Remember when Alexa was just a glorified weather reporter? Well, Amazon just hit the upgrade button—big time. 🤖
Introducing Alexa+, the AI-powered digital assistant that’ll now cost $19.99/month (unless you’re a Prime member—then it’s free).
- Amazon’s Big Spring Sale is coming 🛍️
- Chinese sellers on Walmart 🌏
- The future of shopping 🚀
- Rufus + video ads 🎥
AMAZON NEWS
ICYMI, Amazon just announced that the Big Spring Sale 2025 will run from March 25–31—and it’s open to ALL Amazon customers, not just Prime members.
That means more shoppers, more visibility, and a prime (pun intended) opportunity to boost sales with limited-time deals.
🗓️ Submit your deals before March 17
There are two deal types:
✅ Best Deal – Runs throughout the event
⚡ Lightning Deal – Runs for 12 hours (Amazon selects the timing)
How to submit:
- Go to Advertising > Deals
- Click Create a new deal
- Select an eligible ASIN
- Choose Big Spring Sale, configure the details and submit.
🛒 Submit Prime-exclusive discounts by March 31
These discounts can’t run at the same time as Deals, so plan accordingly.
How to submit:
- Go to Advertising > Price Discounts
- Click Create a price discount
- Select Big Spring Sale from the Events menu
- Choose Prime customers as the Audience
- Add your products & complete the workflow.
⚠️ Skipping the Big Spring Sale?
That’s like leaving money on the table. This event is your chance to boost sales, clear out inventory, and improve your sales metrics before summer. With a wave of deal-hungry shoppers, sitting this one out isn’t an option.
Submit your deals now and get ahead of the rush!
TOGETHER WITH WALMART MARKETPLACE
Ready to grow? See how Walmart Marketplace can help
When your business is backed by one of the most trusted names in retail, great things can happen.
The woman-founded party supply company found grand success on Walmart.com. According to Jill Schultz, Dir. Merchandising and Inventory, “Walmart has connected us with millions of customers that we would not have been able to reach otherwise.” and bringing joy to millions of customers during their times of celebration.
Are you our next seller success story? Grow your business on Walmart.com. Join Walmart Marketplace and get:
🔵 Up to 75% off referral fees
🔵 Up to $2K in fulfillment credits
🔵 $1K in advertising credits
A total of up to $75K in savings.*
*Conditions apply.
BITES OF THE WEEK
- Prime Phishing Warning: Forewarned is forearmed – Amazon is warning Prime members about the four-step hack attack.
- Robots Support AI: Amazon will use its savings from using automation to invest more in AI advancements.
- Claude 3.7 Sonnet is Here: Amazon Bedrock welcomes Anthropic's Claude 3.7 Sonnet – a first-of-its-kind ‘hybrid reasoning’ model.
- Tax Season Tip: Don't forget to download your FBA donations certificate in Seller Central for tax season.
HOT TOPIC
Sellers from China are taking over Walmart too
Not long ago, we reported how U.S. sellers were struggling to compete with China-based sellers on Amazon. Now, the same pattern is unfolding on Walmart’s marketplace.
According to Marketplace Pulse, the presence of China-based sellers on Walmart is growing rapidly:
- In 2024, 41% of Walmart’s new sellers came from China—more than double the 16% in 2023.
- The trend spiked in March and April, when two-thirds of new sellers were China-based.
- Overall, 28% of active Walmart sellers are now from China—a dramatic increase from just 1% in 2021.
📈 Why is this happening?
Walmart has been aggressively recruiting sellers, and China-based merchants have clear advantages:
- Lower production costs with direct factory access
- Tax breaks and regulatory loopholes
- Aggressive marketing tactics, including price wars and fake reviews
🔮 What's next for you?
Walmart’s trajectory is mirroring Amazon’s, and without policy changes, this trend will continue. With competition heating up, you need to step up.
Whether it’s adapting to new strategies or expanding into new markets, you can’t afford to sit this one out. 🧍
ECOMMERCE NEWS
The future of shopping is here—and it's not what you expected
Feedvisor’s latest Consumer Behavior Report sheds light on how price sensitivity, AI, and social commerce are reshaping the ecommerce landscape. 📢
Retail Dive summed it up with these key insights:
- Price sensitivity is at an all-time high. 🛑
- 49% of consumers say inflation is their biggest purchasing influence.
- 83% of shoppers prioritize price over everything else, including shipping speed and brand values.
- Consumers are doing more research. 🔎
- 79% compare prices before buying.
- Amazon still dominates product searches with 87%, but competitors are closing in—Walmart captures 50%, Google 42%, Temu 36%, and Shein 11%.
- Social commerce fuels mobile purchases & impulse buying. 📱
- Instagram (51%), Facebook (40%), and Pinterest (42%) drive product discovery.
- Mobile purchases account for 63% of transactions.
- TikTok earned $6 billion in in-app purchases last year!
- Video & streaming ads drive engagement. 📺
- Video ads (54%), Facebook (47%), YouTube (45%), and streaming TV (40%) are top drivers of product awareness—especially for Millennials and Gen Z.
- AI is shaping shopping decisions. 🤖
- 62% of parents and younger consumers use AI-driven recommendations to guide purchases.
🏆 Stay ahead or fall behind
Shoppers are more informed, price-conscious, and AI-influenced than ever. Brands that adapt, personalize, and price strategically will dominate—everyone else risks getting left behind.
TECH MARKETING
Rufus now serving video ads
Amazon confirmed to Adweek that its AI shopping assistant, Rufus, just leveled up—now testing video ads in search results.
🐶 Who’s Rufus again?
No, it’s not a dog. ICYDK, Rufus is Amazon’s AI-powered shopping assistant. It’s been trained on Amazon’s extensive product catalog, customer reviews, community Q&As, and information from across the web.
📰 What’s the latest?
Previously, Rufus only generated text-based search ads. But Patrick Petriello, Director of Retail Marketplace Strategy at Acadia, recently spotted video ads appearing within Rufus.
According to EMARKETER, Rufus ads currently make up just 1% of search budgets—but this could change as Amazon refines its approach.
🤔 What this means for you
Video ads tend to be more engaging and drive higher conversions than static ads. However, advertisers currently lack performance data on Rufus ads, making it unclear how effective they really are.
For now, we’ll have to wait and see if Amazon expands this test—or keeps Rufus' video ad experiment under wraps. ⏳
