Amazon News: Seller Loyalty Shifts, Tariffs, & Visual Tactics for 2025

Amazon News: Seller Loyalty Shifts, Tariffs, & Visual Tactics for 2025 Unknown Speaker: Welcome fellow entrepreneurs to the Amazon Sellers School podcast, where we talk about Amazon and how you can use it to build an e-commerce empire, a side hustle and anything in between. And now your host, Todd Welch. Speaker 2: Hello, hello. Welcome to another episode of Amazon Seller News Live in 2025. Ooh, nice rhyme. Rhymes, I did not mean it to, but that did. Appreciate everybody out there joining us today in the new year. Hope everybody had an awesome new year, Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever you celebrate out there. Mine was awesome with the newborn baby. Everything feels brand new. Really good time. We got Eric from Amazon Lit joining us today and then Danan over there at EcomTriage. So I appreciate you guys joining me. Unknown Speaker: Yeah man, glad to be here. Speaker 1: Happy holidays. Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. It's a, as a, I've seen someone post online yesterday was the best sales day of the entire year. Speaker 3: So January 2nd was the best, best sales day of the year, huh? Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Speaker 3: I know that I've had highest debors for January, uh, 2025 myself. So, I'll bet Eric has. As long as he's got more than one order, he's doing the best he's ever done this year so far. Speaker 1: Yeah. January 2nd has been a phenomenal, phenomenal day. Speaker 2: Yeah. Hopefully only upwards from here for sure. But for me, my products, March is the best month, so I'm actually looking forward to this next quarter. It rivals December most of the time, so I'm looking forward to it. But we've got some good news this week. It's a little bit of a slow week in the news, but I think I found some articles that are worth talking about and we can dive into some good discussion. So let's go ahead and dive into the first one right away here. So why 2024 was the year sellers became less loyal to Amazon? In 2024, rising fees and increased complexity prompted many Amazon sellers to explore alternative platforms like TikTok Shop, Walmart Marketplace, and Shopify. While Amazon remains dominant, these alternatives offer lower fees and better profit margins, making them attractive options for sellers seeking to diversify their sales channels. Sellers cite Amazon's control over their business and account suspensions as key concerns. Pushing them to invest in platforms that provide more autonomy and flexibility. Although most sellers aren't abandoning Amazon entirely, they are strategically reallocating resources to reduce dependency and enhance profitability. And I definitely agree with that headline in most of this article. I think 2024 was eye-opening for a lot of sellers and 2025 is gonna be the year that a lot of sellers at least launch in other marketplaces. It's going to be a long time, like it said, before anybody can replace Amazon, but diversifying I think is going to be a big thing this year. What are your guys' thoughts? Speaker 3: I want to hear from Eric first since he's a titan when it comes to selling on Amazon. Puts me to shame for sure, so I want to know what he has to say. Speaker 1: I just, yes. I mean, absolutely. I agree with this article 100%. During COVID, we actually stopped selling on other marketplaces, turned off Walmart, turned off eBay and went deep into Amazon because Amazon was so lucrative. And now about six months ago, we turned Walmart back on. We're selling on TikTok. So it just makes sense. I mean, it's with the restrictions Amazon has implemented with their fee structures. I mean, now I think you have to be omni market. You really have to be. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm similar. I've done eBay and Walmart for a while just using third party software that pushes your Amazon listings over to those platforms. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: But this year, I'm definitely gonna be diving into using Walmart fulfillment services more, especially with my best-selling products to get them moving there faster. Maybe work a little bit with eBay and TikTok shop and things like that. TikTok, depending on, of course, what happens here in the next couple of weeks with the potential ban. Speaker 3: We've had conversations about that. I really don't think that's going through. Speaker 1: The bans, yeah, I don't think so. Speaker 2: It's kind of up to the Supreme Court right now. They've got a rule on it. Most likely they'll rule on it here. I'm going to guess this next week we'll know one way or another, and then it'll kind of be up to the legislature, I guess, from there if they decide to change anything. But they don't come back into session until the 20th, which is the day after the ban is supposed to go into effect. Speaker 3: How strategic. Speaker 1: And really Amazon, they just show that how much they own us as sellers. I mean, a brand known because even TikTok, Walmart, I mean, it's 10% of the sales, right? I mean, Walmart, the same SKUs I got doing 3000 units a month on Amazon sell 300 units a month on Walmart. So it's like, it's just not comparative either. Speaker 3: But if you were, and I'm actually working with a company that has not yet launched into the Amazon sector, who is hooked up with, I think they said 70 different marketplaces, and they'll help you diversify into those marketplaces and manage all of your inventory and shipments and all of that. Um, and I think that if, if Amazon sellers are going to diversify, then they need it to be as simple, stupid as possible, right? Because otherwise every marketplace is a complete, you know, We're going to be talking about, in quotations here, a completely new business. A long time ago, Eric, you've been selling a long time now, right? Eight, 10 years? Speaker 1: 11 years. Speaker 3: 11 years. Okay. Yeah. I call it a fad, almost a flash in the pan where everyone had to have a Shopify site. And then so everyone out and they made a Shopify site and the vast majority of the people just didn't make any sales because they didn't realize, oh, I've got a market for this. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 3: Right. And so, yeah. So you had this flash in the pan with Shopify and it needs to be If people are going to diversify off of Amazon, they need a system where they can just make it as simple as possible to say, yes, I'd like to sell here. Yes, I'd like to sell here. Yes, I'd like to sell here. But they don't have to learn an entirely new system, do completely new shipping, everything, and fulfillment, everything. And it needs to be, huh? Speaker 1: Like an agency, you're saying. Speaker 3: More of a, yeah, I mean, more of a SaaS. So like, I'll just give you the name. These guys, I don't know if they're ready to come to market, but it's called GB Commerce. It's brand new, and basically you can manage everything from all your inventory, your fulfillment, your shipping, and all of your marketplaces from one spot. Eric, if you want an intro, I'd love to get your feedback. I'll do an intro for you. I think that sellers are going to need that or something like that where it's a seamless process and you get some hand-holding, right? Speaker 2: Well, there's lots of software out there, multi-channel software that push your Amazon listings over to these other platforms or vice versa, depending on what your main platform is. The problem with all of them is that if you have a large catalog, it can be very difficult because they don't seamlessly match up the categories and filling all in the different fields that Walmart requires these, maybe Amazon doesn't, so they might not have the information. And my catalog with 1,500 SKUs that I've got, going through there, you push them all over to eBay and two thirds of them have some kind of error that then you got to go through one by one and try to figure out how to fix it, add whatever details, select the correct category. Speaker 3: Yeah. Again, another reason why it needs to be as simple as a push button. Speaker 2: Yeah. If somebody can figure that out, that would be amazing. One of the problems though like with Walmart is that they don't let you fulfill using FBA and of course most people are using that as their fulfillment channel and so that was one of the problems that I had. We were doing okay on Amazon. A few thousand a week, but, you know, so nothing huge, but Amazon, or they started giving us alerts that we had invalid tracking numbers, even though we were doing, you know, block Amazon logistics, blank box only. USPS puts a note in the tracking that it was originated from Amazon. And so they were flagging those as being invalid tracking numbers. And so we had to stop. We're doing that completely and that's why we're going to be using WFS instead for some of our bigger selling products. Do you guys use any specific software? Speaker 1: No, I use Listing Mirror for some years. I forget the name of the one we use to create all our listings on TikTok. I forget, but it's the same software that we use to fulfill the orders from Amazon as well. Yeah, we could make the connection. We don't do any of the fulfillment from TikTok. And then Walmart, we do all WFH. Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Walmart's actually hired for that. Speaker 1: Yeah, Walmart's pushing hard, but it's 10%, I mean, if that, 10% of sales. And our strategy really is we're only taking our brand directs to TikTok and our own private labels to TikTok and Walmart, because I don't want to be put in the same situation where six to 12 months or Walmart and TikTok start getting real restrictive of like being brand owners. And so I'm not taking general wholesale inventory over those markets. Speaker 3: That makes sense, yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes sense for sure. I mean, you might as well focus on your big ones anyways, because like you said, 10% is about most you can expect from these platforms if you're doing really good. Maybe 20 or 30% if you've got a product fit that's perfect for Walmart or TikTok and you go viral or something like that. With all the talk, you know, everybody's talking about TikTok shop. That's kind of the big one. And it feels like TikTok could be a challenger to Amazon at some point just because of the social shopping aspect. I feel like the more popular it gets and the more companies that are on there, it's gonna get harder and harder and harder, you know, to get that social traffic to your product on that platform. Speaker 3: Yeah. By the way, we've got a few comments here that we just want to go through. So, Thought Gift asks, how to find Amazon Wholesale? You can reach out to really any of us, I think, on LinkedIn and we'll be able to point you in the right direction. And then Malik says... Speaker 2: I've got several videos on that. So if you go to AmazonSeller.School, you can look at the videos there or just search on YouTube, you'll find it as well. Eric, I think you've got a bunch of videos on that. Speaker 1: Yeah, for free, yeah, on YouTube, same thing. Speaker 2: Yep. Speaker 3: Yep. Speaker 2: So just search on YouTube for Amazon Lit or Amazon Seller School and you'll find our wholesale sourcing videos is usually what you can search for. Speaker 3: Yep. And Malik asks, do we have any advice on getting ungated? So that's outside of the scope of what I do because I don't really do wholesale like these other two guys. So they'll know better. Speaker 2: Getting un-gated, I mean, Eric, you want to jump on that one? Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a pretty straightforward process. In order to gate, Amazon will prompt the information that they require to get un-gated. Typically, it's an invoice with 10 units or more with the required information. It needs to have typically a UPC, the quantity that you've purchased, the supplier that you've purchased it from, a website, a contact information, and they break down everything that the invoice needs to include, but I always encourage for For listing eligibility, go through the process, right? Always click request approval, and then it will literally tell you what's required to submit to be ungated. Speaker 3: Oh, sweet. Speaker 2: Nice little tip there. Yeah, just make sure that you're buying from a legitimate supplier. We've talked recently about people buying stolen goods and stuff on WhatsApp and Telegram, and if it's super easy to open up an account, If you're a distributor, then you might want to be careful. And if they're telling you the ASINs and everything that the products belong to, probably not a legitimate distributor or a brand that you're working with. Could be, but probably not. In my experience, none of the distributors and suppliers that I work with are like, here's the ASIN of the product and this is how many sales it's getting and all that stuff. I'm either a fast yeah selling clearance products or could be someone selling stolen products or something like that so that actually brings a question up is where where can somebody. Speaker 3: Is there a list of legitimate companies that you can buy from? I'm sure there must be one, but I've never run across one. I've never really looked, but is it out there? Do you just go to, what is it, thomas.net or something like that to find these people or what? Speaker 1: Well, so unfortunately Danan, Amazon doesn't provide their list. Speaker 3: Well, of course not. Speaker 1: So it's not like available data and no, there's not like a consolidated list of, you know, approved Amazon vendors anywhere. I mean, people will try to sell you those lists, but then the thing you have to ask yourself is, all right, how many other people bought this list and are these suppliers actually really good at all, you know? Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's lists out there, but yeah, like Eric said, the legitimacy of those lists, number one, and then number two, if tons of people start using these same suppliers to get ungated, that could change the way Amazon looks at them. But there's, I mean, the list is basically your search engine, Google, or whatever one you use, just search for distributors, skiing products or something like that, and you'll find ones. You know, if you look up my wholesale reverse sourcing This video, it walks you through exactly how to find those distributors and everything on Google and everywhere else. No, there's no list, but if there was a list, and there are lists I should say, but it doesn't mean they're any good. You may not want to use the companies that are on the list necessarily because number one, they're probably not going to be profitable. And number two, they may not always be able to be used for Amazon if too many people are using them. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 3: Yep. Fair enough. Speaker 2: Let's see. Malik says here, there's no comparison with Amazon. You don't have to create or run advertisements. Amazon is the best platform ever existed. Can't necessarily debate that too much. You could maybe argue with that you don't have to run advertisements. You do if you want to be a successful brand. Most resellers don't because most resellers don't necessarily care about the brand. They're just trying to flip products. But if you're doing brand partnerships or trying to build a brand or help a brand, then you're going to be running ads. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 2: And Eric is the man. So we'll throw that out there. Speaker 3: Yep. Speaker 2: So let me jump back over to the story. I had a few things highlighted here. I seen this survey and a survey of 2000 Amazon sellers conducted by Jungle Scout in 2023. This was expanding to other e-commerce platforms and online channels are one of their top priorities for 2024. So I'd be curious to see a follow up to that to see actually how many sellers did expand to other platforms in 2024. I think 2025 is going to be even more so because the Amazon really laid the smack down in 2024. If you weren't thinking about it already, you for sure are thinking about it now. Speaker 1: Yeah, agreed. Speaker 2: This is a pretty strong statement here, but one of the people they interviewed who has been selling for at least a decade says that small to mid-sized businesses on Amazon will have to shudder eventually. Because the numbers just don't work. So I'm curious your guys' thoughts on that. Do you think there will come a time where it's only the behemoths That are selling on Amazon and it's no good for smaller businesses anymore. Speaker 3: I think there's going to be a degree of that. I'd say the small businesses, not necessarily the medium sized businesses, because, you know, if you think about it, there's 1.9 Maybe at this point, 2 million active seller accounts on Amazon. And what percentage of those seller accounts actually generate revenue that's worth it to Amazon? It's probably not a very big number, right, by comparison. So I think that they want to push out Anybody that is more of a pain in the ass for them logistically and administratively than not, right? So I've been selling on Amazon for it'll be 15 years or maybe it is now. I think I started in December. But let's call it 14 years and I know that it cost me four times as much to sell on Amazon to sell the same product As when I started so that's that's an erosion of my profits, right and What I mean, what am I gonna do? I just take the hit. If I raise my prices, then Amazon gets pissed because it's being sold for less than that than on the manufacturer website. And I have been smacked by Amazon for that before. So eventually, yeah, I will be pushed out. I don't have a whole lot of margin remaining. I used to have 60-something percent net on the products that I sold. But those products have gotten more expensive for me to purchase and it's gotten more expensive to sell on Amazon. So I'm getting it from both ends here, right? It costs me more here and it costs me more there. So I take my measly 8% or 6% or whatever it is. I actually don't know. But it's not what it used to be. That's for sure. Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. I don't think, you know, small to midsize businesses are going to have to shut down completely on Amazon. But I think it's definitely maturing in that if you're not super serious and focused on growing your business, then you are going to have, you know, a slow death or a rapid death. And the saying goes, if you're not growing, you're dying, right? Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 2: So if you're not growing your business, actively working on it, treating it like a real business, then yeah, that's what Amazon is definitely trying to push out. Speaker 1: Yep. Speaker 3: I agree. Speaker 2: I thought this was interesting. That pattern is looking to add Temu as a marketplace option for its brands in 2025. Oh. So that's interesting to see. I know that Temu had kind of started opening up to USA sellers, but from what I had read, most of the USA sellers that were allowed in were from China, here in the United States. Maybe they're expanding it further, I guess. Speaker 3: Well, I mean, if you think about it, it could make sense because they just spent an enormous amount of money and effort to acquire their audience. For cheap stuff. Now, if they can start going after, you know, middle of the road and then eventually expensive items, then they truly do become a competitor to Amazon. While Amazon is trying to catch up to them with Amazon haul. Speaker 2: Hey, Amazon sellers. Tired of losing money on storage and shipping fees? Well, Amazon Storage Pros is here to take the headache out of logistics. We manage everything from inventory and creating efficient shipping plans to working with 3PLs and Amazon's AWD so that you can focus on growing your business. Start with a free storage cost audit and discover exactly where you're overspending and how to fix it. Don't let logistics eat into your profits. Visit AmazonStoragePros.com. That's AmazonStoragePros.com to get your free storage cost audit and start saving today. And now back to the show. Yep. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I think they're going to have to, especially with the tariffs and the closing of the diminished loophole for tariffs and such. They're going to have to get more U.S. based sellers and become more like Amazon. And so we'll see if they're able to. You know, competition is always good. The more competition that we have, the more it will help sellers. But let's have to see how it goes. Speaker 3: Yeah. So the trader's journey has done a few comments here. His latest comment was, I've been a big seller in the space for seven years. A lot has changed. Revenue can be one million plus. And but how much actually goes into my pocket. I can make more money selling courses. Really interesting statement. And I couldn't agree with you more. And and I have a friend. This is many years ago. He was doing about a little million a half or something like that. And he told me that he took home about 200 grand. And that was overwhelmingly ridiculous to me. Because my profit margins, if I sold half a million dollars, I took home 250K. And so I was making more money than this guy who had staff and a warehouse and equipment and repricers and all this stuff. And I just couldn't believe it. Now, unfortunately, that's So went my profits to time, as I just mentioned, but it's crazy to me that, yeah, you can be a seven-figure seller, but unfortunately, that doesn't mean you're doing well in life. It doesn't necessarily mean that. You could be only pulling down 50K a year out of that. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, for sure. Yeah, it's all about the profit. Speaker 1: Yeah, it's super important. I mean, you got to have an optimized profit, but even at the end of the day, I mean, you're doing 1, 1.5 million a year. You're bringing home 200 grand a year. I mean, you're making a pretty substantial salary by doing something pretty fucking fun, you know? It's like operating an e-commerce business. Speaker 3: All I'm saying is I'd rather make 200K not doing all that work. Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, of course. Speaker 2: Yeah, well, everybody, I think, would rather make the $300K. Speaker 3: Like William Schlott just said here, he says, sell shovels to gold miners. You got it. That's how Levi's made their name. Levi's is still around today because they, oh yeah, we were debating whether we talk about that, William, is whether or not we discussed Carbon 6 getting bought for $210. Speaker 2: That's the shovels. The shovels sold for $210 million. That's why that saying is so true because during the gold rush days, the people who got rich were the people that made and sold the shovels. Speaker 3: Shovels and their pants and sifters and all that stuff. Trader's Journey just said that his profit was 80K, so a seven-figure seller Is profits 80K because of basically Amazon returns? Speaker 1: Amazon denying reimbursements on lost shipments. Speaker 2: Yeah. I've got a situation with that right now. I sent 400 units of this product directly from the brand to Amazon. They claim they only received 201 of them. And they're saying, The remaining 199 are accounted for on this other shipment that came from my warehouse, completely different location, a different ASIN, not even the same ASIN. And I looked at that shipment and it's only one unit of those shipments of that product. So I've got this case going with them and I'm like, There's not even 200 units on that shipment you're referencing that you're saying you're accounting for. There's only one. And they just keep copying and pasting the same reply back to me. So it's really ridiculous. Speaker 3: Yep. Speaker 1: For some value for my trader's journey, I mean, he's looking at it as a negative, did a million dollars, made 80K, had a lot of fraudulent returns. The way I see it is eliminate FBM, so you get rid of the fraudulent returns, 2X the business, right? You do 200,000 and profit next year. No problem, man. Just get a little more efficient, right? Make sure you have your bill of ladings and your invoices for any discrepancies. And there's no reason you can't double that business and make 200 grand in 2025. Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, 80,000 on a million is 8% bottom line. Hopefully that includes you paying yourself a salary. If not, then yeah, that would be a little low. But if it includes paying yourself a salary, I mean, that's right in line with the normal 10% average that e-commerce businesses aim for, for the bottom lines. You just got to grow it, make it bigger. It can be tough when you're in that $1, $2, $3 million range because it feels like you're selling a lot and you're doing a ton of work, but you're still not quite over that hump to where you can really be making a lot of money, outsource a lot of stuff. Get the ball rolling over the top of the hill, so to speak. Speaker 3: And by the way, go ahead, Eric. You're going to say something. Speaker 1: You go. You go. Speaker 3: All right. Traders journey. If you want to reach out to me, I'll hook you up with someone that can help you with this stuff. Speaker 2: Yeah. If you got a million, I mean, you've got a good base set, so I wouldn't give up. I would keep going and figure out how to get that to 2 million and then 4 million and then 8 million. Then you got a really good business going. Speaker 1: Before we move on to the next topic, I just want to highlight something you pointed out, Todd. Fuck, I just forgot what it was. Speaker 3: I told you, I shouldn't have interrupted you. I'm sorry, man. Speaker 1: It's the 11 a.m. live. That's what it is. Damn it, I don't remember. You just said it. It was revolutionary. Speaker 3: Give it a sip of coffee. Speaker 2: Something related to the returns or the claims? Speaker 1: No, it was, I don't remember, man. It was revolutionary, though. It will come to me. Speaker 2: If it comes to you. Speaker 3: Reach out to me on LinkedIn. Danan Coleman. Speaker 2: Yep, Danan Coleman, LinkedIn. All right, guys, let's go ahead and jump on to the next story here. All right. Speaker 1: Oh, paying yourself, Todd. Speaker 3: Oh, sorry? Speaker 1: Yeah, so important. Pay yourself a salary. I mean, most people, they're not doing that. Listen, I get it. Six months in, nearly impossible to pay yourself a salary. But if you've been selling a year, 18 months, I mean, you got to set aside, even if it's $500, $800, $1,000 a month, pay yourself something. Speaker 3: Yeah, agreed. Speaker 2: For sure. Yeah, and you know, probably, I'm not an accountant, so talk to one, but switch to an S-corp, pay yourself a salary, and that'll decrease the taxes that you have to pay, and you can keep a little bit more in your pocket that way as well. Speaker 3: Yeah, so let me just do a quick comment on that, and I'll preface this with, we are not legal advisors or financial advisors, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But if you're an LLC, which I suspect most of you are, You have two options. You either pass the income through your social security number or you elect to be taxed as an S-corp. And if you want to have the greatest write-offs and stuff like that, you need to elect to be taxed as an S-corp. Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. Corporate tax is just 15%, I believe, when you're an S Corp. And then the only thing you pay personal tax on is whatever you pay yourself. So yeah, it can significantly reduce your tax burden, which taxes are your largest life expense. So you got to do everything in your power to. Speaker 3: I run a lot of my expenses through my business. Computers, I even sold my rover to my business because I do adventure videos. So I sold my rover and all my camera equipment and everything, it's all owned by the business because when I do a trip, So my Rover, my camera equipment, all expenses on video editing or anything like that, it's all run through my business. So that's a business expense, which means I don't have to pay myself first, pay income taxes on that, and then pay for that stuff. So that's like 20% free money, up to 39% free money, right? So yeah, that's, yeah. Yeah. So the point is, is that my vehicle is owned by my business. Therefore my, uh, my expenses on repairing it, which are stupid, uh, that runs for the business as well. Speaker 2: Yeah. Super important for sure. All right, so the importance of visual content in Rufus recommendations. Andrew Bell, excuse me, Andrew Bell emphasizes that Amazon Rufus, a multi-modal recommendation engine, integrates both text and images to enhance product visibility. Sellers must optimize visuals with context overlays, product labels, and rich alt text to ensure their products are highlighted effectively in search results. Visuals paired with meaningful text create clarity for shoppers and improve engagement. For Amazon sellers, failing to adapt visual content for Rufus could mean losing out on critical opportunities to stand out in the marketplace. I'm going to make this a little bit bigger so you can see the images here. But I thought it was pretty cool that Rufus is smart enough. So this person asked, is it suitable for travel and on-the-go use? And so Rufus replied with text, but then it also pulled this image, which has the appropriate text kind of showing the portability. So smart enough to understand. The text that was on that image and included in the chat that the customer was asking about. Speaker 3: This is something that we talked about a few weeks ago, Todd, where I was mentioning, if you're not optimizing your images for Rufus, then you're missing out. And there's a caveat to this. You know how when you're logging into Amazon, they want to verify you're a human. So there's that CAPTCHA code. Also make sure that your images don't look like a CAPTCHA code so it can't actually be read by AI. So it needs to be clean and the image and the text need to be relevant to each other. Right. So if it's a and I can't even see what this thing is. Speaker 2: But it's a portable massage therapy device. It looks like a mini massage gun. Speaker 3: OK, cool. So if you're going to sell this thing, then and I think they've done a pretty good job, like at the top third of the image or almost the top half of the image on that second phone image there, you can see the product going into a bag and then the bag is dark. So then they did white text over that, right? So Rufus is going to see, oh, here's the product. Here's a hand putting it into a bag and then here's some statement about it and That text and that image needs to be relevant, easily discernible as well. I think this just proves out what we were saying a few weeks ago, Todd. Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the only thing in that image that I would improve is probably that small text underneath. That's a little hard to read. Now, it might be a little bit easier to read it when you're actually looking at it on your phone, but it's still pretty small to pick up when you're looking at it on a small phone and inside of a chat like that. Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I think it's great all around. I mean, I've been doing text overlays in my images for years, so I think it's fantastic. Speaker 2: Yeah, I think most people have been doing it for a while. The key is just gonna be making sure that AI can understand what the image is. Speaker 1: Correct. Speaker 2: And there's some software that Amazon has. You gotta create like a developer account and everything. Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's right. Speaker 2: But you can upload your image and then the AI will tell you what it thinks is in the image. And I think that's going to become more and more important to make sure AI is being able to figure out what the image is actually about. Now, I think Rufus is probably a little bit better because it has the context of where the image is coming from. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 2: All the title, the bullets and the description. And the background. It's more easy to figure it out. But it's going to be super important to be tailoring everything to AI as much as possible. It's going to be used for just about everything here in the future. It's one of the first things that I look at when I'm looking at a product, I go down and look at the AI summary of the reviews. That's something I've started doing a lot lately. Yeah One key thing here that you know, I think this image is having an image with overlays. That's kind of self-explanatory one of the other things though is Include rich alt text. So I'm gonna guess a lot of people don't know what alt text is. Yep. So alt text is basically Text that's in the code in the background of the image that's supposed to describe what the image is, you can't do it in your listing photos, but you can do it in your A-plus photos. People have gotten pretty accustomed to just stuffing keywords in there, in Amazon especially. They used to do that on the web a lot as well. But Amazon, that's been happening a lot as well. But what he's saying here is you want to still include those keywords, but make it readable. So rich text that's readable by the AI to understand what the image is about. So not just keyword stuffing, but actually describing the image properly. Speaker 3: Yeah. So this is another thing that I made mention of a few weeks ago. To give everyone a little bit of context here on the background of this, you used to use this. Well, it's still used for this, but the purpose of this was if there was an issue with the image, When a search engine was displaying it and it couldn't display the image, because back in the day, not all image types actually displayed on different browsers, right? And so what that was used for was to, if the image was broken, it could use that alt text to say, this is what the image is supposed to be that is here, right? So that you just knew, okay, that's supposed to be a red tractor, right? Now, over the years, that got indexed and you can use it for SEO. So anyone that's using any sort of image editor like Photoshop, for instance, you can actually add data, this alt text into your images as well. So before you ever even upload it to Amazon, whether it's A plus content or not, you can put copyright info in there. You can put alt text in there, info in there. And so all of that gets indexed, right? And this is something that... Yeah, go ahead. Speaker 2: That's a little bit different, Danan. That's called metadata. So that's sure, but still important. I wasn't even thinking of that, but I would imagine Rufus is probably reading the metadata or at least can as well. That'd be a curious thing. I wonder if anybody's ever tried indexing using solely metadata in an image to see if it indexes or not. Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know. I don't even know how you could do that. Speaker 2: Well, I know my Amazon guy tested it with A plus alt text to see if it got indexed. They put in a Spanish keyword that's nowhere else in their copy and they indexed for that Spanish keyword. So you could try something similar with metadata and see if it works or not. Speaker 3: Yeah. Okay. So then I should have clarified when you're talking about alt text, you're talking specifically the ability to add alt text within the A plus content on Amazon. Speaker 2: That'd be the only place that I know of on Amazon right now that you can do alt text for sure. Speaker 3: Okay. Well then I would definitely employ metadata as well as alt text wherever possible. Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. That's something I might have to try running a test on that with all my products to see if it indexes or not. Speaker 3: Yeah, let's do it, man. Let's see what happens. I'd be curious. I mean, look, metadata and alt text, it's old technology. We're for search engines. It's old technology. Nobody knows that because you're not an SEO company, right? And so I firmly believe that if you can take every single, every stinking advantage possible to put yourself in front of somewhere that you should take it. And metadata would be one of those things. Speaker 2: For sure. Yeah, it'll be super important to optimize for AI going forward. That's definitely the future. Speaker 3: Yep. Speaker 2: You got any final thoughts on that, Eric, at all, or we can move on to the next one? Speaker 1: No, I mean, you guys covered it fantastic. Thanks. Speaker 2: Awesome. Sounds good. Let's go ahead and jump on to some Mark Cuban news. Speaker 3: Yep. Speaker 2: So going to be interesting. Mark Cuban on how tariffs could boost Chinese sellers on Amazon and Walmart. Mark Cuban highlights the unexpected impact of tariffs on e-commerce, suggesting they might benefit Chinese sellers due to their low cost of goods sold, with the diminished rule allowing goods under $800 to bypass tariffs and inspections, which that's going away. Chinese companies like Xin and Temu maintain their competitive pricing, a significant advantage over US-based sellers. The Biden administration is considering changing changes to the rules, which could level the playing field for American businesses, but also shift competitive dynamics. As Amazon and Walmart adopt similar strategies, sellers should watch for regulatory updates that could reshape the marketplace. Before I give my thoughts on it, I guess I'll let you guys give me your thoughts on, do you think tariffs are going to help or hurt American sellers versus Chinese sellers or other foreign sellers? Speaker 1: I think that either way, just the additional costs that we have to absorb as business owners will get pushed on to the consumer as they always do. So initially, we all will get hit, but as long as you're recognizing the increase in expense and baking it into your selling price, I mean, you should be able to account for it. And I've seen that just historically. My business every year, 15% margins year after year consistently. It's just because when prices go up, fees go up, we raise the prices that we sell the products for. But what I don't think, I don't think Amazon's, I mean, China's really a competitor. One thing I can't stand is like everything I buy from TikTok that comes from China, I'm not getting it for two weeks. And like, I want that shit tomorrow. I don't think at that point, it's really like the competition, unless you can get it to me in two days, you're not a competitor. Speaker 2: Yeah, it's – for a billionaire, I find Mark Cuban frequently incorrect in my opinion. And with this, I think he's not incorrect. But he's not looking at the whole picture intentionally or unintentionally because the goal of the tariffs is not to make it more profitable for US sellers versus Chinese sellers. It's to make it more profitable to have your products manufactured somewhere else other than China, whether that's India or Vietnam or Mexico or hopefully even the USA or Canada or whatever. The goal is, is different than what he's kind of looking at in this statement. Speaker 3: You know, let's, let's take into account that the statement that they, that they take is literally three words. So this could be a, a gross overstatement based on a very small amount of words that he said. And I, I would. Speaker 2: I don't know if this app comes up, this Twitter knockoff here, but there's what he actually said. Tariffs could really help Chinese companies selling on Amazon, Walmart, et cetera, because their cost of goods sold is lower than competitors. So the tariff pay will be lower, increasing the price advantage. Speaker 3: Yeah. Okay. And technically he's not wrong because they've got so much more margin for So much more margin to spend their money, whereas we don't because we don't get the prices that they do. Speaker 2: And that's where in the beginning it could hurt until you're able to move your manufacturing. Now I've talked to a lot of people and some of my suppliers are already, they've moved their manufacturing out of China or they've gotten additional factories outside of China. So a lot of people have been preparing for this. Since the first tariffs that Trump did, you know, four years ago or six years ago, whatever it's been now. So I think a lot of companies are well on their way to moving outside of China. And if slash when the new tariffs do hit, It's going to be hopefully a relatively smooth transition. But at the same time, you've also seen where tariffs in the past have not resulted in higher prices in the U.S. In part because the suppliers in China, the factories in China absorb some of that tariff and decrease the cost that you're paying to get the products. Speaker 3: I think it's going to be turbulent in many ways this year and probably next. Speaker 2: Yep. Yeah, for sure. 2025, I think is going to have a rough start and then hopefully by the end, it will be much more smoother sailing. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 1: So I'm hedging my bet with crypto, you know, open. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah, Bitcoin has been going crazy. It broke 100. Now it's below 100 again, I believe. Gold has been trending down as well. So we'll see what that means. Usually gold trends down when the dollar goes up and people are more confident in the dollar. Which, you know, if Trump is able to do everything he's talking about doing, it should really strengthen the dollar. But, you know, you never know about the unintended consequences and what could happen down the road. Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe we'll go back to the gold standard, huh? Speaker 2: Oh, geez. That would be amazing. I mean, that would solve, that would be very, very painful in the beginning, but it would solve most of the world's problems if we were able to do that. Speaker 3: By the way, a little side story here. So Abe Shamali, you know who that is, Todd? Yeah. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 3: So Abe Shamali just posted something from Amazon that released yesterday that goes into effect January 21st. Titles may not contain the same word more than twice. Hmm. Speaker 2: Interesting. Yes, I was just talking. I recorded a podcast yesterday and she alluded to that but she didn't give too many details. She just knew that there were some kind of changes coming to titles. Speaker 3: Yeah, here's a link to Abe's post. Maybe you want to throw that into the chat. This is going to be I think like anything that Amazon says, they say they're going to enforce something. They don't really fully enforce it, but it's just another thing to be aware of. Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, that was good. Oh, go ahead, Todd. Speaker 2: I was just going to read titles may not contain the same word more than twice. If fully implemented, this could change the Amazon landscape a lot for shoppers and sellers. So, repeat the same word more than twice. That's. Speaker 1: I create a lot of listings. I created seven yesterday. I don't think I repeated the same word twice in any of them. Speaker 2: You try not to, right? Because once it's in there, you don't need to do it again. It's already indexed for that word, at least it should. You try not to. In some cases, it makes sense, but more than twice, if you're listening to the same word three, four, five times, you're probably not taking advantage. Speaker 1: You're wasting real estate. Speaker 3: Yeah. It also says that for most product categories, titles may not exceed 200 characters, including spaces. I think that used to be 250, if I'm not mistaken. Speaker 2: It depended on the category. Yeah. So they're shortening it for every, some of them had a lot longer titles. Others were much shorter. So, um, oh yeah. It looks like they dropped that news yesterday after I looked at the news. So, um, all right. For most product areas, titles not conceded 200 characters, special characters are not allowed. Titles may not contain the same word more than twice. Speaker 3: Oh, hang on a second. There's a little line in there that says, we'll host an Ask Amazon event on January 8th, during which our experts will answer your questions about title requirements on Amazon seller forums. Speaker 2: Okay. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, I don't think this is like a... A life changing announcement or anything. The 200 characters might hurt a lot of people and get a bunch of listings suppressed. I'm not sure how they'll handle that. They're probably going to send out the spreadsheets again saying, hey, these are all your ASINs that are with invalid titles that'll get suppressed if you don't update them by January 21st, perhaps. That's probably going to be the biggest thing most people are going to have to watch out for. I don't think any of these special characters are anything to worry about. Most people are not using any of those except for maybe the exclamation point. Speaker 3: Right. Yeah. The exclamation point, the dollar sign, question mark, maybe, commas. Speaker 2: Well, the commas are just separating the characters. Yeah, I think they're just trying to make sure people aren't doing the little, you know, text image things you're trying to make an emoji or something. Yeah, in the, in the title. Speaker 3: Yep. Yep. Speaker 2: That's good news to know anybody out there that you better check your listings, especially the 200 character limit. A lot of categories are already at the 200 limit, so it might not be an issue for you. But if you're in one of those categories that was allowing 250 or more, You're gonna have to redo your titles for sure. Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaker 2: That's pretty much all the news we had. The last one was just that they're testing storefronts in the Amazon search results when you search, which I thought was interesting, but just a little bit of news there. Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's great. I mean, we spend a lot of time as brand owners building out storefronts. I mean, awesome. Speaker 2: Make sure your storefronts are optimized and ready to go, like your Shopify website. Unknown Speaker: All right, cool. Speaker 2: Well, that's fine, guys. We can end it there. We're just about to the top of the hour, so I appreciate you guys joining me and everybody out there watching. Every Friday, we're here at 11 a.m. Eastern, so join us next week, and until then, happy selling, everybody. Speaker 3: Bye, everyone. Unknown Speaker: This has been another episode of the Amazon Seller School podcast. Thanks for listening, fellow Amazon seller. And always remember, success is yours if you take it. Speaker 2: Hey, if you made it this far in the show, I really hope you enjoyed it and I'd like to ask you a favor. Could you head on over to Apple or Spotify or wherever you're listening to this and leave us a review? It would be greatly appreciated and would help us continue to grow the show and offer more episodes for you. Thank you. God bless and have an awesome day.