Weekly Buzz 8/7/25: De Minimis Goes Global! | IRS Cracking Down on Sellers | Alexa Gets Ad-Ready

Weekly Buzz 8/7/25: De Minimis Goes Global! | IRS Cracking Down on Sellers | Alexa Gets Ad-Ready Speaker 1: On this week's episode of The Weekly Buzz, there's a new worldwide de minimis rule, e-commerce sellers might be scrutinized more closely by the IRS, and Amazon might start delivering ads through conversations with Alexa. This and more on this week's episode of The Weekly Buzz. Speaker 2: How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. 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 TikTok shop and e-commerce world. We let you know what new features that Helium 10 has, as well as give you a training tip of the week that'll give you serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Today's host is actually going to be Carrie Miller. So, Carrie, take it away and let us know what's buzzing. Speaker 1: Okay, so our first article is all about the worldwide de minimis. Now we all know that President Trump closed the de minimis loophole with China because there were a lot of shipments coming in through China and there were no taxes being paid. But now this is actually going to be worldwide. So I want to share this article and so it's basically a CNN article. That says that Sheen and Timu's prices will get hit even harder by the de minimis rules. President Donald Trump last week suspended a global trade loophole allowing smaller parcels into America duty-free. This closes a backdoor into the United States for Chinese mega shippers like Sheen and Timu who could potentially pass the cost of those duties on to consumers. So instead of Then paying though, maybe we'll all be getting tax bills. Trump eliminated the so-called de minimis exemption, which had admitted duty-free shipments of goods worth $800 or less into the United States. Giant e-commerce sites used the loophole when shipping hundreds of millions of packages to US consumers. Okay, so all this article kind of continues to say there's a lot of Kind of illegal things that have been pushed through and then also they're using it as a loophole through China. So maybe if there's something's manufactured in China, they'll basically ship it to somewhere like Vietnam and then get the taxes from Vietnam. And so now it all has to be declared a custom. So this way, sellers, you know, maybe Chinese sellers or whoever it is, it's trying to, you know, still try to utilize lower taxes and this loophole. They're not going to be able to kind of go through other countries to do this. Shipment of $800 and less being not taxed. So this basically is worldwide. Nothing is going to be coming in. I think this is probably a good thing because none of this stuff is inspected. So maybe it's skin care or something like that. It's coming through and it's not FDA approved. Nothing's really been inspected. And then also, The article does go on to say that there's a lot of illicit things that come in through those packages and they're not really inspected because they're just overwhelmed at customs. I'm really curious to know what everyone thinks about this. What do you think about the new de minimis worldwide rule? I think it's probably a good thing, although a lot of us have been getting a lot of cheap goods because we don't have that tax. Sheen and Timu, if you're ordering from them, you won't have to pay taxes. But now, maybe we'll all kind of think a little bit more about what we're purchasing. Okay, so let's go ahead and get into the next article and that is basically there's an update on the star rating that Bradley mentioned last week. And so this is basically helpful for a lot of us because there are a lot of people who thought that this was really the worst thing ever and they're really upset about this because they thought maybe bad actors could start giving low star ratings to their competitors. Basically, there has been an update and a statement by Amazon that they kind of released and they basically updated and kind of clarified a few things. Basically, they said that the reason why they're doing this is because they're going to get a lot more reviews for sellers because people won't have to be writing necessarily an actual review. They can basically do a star rating and then what they do is they're going to select a reason why. If the reason is, oh, the product was bad or this or that, they're going to remove all those automatically. So basically they're kind of automating the system instead of us having to monitor this and go back and say, oh, this isn't, you know, a valid review. And so they'll basically be able to say, okay, we're going to not even show these at all. And so that does take some work off of our plates. And then they also said that they have a system that is going to help automate, you know, looking for bad actors or things that are, you know, against the policies that they have set in place. So hopefully that means that if there is a competitor that's trying to give us bad reviews, they'll be able to detect that in the system. And then there's also going to be no public replies because there aren't really going to be any written explanations on the reviews. So there's not going to be any written replies for you. So that's kind of the update on that. I think that is a little bit better of an explanation knowing that they have to select a reason. But I also like the idea that we'll get more reviews with this. Hopefully that'll help boost some people's seller ratings. And I'm curious to know what you think. So leave us a message in the comments if you really hate this or if you think it's going to take some work off your plate so you don't have to go through all the reviews on your own. Okay, and next we have that there is an update to the sell globally experience that Amazon has And this is actually kind of an announcement in seller central and I'm just going to show you what the announcement is and you can see it right here. It says that you're going to be able to get insights into potential new regions and view eligible global selling incentives to support your expansion and you're going to be able to understand both estimated one time. Setup costs and ongoing variable expenses for your target stores. You'll be able to access Amazon Global Logistics, Amazon Send, and other service providers to simplify your international operations. You'll be able to access the step-by-step guide to simplify your expansion into European stores. And that's going to be available in August, which is August right now. And then also you'll be able to find valuable information on compliance, global registration, shipping taxes, and FAQ to support your global selling journey. So I think that's very helpful, especially there's a lot of people who want to expand. We did some surveys within Helium 10. And after, you know, just the taxes that are basically the tariffs that have been more imposed recently, there are a lot more sellers that are interested in expanding globally, especially to Europe. So this is going to be very helpful because it is a completely different system now. It's not really difficult and super hard to do, but it is something that's different. So it's something you need to learn. And we actually have an entire course on Helium 10 about how to expand globally. So if you do need some assistance, it is Our expansion course, which is within our Freedom Ticket, anyone who has Helium 10 is able to access that. So go ahead and check that out if you want to sell globally. But also Amazon has a lot of support for you here. So all very helpful and really good news because expanding is going to only help increase your sales. Okay, next up we have our new feature alert with Bradley. So Bradley, go ahead and take it away. Speaker 2: Thank you, Carrie. I just got a quick new feature alert for this week. It's actually for those who use Helium 10 ads. Basically, it's finally the ability to be able to do store spotlight ads as well as being able to do video ads within Helium 10. You've always been able to manage your ads. You're like, hey, if I have sponsored brand video ads, Am I able to kind of harvest keywords and stuff like that? Always been able to do that. The only thing is, until now, you've had to make those ads in Seller Central, those campaigns in Seller Central. Now you can create them right there in Helium 10 Ads. The way to do it, if you go right here to campaign, just click campaign, add campaign, and that's going to take you to this page where you've always been able to see single campaign or others. So just go ahead and hit the single campaign, and then you're going to want to hit sponsored brand. And then once you hit the sponsor brand, you hit next, you are going to be able to either grow your brand impression share or drive page visits. Now here towards the bottom, you can do product collection, which is all you could do before, but now you can do store spotlight or video ads. And then after that, you are going to be able to add those video keyword campaigns or ACE and targeting campaigns to your keyword harvesting. So for example, I've got a keyword video campaign here and it's saying that, hey, if one of my auto or broad campaigns find some keywords that are good, go ahead and put it in my video campaign. I've got a video ACE and targeting campaign where it says, hey, if your auto campaign Find a good ASIN that gets a couple of sales. Go ahead and put it in your video ASIN campaign. Now that part you've always been able to do before. So just the main difference now is that you can actually create those store spotlight and video targeting or video sponsored brand campaigns right in Helium 10 ads. Make sure guys, if you're not using Helium 10 ads, It's got a diamond account. It's pretty much for free unless you go over the spend of $5,000 to Amazon per month. So give it a try. Helium 10 ads is more powerful than ever before. Back to you, Carrie. Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Bradley, for that new feature update. Let's go ahead and get into the next article, which is about the IRS. Now, all of us have kind of a not-so-good loving relationship with the IRS because they take our money, but for e-commerce sellers even more, the IRS is now going to be scrutinizing e-commerce sellers a little bit more this year. It says the IRS is targeting e-commerce sellers in 2025. And so basically that is just kind of a warning if you have a Shopify, Etsy or Amazon store, which is kind of scary thought because it is kind of complicated and we definitely don't want to be audited. But basically the IRS is scrutinizing e-commerce more this year. And as the IRS ramps up enforcement in 2025, online sellers on platforms like Shopify Etsy and Amazon may find themselves under increased scrutiny. According to tax resolution firm, Clear Start Tax, self-employed e-commerce vendors could be especially vulnerable to audits and unexpected tax bills if they haven't been keeping accurate records or reporting all income. The IRS has made it clear that digital sales will be a priority this year with expanded use of 1099-K forms and data analytics to identify under-reporting. Sellers who rely on multiple payment platforms or who haven't consistently filed returns may be particularly at risk. Okay, so if you haven't had some really good bookkeeping and you haven't been on top of your taxes, now is definitely the time to get all of that under wraps. I personally am an Amazon seller. We have a bookkeeper and we have an accountant. We make sure that they take care of all this for us and so I think it is a very important thing that you make sure to keep all of your numbers squared away. So that if there is an audit, then you're very organized and you're able to go ahead and fix anything that's needing to be fixed. But again, this is just a reminder. Make sure that you have all of your books in order. And this is really a good idea anyways if you want to sell. We do have a whole course on this about, you know, basically called Exit Ticket. And it's about selling your business eventually because you're going to make more money that way. But you have to have your books in order. So no matter what to run a good business, you want to make sure all that is in order. So if you haven't done that, go ahead and make sure that you get all that in order, especially this year. Okay, the next article, it is all about the Amazon CEO and he is basically wanting to put ads in your Alexa conversations. This is very interesting to me because a lot of people are using AI like ChatGPT and they're really having conversations with AI and even asking for product recommendations and things like that. Alexa is more conversational now with the Alexa Plus. And so they're actually wanting to insert those ads eventually. And that's basically right from CEO Andy Jassy. He basically sees a huge opportunity to deliver ads to users during their conversations with the company's AI power digital assistant, which is Alexa Plus. And he said this actually during their second quarter earnings call. This is something that we should all be thinking about is maybe thinking how are we optimizing our listings and we're optimizing them for Rufus, making sure we're answering a lot of questions, but maybe there might be some other strategies we might need to start thinking about is how are we going to be optimizing for Alexa as well? Because people may honestly be only ordering through Alexa now, getting advice from Alexa saying, hey, what should I order? And so that will be very interesting. And honestly, It's a good time to be optimizing for things like ChatGPT and other AI platforms so that you can get your products recommended to people as well. So something to really think about and consider, especially as we go into this new era of AI and how people are interacting with AI in a very different way and just e-commerce in general a very different way than it was before. Okay, next up we have Amazon winning a case against some bad actors. So Basically, Amazon won a case against the operators of more than 75 fraudulent websites that marketed the sale of fake reviews and fake Amazon seller accounts. There were 75 fraudulent websites that marketed the sale of fake reviews and fake Amazon seller accounts. The court's ruling ordered the transfer of ownership of all related domains to Amazon in what represents Amazon's most extensive website seizure action to date. Amazon's lawsuit targeted two individuals who ran an illicit network ...that offered fake 5-star reviews and other fake content across Amazon stores globally. The scheme included using fraudulent customer accounts to post fake reviews on bad actors' product listings, creating the appearance of authentic transactions. In addition to fake reviews, the defendants also provided services to post fake negative reviews on competitors' products and attempted to sell fraudulent Amazon seller accounts with fake documentation to previously suspend sellers. This legal action is part of Amazon's comprehensive approach to combat fake reviews, which also includes advanced detection systems that help maintain a trustworthy shopping experience by preventing fake content by misleading customers. So this is really interesting because it goes kind of along with that star review. So they really do have systems in place that they're wanting to make sure to crack down on fraudulent reviews. They do have a lot of probably AI that can help detect this kind of thing. So that should put us a little bit more at ease with the new star rating program as well. But really, I think it's a good thing for Amazon to be cracking down on this, all these fake reviews, because I know a lot of us as sellers who are doing the right thing, we see Some competitors come in, they get a bunch of fake reviews and they're all really great reviews and they'll get thousands of reviews super quickly and it's very disheartening for anyone who's actually following the rules and doing the right thing. So I'm very glad to see this and I hope Amazon continues to crack down on these fake reviews. Next up, we have a sales strategy of the week with Shivali and she's going to be talking about heat maps. So take it away, Shivali. Speaker 3: Another tool that's unique to Helium 10 is our heat maps. We were actually the first to offer this years ago. So why is this important and how can it make you money? It's kind of a reverse way of making money, especially when you're running out of stock, launching a new product or waiting for inventory to arrive. What sometimes happens is this. Let's say you're out of stock and send in 500 new units. Do all 500 units become active right away? No. Amazon might only check in two or three units at first. And when that happens, those few units are typically located close to the warehouse you sent them to, let's say in California in my case. Now, if a customer in Florida searches for your product, Amazon will not show them a good delivery time because that inventory isn't even nearby. It might estimate a two-week delivery, which kills conversions. Ain't nobody want to wait two weeks for a product, so they'll just buy it from a competitor. And this is why it's often smarter to keep your listing closed for a few days until your inventory spreads out across the country. So how do you track this and make the right call? Well, you can go to Helium 10's heat maps. This is where you see a visual layout of where your inventory is located across FBA warehouses on any given day. You can even look at this historically like What was your inventory distribution two weeks ago? Choose your product, choose a date, and the heat map will show you how geographically distributed your stock is. If you are happy with the spread, you can activate your listing. If not, wait. You can also see your sales breakdown by city, county, and state. For example, maybe your coffin shelf gets zero sales from Montana or North Dakota. That might tell you you're under-indexed there. Then you can ask, if I send in more inventory, will Amazon distribute it more broadly? That's another way to use heatmaps, tracking whether additional inventory improves geographic reach as long as you're not incurring unnecessary storage fees. So guys, make sure you're utilizing your heatmaps. They could prevent lost sales and help optimize your inventory strategy. Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Shivali. That is definitely an amazing tool to help to kind of visualize where your inventory is all around the country. So thank you so much for that. All right. And let's go ahead and get into the final article here. And this is basically that Amazon announced their second quarter results. Okay. And this is actually really good news, I think, for e-commerce sellers, because a lot of us are kind of like, oh, Maybe our sales are going to continue to increase or are we going to have struggles with maybe a difficult economy or with these tariffs? What's going on? This is basically saying that Amazon increased net sales 13% to $167.7 billion in the second quarter compared to $148.0 billion In second quarter of 2024, excluding the $1.5 billion favorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates, North America, and which is where a lot of us are selling, the North American segment sales increased 11% year-over-year to $100 billion, and the international segment sales increased 16% year-over-year to $36 billion. I think overall, this These sales numbers are really good news for Amazon sellers because that should encourage you to realize that there's so much opportunity and sales are just going up and up and up. There's going to be even more sales in the future and there's a lot of market to capture if you're an Amazon seller and there's a lot of opportunity to be had on this. On this platform alone, that's not even including all the other platforms that you could potentially be in. It's a very exciting time. It's really important, though, that you stay on top of making sure your listings are optimized, optimized with the keywords. Helium 10 has incredible tools for keyword research, also optimizing for Rufus, making sure you answer those questions people might ask, and making sure your images and all that is great so that people, when they click on your listing, they want to buy your product. That is what your job is and you can take more of this pie if you strategize correctly. Okay, so that's all we have for this week's episode of The Weekly Buzz. I hope you enjoyed this episode and all these updates and we'll see you again next week to see what's buzzing. Bye everyone.