It's over: the last generation of Amazon sellers

This This is the Billiondollar Sellers podcast, your go-to source for cutting edge strategies and success stories from the world of Amazon and e-commerce. Buckle up and get ready to take your Amazon business to new heights. Don't forget to subscribe to the Billion Dollar Sellers newsletter. Welcome your host. Welcome your host, Kevin King. Hey everyone, welcome to the Billiondoll Sellers podcast. I'm your host Kevin King and today is Monday, January 26, 2026. We've got a lot to cover, so let's jump right in. First off, I got a question for you. Amazon Prime membership has reached a new record high in the United States. So, roughly how many Prime members do you think there are in the US right now? Think about it, and I'll give you the answer at the end of the show. All right, let's talk about the BDSS13 virtual event that happened last week. Congratulations to Andrew Ericson, who won best speaker with an almost perfect score for his presentation on generating a highly engaged customer list. Right behind him, it it was cutthroat. Some of the smartest minds in e-commerce brought their agame to the stage. Let me give you a quick rundown of some of what you missed. Ammy Whis kicked things off showing how to use Rufus and Chad GPT to pull the exact words buyers used and turn that into listings that actually convert. Uh she walked through building what she calls a customer truth machine to extract objections, comparisons, and decision drivers in your niche. If you want the prompts and the full workflow, it's all in the replay. Then there is Andrew Bell, who broke down how Rufus thinks like a seller, and more importantly, what you need to change your products get recommended. He laid out a practical playbook for optimizing keyword matching and rufus together, including the attribute and review signals that influence confidence. He also shared multiple custom GPTs that turn research into SOP style listing and catalog upgrades, complete with examples you can swipe. Honestly, the Rufus blueprint sections alone are worth watching the replay for. Andrew Ericson, our best speaker winner, covered the post 2025 lead magnet that actually converts and how to build it fast with AI. His whole approach is about replacing those dead PDFs with what he calls a one-page brand app that produces a personalized output in under 60 seconds. The replay shows the exact structure and examples that make it work. And speaking of brand apps, Andrew introduced this concept of turning utility into loyalty. He calls it the authority ROI and it breaks down into four parts. First is the trust gap. Customers don't trust sellers, but they do trust authorities and a brand app proves you know your craft better than some generic competitor. Then there's the logic magnet. When you provide a personalized result based on their data, you earn the right to suggest the products. Third is earnless building. You're not buying an email with a 10% coupon anymore. You're earning that email by providing a genuine digital service. And finally, the bookmarked advantage. When you solve a recurring problem, you become a permanent fixture in their digital life. He shared this great case study called the Zip to Fish app. So here's the problem. Fishing is hard and just buying a lure doesn't guarantee you'll catch anything. If a customer doesn't catch fish, they stop buying your gear. The brand app solution uses the user's zip code to pull live weather, tides, and fishing locations for specific fish. And here's why this matters. You're not just selling a lure anymore. You're providing a datadriven plan to actually win. Plus, there's a strategic upsell angle because if the recipe calls for a specific weight or color they don't have, the add to cart button is right there at the moment of highest intense. Chris Luck walked us through the 2026 AI tool belt for e-commerce and how to chain tools into real workflows. He shared a curated stack covering research, listing, creatives, video, PPC automation, reviews, inventory, and compliance. And there's a resource stock to go with it. The tool list itself is useful, but honestly, the workflow is where the real multiplier is. Dan Ashburn tackled something we've all struggled with. How to stop copyping prompts and actually build an AI command center that runs your business. His approach connects tools so AI can act with context. The framework includes instruction files, rules, skills, hooks, agents, and connections, all built to run endto-end workflows. The replay is basically a blueprint to operationalize AI, not just dabble with it. Dan Kurts and Norarrar teamed up to cover AEO for e-commerce. That's answer engine optimization and how to show up in the answers inside chat, GPT, Perplexity, Google AI, voice assistance, and Rufus. They explain how to win two to three recommended answers across AI engines, not just rank in classic search. They also cover the authority signals that matter now, citations, mentions, research, reviews, and syndication, and how to compound them. If you want demand creation and defensible visibility, this is your playbook. Kamal Singh shared his main image system that drives click-through rate, plus how to test fast before you waste weeks going down the wrong path. He calls it the million-dollar main image SOP. Start with 10 to 12 variations, collage them to spot what pops, then rebuild the winners. The replay includes the full iteration flow, and this is important. What most sellers are testing incorrectly. Leo Scoio covered AI visuals and geo that make your brand look bigger and help you get discovered more. He shared his AO approach for websites, including an AO bundle builder that outputs the pieces you need so generative AI engines can actually understand your brand. Plus, he dropped what he calls an AI video cheat code using nano banana to clone ad style outputs with your branding and product placement. The replay is loaded with build ideas you can implement right away. Matt Alman presented AI influencer systems that scale content and demand without all the guessing. He shared a repeatable content factory that repurposes what performs into scripts, personas, and platform ready assets. If you want consistent demand creation, this replay is a gold mine. And finally, Alana Podario made AMC simple and profitable, showing how to build audiences fast and then activate them the right way. She explained how to build three high impact audiences quickly, car abandoners, competitor brand searchers, and repeat buyers using ANC instructional queries. She covered which campaigns to use, how to bid, and how to pair audiences with promotions for immediate lift. The replay includes clear do this next steps that turn AMC into a real revenue lover. So, look, if you want instant access to the full BDSS13 replays, you got two options. Option one, buy the BDSS13 replays for $697 if you want the content right now and you're ready to implement immediately. Option two is the insider deal through BDSC. Join a billion-dollar sellers club for just $9. Then grab the replay uh link posted inside the club to get the BDSS13 replays for $249. I've put links to both options in the show notes. All right, now let's look at some interesting stats about where AI answer engines get their information. When you look at the most cited sources, there are some big differences between Walmart Sparky and Amazon Rufus. For Sparky, earned Media leads the way at 46% followed by brand to consumer sites at 36%. Other sources come in at 13%, Reddit at 2%, institutional sources at 2%, and Kora at 1%. For Amazon Rufus, Earn Media is similar at 43%. But here's where it gets interesting. Affiliate review sites are much more prominent at 40%. Other sources account for 12%. Brand direct to consumer sites drop way down to just 2%. Corora sits at 2% and institutional sources at 1%. So here's the big takeaway. If you're optimizing for Rufus, affiliate review sites matter way more than your own brand website. But for Sparky, your direct to consumer site is actually the second most important source. If you're working on AEO strategy, this is huge. Now, speaking of shopping and AI, let's talk about Chad GPT's universal cart shopping that's coming soon. BDSS 13 speaker Scott Window got alerted over the weekend to a report from LLM beta feature tracker testing catalog. A user spotted a cart section in our chat GPT interface. And according to Scott, we're about to get a glimpse of something that changes conversational shopping from a cool demo to his words, "Oh wow, this actually prints money." Based on what these screenshots are hinting at, Chad GPT is likely rolling out cart functionality that looks a lot more like a real shopping operating system than a one-off buy this item widget. Here's what that probably means we'll have access to likely very soon. First, a persistent cart inside the chat. As you're talking with Chad GPT, you can casually add items as they come up. Keep browsing, keep comparing, keep asking questions, and the cart just stays there. No restarting the flow, no where was I moments. Next, multiple carts. The zero next to the word carts is a tell. That's plural. Different buying missions can run in parallel without getting tangled up. Third, if there are multiple carts, named carts are the natural next step. Picture cards like weekly groceries, pet stuff, home restock, holiday gifts, or things I'm waiting to price drop. That turns shopping into an organized system instead of a chaotic pile of tabs. And fourth, this is the monster feature. Multi- merchant carts with one checkout. Add something from Etsy, something from Chewy, something from a a direct to consumer site, maybe even a big box retailer, and check out once. One conversation, one cart, one purchase moment across multiple merchants. Here's why Scott says this has him more excited than he probably should be. This is brutally hard to pull off technically. Payments, inventory, shipping options, returns, merchant integrations, compliance, all stitched together in a single flow, but this is the real unlock for agent commerce. Everyone in e-commerce knows single item purchases are a weak business model. The moment you enable bundling, cross-ell and keep adding behavior across the session, the unit economics start to look very different. It also kneecaps the biggest objection from the skeptics. The loudest argument has been sure, but it's not a real car experience. Nobody buys like that. A universal persistent multi merchant cart removes that last finger hold of doubt. This is a step toward level four agent behavior. One of Scott's big predictions was that Chad GPT would reach level four autonomy first. Meaning it can take a goal like stock my pantry, get my dog supplies, or finish my gift list, then build the carts, optimize and execute with minimal friction. This is how you get there. And look, if if this lands the way it looks like it's landing, holiday 2026 is going to be absolutely unhinged. All right, I want to tell you about a webinar Nor and I have coming up. People are buying products directly inside Chad GPT now. product cards, instant checkout, no Amazon, no Google, Chad, GPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Amazon Rufus aren't just search tools anymore. They're brand new marketplaces where consumers are shopping right now. By holiday 2026, AI shopping is expected to rival Amazon. Meanwhile, Google's AI mode is becoming the default search experience with fewer clicks, fewer sources cited, and a winner take all dynamic. In this free webinar, you'll learn what AEO is and how to position your brand as the answer when AI recommends products to millions of buyers. We'll cover how AI shopping is creating a brand new marketplace and how to be there. The fundamental shift from ranking to being cited, how to optimize for Chad GPT, perplexity and Amazon Rufus, our brain framework for AI visibility, why small businesses now have an edge that big companies can match, and actionable strategies you can implement immediately. Here's the reality. 70 to 80% of consumers are already using AI to shop. 40% of Amazon users engaged Rufus on Black Friday. This is the biggest shift since the birth of marketplaces back in 2006. The brands that optimize now will be the ones AI recommends. The free AO webinar is Thursday, January 29th at 2 p.m. Eastern. Link to register is in the show notes. Now, let's talk about Google bringing shopping to the Gemini app. Shoppers inside Google's AI mode and the Gemini app are about to go from browse to buy without ever leaving the chat. Uh product discovery, recommendations, and checkout can all happen right there with fewer clickthroughs to retailer sites. If you've been paying attention, you've seen Google push this zeroclick trend for years. Answer on the SER keep the user on Google. Now they're aiming that same gravity at commerce. The new mechanism is called universal commerce protocol or UCP. Basically, it lets an AI agent complete checkout by talking directly to a retail's back-end systems while the retailer remains the merchant of record. Google's framing is that they connect the shopper to the retailer, but they don't become the retailer. So, why does this matter for e-commerce sellers? For two decades, the website was the funnel. UCP shifts that funnel upstream into the conversation layer. A growing slice of high intent shopping could move to in chat, low friction purchases, and your site becomes one of several endpoints. Lay McKenzie at Semrush captured it well. Websites still matter, but they're no longer the only door. Your feed is as important. In this world, the brands that win are the ones whose product data is easiest for machines to understand, trust, and act on. To participate in UCP power experiences, you need a strong, accurate product data feed in Google Merchant Center. Weak or incomplete feeds mean less visibility and fewer recommendations. Clean, rich feeds mean more surface area and AI results and more chosen moments. Google is also rolling out dozens of new merchant center attributes geared toward this conversational commerce era. Structured details like answers to common questions, compatible accessories, and substitutes. The headline here is simple. If AI is becoming a storefront, your product data is your packaging, shelf placement, and sales rep all rolled into one. All right, let me tell you about Stack Influence. You can reach page one on Amazon simply by sending free products to micro influencers. Stack Influence automates micro influencer product seeding collaborations at scale, helping you increase your Amazon ranking, generate UGC, and boost your recurring revenue like never before. Top Amazon brands like Magic Spoon, Unilver, and Mary Ruth Organics have gotten to number one page positioning on Amazon and increase their monthly revenue as high as 13x in as little as 2 months. With Stack Influence, you pay influencers only with products. No negotiating fees. You increase external traffic and Amazon sales to get top page rankings. You get full rights to image and video UGC to build your brand with authentic content. And you enjoy 100% automated management so you don't lift a finger to get influencer collabs at scale. Check out the results from the Blueland micro influencer campaign which generated a 13x ROI scaling up influencers on Amazon. After successfully raising investment on Shark Tank, Blueland turned to Stack Influence to boost their Amazon sales and become a top selling listing using micro influencer marketing. You can get 10% off by signing up this month. Links in the show notes. All right, now I want to talk about something important. BDSS Dream 100 member Adam Heist says this is the final generation of Amazon sellers. He says there's always a special kind of silence right before everything changes. Not peace, but that breatholding moment before the drop. And that's where Amazon selling is right now in January 2026. Most sellers are still doing what worked last year. tweaking PPC, split testing bullets, polishing the main image, chasing click-through rate. Meanwhile, Amazon's AI shopping assistant, Rufus, is training customers to stop browsing and start delegating. Hundreds of millions of shoppers have already used it, and Amazon keeps adding capabilities that matter far more than another ad placement, including memory, price tracking, and autonomous purchasing. If you've been around long enough, you've seen this movie before. Every Amazon era ends the same way. Book sellers rode information arbitrage until FBA flipped the table. Wild West sellers rode cheap logistics until Prime became the standard. Private label rode the Alibaba pipeline until competition industrialized and PPC became existential. Aggregators rode multiples until fees, ads, supply chain chaos and platform dependence exposed the fragility. The graveyard isn't a place, it's a pattern. Sellers build on Amazon's infrastructure. Amazon turns up the dial and the old playbook stops working fast. Now, we're entering the next ending, and it's different for one reason. You're not just getting replaced by sharper operators. You're getting replaced by machines. AI agents don't shop like humans. They don't fall in love with your lifestyle images. They don't feel your brand story. They evaluate structured signals, specifications, reviews, return rates, price, availability, and machine readable attributes. If the customer never sees your listing because an agent makes the decision upstream, then conversion optimization becomes agent preference optimization. Here's the big takeaway. Start building for the buyer that's coming, not the buyer you remember. That means two shifts. Stop treating Amazon as the whole business. It's a channel with rising rent. Then start preparing your offer, data, and operational reliability to win in an agent mediated world where visibility is earned by measurable performance signals, not persuasion alone. And honestly, for this reason alone, you need to be in Nashville at my Ecom Mastery AI event in April. Uh Adam has a YouTube video that goes into all of this in more detail, and I've put a link to that in the show notes. Before we wrap up, here are a few more hot picks for you. The Tik Tok deal is complete. There's an article with five things you should know. A CEO admits tariffs are bumping up prices on Amazon. Shopify's president says AI shopping can't just scrape info. And Tik Tok sellers won't be able to do their own shipping as of February 25th. You can find links to all these articles in the show notes. Um, and here's your parting shot for today from James Clear. Compete externally and you compare. Compete internally and you improve. Oh, and remember that question I asked you at the beginning? The answer is approximately 200 million US Prime members. Pretty incredible, right? That's all for today, folks. I'll see you again on Thursday. This is Kevin Kane signing off from the Billiondoll Solers podcast.