can see it down here. It's in Excel format. I can literally click on all these different asens and it's going to show the actual click share and the conversion share. So everything every keyword that they're converting over 1% I can basically see the keywords where they're actually converting. So it's that that's basically like their search query performance, which is so cool. So I did this in in a few minutes. I got all of these results using the the MCP. So you can see all of these keywords and you can sort and filter through them. You can maybe look at some lowhanging fruit where they're actually converting. It looks like they're converting pretty high for some of these, you know, lower search volume, search terms. So you could potentially go ahead and do that. So there's a lot of things you can do with this data, but the best thing is that you can just make sure that you're targeting all the keywords that your competitors are dominating on. and it shows um this because you can see what their actual conversion rate is and their conversion share, their click share, all of that stuff. So definitely check out this MCP if you are in the elite group. If you're not in the elite, then you could you'll get access to this later on in diamond and you'll be able to do all this. And again, you can do whatever you want. You can use Cerebro, you can pull in data from there. You can pull in profits data, you know, PPC data. You can pull in everything that you want from Helium 10 and you can put it in to this, you know, cloud chat and ask it whatever you want. I actually used co-work for this. Works really, really well. So again, this is our Helium 10 MCP. And if you want a discount code cuz you want to upgrade, we do have a discount code in the comments. So or actually the description. So go ahead and check out that there. So again, that's our new feature of the alert. really really exciting stuff with our Helium 10 MCP. All right, this next piece of news is not actually an article, but this is information coming directly from Amazon that we have. Last week, Amazon announced a major change to the European Union import rules. And this week, they've actually released an expanded FAQ with more details for sellers. So, if this actually sounds familiar, it's because it's similar to the dimminimus changes that we've been seeing in the US. Now, what was the dimminimus? It's when basically people were importing directly from China, you know, shipments of $800 or less and they didn't have to pay taxes on them or anything like that. And then also something that was happening was it was being shipped through like China Post. And so our post office was kind of bearing the burden of all this. So we were losing lots and lots of money. So we were like no more of these small shipments. We're going to close this loophole where you know sellers are getting you know these shipments in without having to pay taxes. So the European Union is actually doing the same thing. So governments around the world are really tightening rules around low-v valueue imports and that's exactly what the European Union is doing as well. So starting July 1st, the European Union is eliminating the duty exemption for lowv value imports and that means shipments valued at €150 or less and that are sent from outside of the European Union directly to customers. Um it will now be subject to a mandatory €3 customs duty per item or tariff line. So this isn't an Amazon fee. Just want to make that clear. It's actually required under the European uh union law. So for FBA sellers using remote fulfillment, Amazon will automatically add that, you know, $3 uh euro or sorry, the 3 duty to the customerf facing price at checkout. So while sellers won't be, you know, charged directly, it does actually mean your product may appear more expensive than locally fulfilled orders. So Amazon recommends reviewing your pricing strategy if you're using automated pricing tools. Also, for FBM sellers, there are a few new requirements. You'll need to use Amazon approved carrier. Provided provide Amazon's IOSS number and the AS to your carrier for customs clearance and continue shipping delivered duty paid or DDP so customers aren't surprised with import fees when their packages arrive. So, if you're using an API or a third party shipping integration, make sure it's updated to use Amazon's approved carrier list as well. And one important clarification from the FAQ is that these changes only apply to shipments entering the EU from outside of the EU. So if you are storing inventory within Europe and fulfilling orders locally and the new import duty does not apply. So Amazon also suggests sellers who frequently ship into Europe consider programs like Pan European FBA or the European fulfillment network to avoid these crossber import issues. So, the bottom line is if you are selling into Europe from outside of the EU, now is the time to review your pricing, fulfillment strategy, and shipping carriers before these changes take effect on July 1st of 2026. All right, next up, we have our strategy of the week with Bradley. So, Bradley, go ahead and take it away. >> How to automatically adjust your advertising bids based on keyword rank. Historically, why do we have Helium 10 keyword tracker? All right. Well, you you've probably used it because you want to see where you rank organically, where your sponsored ads are coming up. Uh you might take action on a daily basis based on that. Especially when you're in launch, you'd be like, "Hey, I'm trying to get in the first two, three, four positions in sponsored ads because I know if I get conversions, my organic rank will increase eventually." And so, you know, you maybe use uh Helium 10 keyword tracker, add some keywords, and then you keep monitoring your sponsored ranks and say, "Oh, man, I am consistently below position five. You know what? I think I need to increase my bid by a few cents, and let's see if that gets me position 2, three, or four." Or, uh, you know, that's during launch. Maybe you've got your hero keyword like for me coffin shelf where I'm like you know what I never ever want to get below position four or two for that matter in sponsored ads uh because I need to own the top of search in sponsored or organic. Or on the flip side maybe if I am one or two maybe I want to back off my bid a little bit to see if I stay at one or two. In other words, like, hey, maybe I'm bidding $2, but somebody else is bidding $2. And so, since we're both bidding $2, we're maxing out our bid, but if I back off and go 150, maybe my competitor's bid will also go down to 150. And we'll still be like one and two, but now I'm paying 150 a click instead of $2 a click. So, again, people make decisions. Amazon sellers make decisions on their advertising based on keyword rank. And historically, you've had to kind of do it in two different, you know, tools. Maybe you're in seller central, that's how you manage your bids. Uh, and then you've got your Helium 10 keyword tracker and every day or every week you're comparing it. Now, with Helium 10 ads, guys, you can set a rule, and this is the only tool in the all-in-one space that does this where you can increase, decrease a bid based on average rank, uh, consecutive rank, median rank. All right, let me show you how it works. you go into Helium 10 ads and create a rule like here is an actual launch I'm doing right now for this batshaped bathmat set. So I add the campaign uh to this rule and then all of the keywords that I'm tracking in keyword tracker uh show up here and I can add it. You know what I want to have rules based on all of these because I'm trying to stay at the top of search for these keywords. And then down here the next section I add which campaign I want to control the bids. And then here is my criteria. So I'm saying, hey, based on keyword tracker, if my sponsored rank in consecutive checks in the last three different checks is all greater than four, then increase my target bid by 15 cents. What does this mean? Consecutive checks means if if I don't have Helium 10's boost on, it's only checking once a day. So it basically means if I for three days in a row have a rank that's below four, you know, 5 6 7 8 9. Hey, tell me to increase my bid 15 cents. If I look here in keyword tracker, I can see goth bathmat probably hits this cuz I I look at the history and I can see I have boost on and in the last 3 hours it's position 11. It's position five it's position six. So if I was doing this manually I'd be like you know what 1156 this is like bottom of page one middle of page one. No, I want to get on the top. I want to increase my bid. Right? But what I'm saying here in this rule is I'm saying, "Hey, just automatically give me a suggestion to raise the bid 15 cents without me having to check and cross reference keyword tracker." Uh, I could go opposite. I could say, "Hey, what if I'm above rank four? Maybe I want to decrease my bid." Uh, I can say, "Hey, you know what? I want to just take over time an average position, not consecutive checks, but an average of of over the last seven days, if I average this rank, increase or decrease the bid or median rank." And so this is pretty cool. I say here, I want to increase my uh bid by 15 cents. All right. So once I implement that rule in my suggestions page in Helium 10, every day it's going to tell me if I have anything that hit that rule. And you can see right here, here's that keyword goth bathmat. It says here, uh, hey, because I had the rule that it was below four, I need to increase this bid by 15 cents. So I would just hit this button that says yes, go ahead and do it. And now uh it's going to increase the bid 15 cents. And then tomorrow it's going to tell me again, did I get the top four positions in sponsored ads? If I did, it's no longer going to suggest to me anything. But if I'm still below four, it's going to tell me, you know what, raise it 15 cents more. So this is like to me a gamecher in the sense that I used to have the game used to be I had to do this manually and check multiple tools. Now I can kind of set it and forget it and automate it if I wanted to or at the very least just check it once a day without going into multiple tools and manage my bids accordingly. So uh this is one of my favorite ads. This is probably one of the most requested things uh by Helium 10 ads users in the last couple of years and I'm so happy that we finally have it. >> All right, thank you so much Bradley for that strategy of the week and we're just actually going to go ahead and get into the next piece of news and that is about the Amazon Accelerate. So, Amazon has opened its registration for Accelerate for 2026, and they announced that this year's event is going to feature more than 70 Amazon teams and trusted thirdparty partners in the Partner Connect Expo. So, it's a great opportunity for sellers to get answers directly from Amazon, discover new tools, and connect with companies that can help grow their businesses. So, if you're planning on attending, also Helium 10 is going to be there. So, stop by the Helium 10 booth. We'd really love to meet you in person, answer your questions, and show you what's new. We actually have a lot of really cool stuff planned that we're going to be giving away. A lot of great information we're going to be sharing. So, you definitely don't want to miss it and you don't want to miss the Helium 10 booth. Accelerate takes place on September 22nd to the 24th in Seattle. And if you register now, you can actually save $100 with early bird pricing. Something else that's really cool about this event is that they have the seller cafe that you can sign up for. So, if you've been having any issues with your account that haven't been you haven't been able to solve with seller support, this is a great way to do it cuz you can go in person and talk to a seller support agent face to face and they help you to resolve any of your issues. And I've actually used this before. It's actually incredible. So, you want to keep an eye out for when that signup happens. And next up, we have a new Amazon Global Logistics portal. So, Amazon Global Logistics has launched a new AGL program portal designed to make crossber shipping easier for sellers. This new portal lets you get instant freight quotes with just a few details comparing shipping rates and delivery times side by side and book shipments all in one place. So, Amazon has also centralized shipping resources, onboarding information, and the latest logistics updates into a single hub. So, if you're importing inventory into Amazon fulfillment centers or using Amazon warehousing and distribution, the new portal should make the entire process much faster, simpler, and more transparent. All right, and this last piece of news is about the seller growth summit in New York City. So, they actually are also having a seller cafe. So, if you are able to get to New York and you've been having issues with your Amazon account that you haven't been able to solve, they actually have um signups open for their seller cafe and it's for this conference on July 16th that's in New York. So, this is a great way to get those issues resolved that you've not been able to resolve with seller support. So, make sure that you register for this conference if you're be if you're able to attend this in New York so you can get access to the seller cafe which I know has helped tons of sellers that I know personally with issues that they could not fix with regular seller support. So, just a little bit about seller growth summit. It's on July 16th and it's in the New York Marriott Marquee, New York, New York. So, that's where it is. It's really for sellers who want to scale. It's a 1-day event. So, if you want to check that out, definitely go ahead and check that out. So, that is all for this episode of the weekly buzz. I hope you enjoyed all this great information and we will see you again next week to see what's buzzing. Bye everyone.