All I want for Christmas is a $253B sales surge

Hey, our weekly roundup, SellerBites Wrapped, is back.

Another week, another Amazon plot twist… actually, three of them. Let’s get you caught up.

• What’s holding back your growth? 📉
• ’Tis the season for $253B in clicks and carts 💻
• Sellers brace for a 7-day payout delay 😴
• Invisible ads, visible losses, sellers call foul 🧾
• Get Looped In and take the chaos out of ecommerce accounting ✉️
• We’ll link your newsletter for FREE. Send your applications here. 🤝

HOT TOPIC

The holiday rush is here, and it’s shaping up to be the biggest digital shopping season ever. 

Adobe predicts U.S. online holiday sales will hit $253.4 billion, marking a 5.3% YoY jump—fueled by mobile convenience, deep discounts, and AI-assisted browsing that help shoppers check off their lists faster than ever.

🍪 Quick bits

• Cyber Week rules the throne. Nearly $44B in sales (17.2% of the season) will come from one week:
  • Cyber Monday: $14.2B (+6.3%)
  • Black Friday: $11.7B (+8.3%)
  • Thanksgiving: $6.4B (+4.9%)
  • Ten days are projected to top $5B each. 😋
• Discounts hit early and deep. Prime Day sparked a $9B October haul (+6.2% YoY) with average markdowns of 17%.
  • Cyber Week peaks: Electronics (28%), Toys (27%), Apparel (25%)
• Premium spending rises. Shoppers are splurging on smartwatches, consoles, and luxury home tech, proof that “holiday budgeting” is more suggestion than rule.
• AI joins the checkout line.GenAI traffic to retail sites is up 520% YoY, helping shoppers hunt deals and gifts faster.
  • Social commerce is up 51%, with TikTok and Instagram turning inspiration into conversions.

💬 SellerBites’ take

This isn’t another Q4 frenzy, it’s commerce on autopilot. Between AI recommendations, social-driven discovery, and precision discounting, shoppers aren’t browsing; they’re being directed.

For sellers, that means one thing: optimize or vanish. In 2025, the best deal doesn’t win, the best-placed one does.

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BITES OF THE WEEK

• Instant Threat: ChatGPT's Instant Checkout capabilities would be a challenge to Amazon's advertising business
• Goodbye for Good: ByteDance may now focus on other, less restrictive markets after letting the U.S. market go.
• Keyword Made Easy: The Amazon TikTok Guy just dropped a new TikTok Keyword Tool for FREE! 
• More Pro Partners: TikTok added a new “Shop Ads” category to its Marketing Partners line-up.

TRENDING TOPIC

Amazon hits pause on payouts with new DD+7 delay

Sellers, your payout clock just got a new snooze button, and this one’s not optional. 

Starting March 12, 2026, Amazon will roll out its new Delivery Date +7 (DD+7) policy, meaning your funds won’t hit your account until seven days after a package is delivered

🍪 Quick bits

• The new rule. Payments will no longer hit after shipment, Amazon now waits a full week post-delivery to release funds.
• The reason. Amazon says it needs extra time to “accrue fees” and ensure customers “receive and evaluate” their orders.
• The backlash. Sellers are calling it a cash-flow chokehold disguised as “fairness.”
• The risk. Untracked shipments could leave payouts “in limbo” if no delivery scan appears—though Amazon claims funds will still be released after the latest estimated delivery date.
• The fine print. “Disburse on Demand” remains available, but only after funds clear under DD+7.

💬 SellerBites’ take

Amazon says it’s about “accuracy.” Sellers say it’s about “interest.” And honestly? It’s hard not to side with the ones footing the delay.

When every dollar of cash flow counts, seven days might as well be seven years. If this is what “fairer handling” looks like, sellers could use a little less fairness, and a lot more speed.

BLACK MARKET

Sellers discover hidden ad charges with ROAS below 1%

Some Amazon sellers are opening their invoices to find an unwanted surprise, thousands spent on ads they never approved. 

Ad budgets are quietly bleeding into off-Amazon placements with ROAS below 1%. 😬

🍪 Quick bits

• The invisible spend. Sellers report thousands wasted on off-Amazon placements they didn’t even know existed.
• The broken toggle. Even with “limit off-Amazon spend” turned on, costs keep rising.
• The dead end. Refunds are denied, and Amazon insists any “customer click” makes the charge valid.
• The black box. Sellers can’t see where their ads actually appear, some only realized the leak after losing five to six figures.
• The DIY fix. There’s no real opt-out, so pros are switching to manual campaigns and re-uploading deny lists every 30 days just to stay in control.

💬 SellerBites’ take

What’s worse, these aren’t rookie mistakes. Many affected sellers had the “limit off-Amazon spend” toggle turned on, only to watch costs keep climbing like a PPC horror movie with no pause button.

Until Amazon adds real transparency, or, better yet, an actual opt-out, the best move is going manual and meticulous. 

Old-school vigilance beats algorithmic leakage any day.