Welcome to our weekly newsletter, Hunter's Insights!
This was a big week for Amazon sellers. The FTC released new details about Amazon's ad auctions, Amazon confirmed the dates for Black Friday Week, and the 2027 FBA fees are finally out. Below you'll find what happened and what it means for your business.
My recommendation this week: check your virtual multipacks before Black Friday
Amazon created virtual multipacks for selected FBA brands, and they went live on November 11. If your brand was selected, do this today:
Open Manage All Inventory and filter for "VMP_" to find the multipacks Amazon created.
Check the price of each one. The default price includes a discount, so recalculate your margin.
Make sure the title and images clearly show the quantity, so shoppers don't expect something else.
Edit or delete any multipack that doesn't make sense for your product.
Multipack orders use up stock faster than your order count suggests, so check your inventory before the event starts on November 19.
In this special edition, we bring you essential Amazon updates and industry insights to keep you ahead in the fast-paced world of e-commerce:
⚖️ FTC: Amazon Allegedly Charged Advertisers Up to 250% Above Auction Prices
🛍️ Amazon Announces 12-Day Black Friday Week Starting November 19
💰 Amazon Announces 2027 U.S. FBA Fee Changes
💬 Alexa for Shopping Now Takes Orders by Text Message
🎯 Attain Brings Off-Amazon Purchase Data to Amazon Ads DVA+
📦 Amazon-Created Virtual Multipacks Go Live
🔎 Amazon Opens Its Search to Outside Stores for Free
⚖️ FTC: Amazon Allegedly Charged Advertisers Up to 250% Above Auction Prices
On November 5, the FTC released previously redacted details from its lawsuit against Amazon. According to the complaint, Amazon secretly raised advertisers' prices above the results of its search ad auctions, especially during major shopping events.
Key Updates:
The FTC alleges surcharges reached up to 50% on ordinary days and up to 250% on Prime Day and Black Friday.
During the 2021 holiday season, average CPC rose 20%, and the 2022 holiday surcharges allegedly brought Amazon an extra $87 million worldwide.
When advertisers asked about rising costs, Amazon allegedly blamed increased competition. The case was filed in August by the FTC and 22 states.
These are allegations, not proven facts, and the court has not ruled yet. Still, this is a good moment to review your CPC trends around past Prime Days and Q4, especially going into Black Friday.
🛍️ Amazon Announces 12-Day Black Friday Week Starting November 19
Amazon officially announced its Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday event, running from November 19 through November 30. For the first time, Today's Big Deals will feature savings of up to 60%.
Key Updates:
The event starts at 12:01 a.m. PST on November 19, with 12 days of daily deal drops. On Black Friday and Cyber Monday, new deals drop twice a day.
Alexa for Shopping will track prices, show up to 365 days of price history and auto-buy items when they hit a shopper's target price.
Amazon is promoting small businesses with a dedicated badge and discounts of up to 65%.
With price history visible for a full year, shoppers can instantly see whether a deal is real. Sellers have eight days left to check inventory, ad budgets and deal pricing before the event starts.
💰 Amazon Announces 2027 U.S. FBA Fee Changes
Amazon announced its 2027 U.S. referral and FBA fee updates. Fulfillment fees will rise by an average of $0.19 per unit, with most changes taking effect on January 15, 2027.
Key Updates:
Amazon is introducing new size tiers: 4 bulky and 6 oversize, replacing the current 2 and 4. Some large items get cheaper, while others cost noticeably more.
From February 1, the storage utilization surcharge is removed, and the aged inventory surcharge is merged into the monthly storage fee based on inventory age.
Low-price FBA rates end for 5 categories, including Automotive and Computers, and new handling fees apply to flat and long oversize items.
The average looks small, but the impact varies a lot by size tier. Sellers should recalculate margins per SKU before January, especially for oversize and slow-moving products.
💬 Alexa for Shopping Now Takes Orders by Text Message
On November 6, Amazon started inviting U.S. customers to shop by texting a contact named "Alexa Shopping". Shoppers can search, compare products, build carts and complete purchases without opening the Amazon app.
Key Updates:
The agent can reorder items, search by photo, track prices and show up to a year of price history.
According to Digiday, Sponsored Products can appear among the options the agent texts back, and these placements are free for advertisers for now.
Access is invite-only today, with Amazon planning to expand to millions more customers in the coming weeks.
Amazon says over 400 million customers used Alexa for Shopping in the past year. As shopping moves into a short text conversation, only a few products make the list, so strong listings, reviews and competitive pricing matter even more.
🎯 Attain Brings Off-Amazon Purchase Data to Amazon Ads DVA+
On November 4, purchase data company Attain announced that its audiences are now available in Amazon Ads DVA+. Advertisers can now target shoppers based on what they buy outside Amazon, at stores such as Walmart, Kroger, Sephora, Dollar General and Walgreens. The announcement came from Attain, and Amazon has not commented on it yet.
Key Updates:
The data comes from over 14 million U.S. consumers who use Attain's rewards and financial apps and agree to share their purchases in exchange for rewards. The retailers themselves are not partners in this integration.
Audiences can be segmented by retailer, purchase category and channel (online or in-store), and used across DVA+ display and video inventory, including Prime Video.
DVA+ is still in closed beta in the U.S., with wider availability expected in Q1 2027. The integration does not apply to Sponsored Products.
This could help brands reach a competitor's buyers or win back shoppers who moved to other stores. However, pricing, audience sizes and performance results haven't been disclosed, so it's worth testing before scaling.
📦 Amazon-Created Virtual Multipacks Go Live
Starting November 11, virtual multipacks that Amazon created for selected FBA brand-owned products become available to shoppers. Each multipack sells several units of an existing product from current FBA stock, with no physical bundling.
Key Updates:
Every multipack gets its own ASIN and SKU and appears as a variation of the original listing.
The default price is based on the single-unit price with a percentage discount applied, which can cut into margins.
Sellers can find these offers by filtering for "VMP_" in Manage All Inventory and edit the price, title or description.
Multipack orders use up inventory faster than order counts suggest. Sellers should review pricing and stock levels now, especially ahead of Black Friday Week.
🔎 Amazon Opens Its Search to Outside Stores for Free
On November 4, Amazon launched Shop Direct Merchant Workspace, a free portal for online stores that don't sell on Amazon. Merchants upload a product feed, and their items can appear in Amazon search and Alexa for Shopping.
Key Updates:
Listings carry a "Shop Direct" label. Shoppers go to the merchant's own site, or Amazon's Buy for Me agent completes the purchase for them.
Merchants pay no referral or FBA fees and handle shipping and returns themselves.
By March, Shop Direct already included over 100 million products from 400,000 merchants.
For Amazon sellers, this means new competitors in search results that don't pay Amazon's fees. Amazon has not explained how these offers rank next to regular listings, so it's worth watching your key search terms.
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