#534 - Prime Day Winners, New Seller Security & Review Policy Changes | Weekly Buzz 7/2/26

The full 4-day Prime Day event resultsare in. Seller Central is becoming more secure. And Tik Tok Shop updates itsincentivized review policy. All this and more on this week's episode of theWeekly Buzz. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody and welcome to anotherepisode of the AMM podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host Carrie Miller and this isthe show that is our Helium 10 weekly buzz where we give you a rundown of allthe goings on in the Amazon Tik Tok shop and e-commerce world. We let you knowwhat new features Helium 10 has and we also give you a training tip of theweek. So, let's get started and see what's buzzing. All right, so let's goahead and get into this first piece of news. I actually have two articles toshare and this is about the Prime Day results. Okay, so this is the full 4-dayPrime Day event. Last week, I talked about the first day, but this week I'mgoing to talk about all four days. This 4-day Prime Day event was very much asuccess for Amazon and shows that e-commerce is still very much alive andwell. So, according to Adobe Analytics, this year's Prime Day event generated anestimated 26.4 billion in US online sales, making it one of the biggestonline shopping events ever and representing roughly 9% year-over-yeargrowth compared to last year. So that's larger than many Black Friday and CyberMonday events combined. It says in comparison to 26.4 billion in onlinespend during this recent Prime Day, consumers spent about 32.45 billionacross Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday last year. So it'sdefinitely creeping up with being a little bit in comparison to that. Sothat's pretty amazing. And then what's interesting is though that while thetotal spend increased, individual shoppers actually spent less. Soresearch from Numerator, and I'm going to show you Numerator's article, and youcan actually see the link in our description, they actually found thatthe average Prime Day order dropped to about $48 per order, down from more than53 last year, and the average household spending also fell from 156 to 143. Soyou can actually see that in these charts and on these graphs. So thequestion is, how do you have a record-breaking sales with consumersspending less? Well, the answer is that shoppers are becoming more intentional.So instead of loading up on expensive electronics and impulse purchases,consumers focused heavily on essentials and replenishment items. So some of thetop selling products this year included protein shakes. So you can see thatpremier protein shakes was top. Um then electrolyte packets, which is the liquidIV here, cat treats, household items, and health and wellness products. Sonearly 70% of products purchased sold for under $20. Another major trend wasthat shoppers were spreading purchases across multiple orders. So nearlytwothirds of households place two or more separate orders during the event.So this shows that consumers are still shopping heavily but are being very muchmore deliberate where they spend their money. So we also saw Prime Day continueto evolve from an Amazon only event into an industrywide shopping holiday. Sonearly half of Prime Day shoppers said they also shopped or plan to shop atcompeting places like Walmart and Target during the same period. For Amazonsellers, um the takeaway, what is it? Well, consumers are still spending ande-commerce is still very much alive, but they're spending more intentionally.Essentials, consumables, and products with very clear everyday value performedparticularly well this year. While shoppers looked for opportunities tosave on purchases, they were already maning to planning to make. So, if therewere some splurges, it seems like they were probably already going to buythose, but they're getting and waiting for the discount. Prime Day alsocontinues to reinforce an important trend that shoppers are becomingincreasingly deals savvy. They're comparing prices across retailers,placing multiple smaller orders, and waiting for major shopping events tomake purchases. So, for brands, that means strong offers, smart promotions,and clear value propositions matter more than ever. So, that's basically whathappened during Prime Day and the 4-day event. I'm curious to know how well youall did this Prime Day. If you want to put it in the comments, you know, was itbigger than ever? Was it less? Was it neutral? Just let me know what happened.I know it's big for Amazon, but the question I would like to know is thirdparty sellers like the our audience and smaller brands, maybe you know somebigger brands as well, but how was it for you? All right, next up I want totalk about a skill that I have to share with you for Claude and this utilizesHelium 10 data. Now, we actually are coming out with a series of really greatskills that are going to help you with your business to save a lot of time andyou can utilize Helium 10 data and Amazon data for these. But this firstone I actually did and you can download it. The link is in the description, butbasically you're going to be able to find the top keywords and the topopportunity keywords in your niche. So basically, you upload the skill and thenit's going to show you this analysis. So right here you can see this I didleggings for women and you can see the top keywords are shown here, but Iseparated it the brand names out. So, I asked this claude to basically createthe skill where the branded terms are actually separate so that you can kindof have different strategies for those because I know for myself um if I wantedto do like a conquesting campaign going after other brands, those are great tokind of have in a list. Um but also maybe you don't want to, you know,target those. You want just a full list of keywords. We've got opportunitykeywords right here. They don't have any branded names in it. And then you cansee the opportunity keywords that were that are branded. So you can see all ofthese basically you know divided by top keywords then top branded keywords thenum top opportunity keywords and then branded opportunity keywords. So that'skind of the gist of this first skill. All you need to do is download a reverseas on Cerebro um and you can do it with multiple of your um of your competitorsand then you just specify your AS. So just say hey this is my as and these aremy competitors and then run the skill and you'll be able to see the topkeywords for your niche the top opportunities and basically theopportunities are where maybe one or two of your competitors are dominating butyou haven't yet. So that's a really um exciting skill. So again if you want todownload it you can download it. We have some that are coming out every week. Sowe have some great ways that you can help manage your business and justoptimize without having to spend hours and hours doing it. Okay, we're going togo ahead and go into the next piece of news. And this is very near and dear tomy heart. And the reason why I think it's very important to me is because twoyears ago, I actually had somebody hack into my Amazon account and they actuallystole five figure payout. Somehow they were able to get into our account. Theywere able to change the bank account and then steal the payout, which was really,really difficult. And Amazon didn't help. They didn't even help, you know,investigate. They didn't they didn't even address the case. And the local lawenforcement, there wasn't really anything that they could do. So um itwas really very upsetting and it was a big loss and I've actually talked toother brands who actually lost even in the six figures of their payout. So thisis a very serious issue. So I think everyone should listen closely to whatAmazon is now like basically giving you and that is um basically they're youknow investing now in more security. Starting this month they are rolling outpass keys to all seller central accounts. So, pass keys are passwordlesssign-in methods that use your devices built-in security features like face ID,fingerprint authentication, or your device PIN instead of traditionalpasswords. The biggest advantage is that pass keys can't be fished, stolen, orshared the way passwords and verification codes can. Since thecredentials are tied directly to your device, even sophisticated fishingattempts become less effective. Amazon says pass keys will be available to allsellers immediately and will be mandatory for some accounts later thisyear. So, this isn't something you'll want to ignore until the last minute.So, the good news is that setup takes less than 2 minutes. Simply head tologin and settings inside seller central, select create pass key, andfollow the prompts on your device. I know security updates aren't always themost exciting news stories, but if spending 2 minutes setting up a pass keycan prevent even one seller from experiencing what we went through, it'sreally worth it. unauthorized changes to your account or and you don't even knowit is that's a huge problem. You could lose tons and tons of money. One that Iknow that you can get is called UB Key and it's basically like this littledevice thing and it gives you a pin every time and that's what you can useto log in. So, I would definitely look into that if you are wanting moresecurity for your account. You want to make sure to protect your payouts. Nextup, we have news from Tik Tok Shop. So, Tik Tok shop sellers, there is animportant policy update that you need to be aware of because Tik Tok justreleased a new review policy and they're making it very clear that reviewmanipulation will not be tolerated. First of all, sellers can no longeroffer incentives in exchange for reviews unless they're using Tik Tok shop'sofficial incentivized review feature. So, that means no gift cards, freeproducts, refunds, rebates, discounts, or any other rewards in exchange forcustomer feedback. Tik Tok is also cracking down on attempts to influencereviews in other ways. So sellers cannot ask only happy customers. I know a lotof people used to do this and be like, "Hey, if you're happy, leave a review.If you're not satisfied, contact us." So kind of helped to avoid those negativereviews, but you definitely can't do that on TikTok now. You can't requestthat customers remove or change negative reviews. You also can't discouragecustomers from leaving reviews or repeatedly ask customers to leavefeedback after purchase. And another major update is that Tik Tok hasofficially introduced a negative review rate or an NRR metric that tracks thepercentage of orders receiving one or two star reviews over the previous 60days. So those negative reviews are broken down into three categories. Theactual product issues, the logistical issues, and customer service issues. Sowhy does this matter to sellers? Well, because a high negative review rate canlead to violation points, listing removals, or even restrictions on yourability to sell on Tik Tok shop. So, so I would say the biggest takeaway is thatTik Tok shop is continuing to mature. I know it was kind of the wild wild west.You could do these things, but you want to be more careful now. They're, youknow, really growing as an e-commerce platform and much like Amazon, they'removing towards stricter marketplace standards focused on customer trust,authentic reviews, and seller accountability. So, sellers should focuson product quality, fulfillment, and customer experience because TikTok ismaking it increasingly difficult to shortcut your way to better reviews. Allright, next up we have our strategy of the week with Shiovali. So go ahead andtake it away, Shioali. How to download thousands of reviews potentially fromAmazon products. Now you might be wondering, didn't Amazon block peoplefrom downloading reviews? And you would be right. There's no tool that canactually show you this information. However, you can still run reviewinsights. You just won't be able to export that data or see the two to threeword phrases that are most mentioned. But there's a trick that a lot of peopledon't know about just yet, and that is if that Amazon product is also on TikTok shop, what you can do is you can open up that product listing page on TikTok and then run Helium 10's Chrome extension. We are the only tool rightnow that has a Chrome extension for Tik Tok shop. And this will show you all thethings that you know and love like 30-day revenue, GMV, the ratings, andyou'll still be able to see the stuff that you used to be able to see onAmazon, which is the two to three word phrases, and you'll be able to exportout that information. Meaning, if you are somebody who wants to use thatinformation in conjunction with, say, an AI tool, any sort of large learningmodel, you'd be able to do that by checking out if that product is on TikTok shop, downloading that information, and then taking it from there. So guys,if you are interested in analyzing reviews or just seeing what people aretalking about, this might be one of those strategies that you'll want touse. And like I said, you can't find it with any other software tool. Thank youso much for that strategy of the week, Shioali. And last but not least, we'regoing to go ahead and talk about something else that Amazon put out, andthat's about seller fulfilled delivery rates. Amazon is introducing a newperformance metric that seller fulfilled sellers need to pay attention to,especially if you sell to Amazon business customers. Starting September30th, sellers will be required to maintain a business hour delivery rateof at least 90%. And this metric measures the percentage of your sellerfulfilled orders to Amazon business customers that are delivered during thecustomer's actual operating hours over a rolling 14-day period. Now, why doesthis matter? Well, businesses aren't always open to receive packages at 8:00p.m. or even later on a Friday night or on weekends. And miss deliveries canlead to delays, redely attempts, and frustrated customers. So, Amazon wantsto ensure packages are arriving when businesses are actually open to acceptthem. If your business hour delivery rate falls below 90% by September 30th,Amazon says they'll notify you and provide recommendations to improve.However, if your performance doesn't recover by October 30th, your sellerfulfilled offers could be removed from Amazon business listings. The good newsis that this only impacts seller fulfilled offers sold to Amazon businesscustomers. FBA won't be affected and neither will your standard consumerlistings. Amazon is recommending that sellers use reliable carriers, maintainaccurate handling times, and take advantage of tools like automatedhandling times, shipping settings automation, and buying shipping. All ofwhich can help ensure compliance with the new requirements. So, if you'refulfilling your own orders and selling to business customers, now is the timeto start monitoring your business hour delivery rate and account health beforethis becomes an enforced metric later this year. All right, that is all I havefor you today on this week's episode of the Weekly Buzz. So, we'll see you againnext week to see what's buzzing. Bye, everyone.