Amazon Reinvents Mobile Shopping – Variant Winners Take Market Share

Welcome to our weekly newsletter, Hunter's Insights!

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:

🤖 Amazon Expands Rufus With In-Chat Cart Functionality

📊 Amazon Expands Testing of Variant-Specific Banners on Mobile

📢 New Amazon PPC Update: Placement Reporting for Amazon Business

💬 Amazon Ads Introduces AI-Powered Creative Studio Assistant

🛒 OpenAI Launches Instant Checkout, Challenging Amazon’s Core

💲 Amazon Introduces FBA Fee Discounts for Multi-Unit Business Orders

🏴 Amazon Black Friday 2025 Submissions Now Open

🤖 Amazon Expands Rufus With In-Chat Cart Functionality

Amazon's AI shopping assistant, Rufus, now allows shoppers to add products and deals directly to their cart during chat conversations. This update enhances Rufus from a discovery tool to a full shopping assistant, enabling a seamless transition from inquiries to purchases.

For sellers, this means:

• Products mentioned in Rufus chats are now just one click away from checkout.

• Visibility within Rufus has become even more valuable for conversion rates.

• Optimized listings, positive reviews, and clear attributes will enhance the chances of being featured.

By bridging the gap between recommendations and purchases, Amazon is positioning Rufus as a more powerful driver of sales—something that sel

📊 Amazon Expands Testing of Variant-Specific Banners on Mobile

Amazon is testing a new mobile shopping experience that features value-based messaging banners for select child ASINs within a product family. These banners highlight benefits directly on the variant listings, improving their visibility during shopping.

Key points:

• Banners appear at the child ASIN level, allowing for more precise optimization.

• Messaging may include phrases like “Best Value,” discounts, or performance tags.

• Variants with better positioning or offers could see higher click-through rates and conversions.

If this test expands, sellers will need to optimize each variant with clear value messaging and competitive positioning, which may influence customer choices within a product family.

📢 New Amazon PPC Update: Placement Reporting for Amazon Business

Amazon has introduced a significant update for advertisers: you can now view placement performance specifically targeted for Amazon Business.

What’s new:

• Placement reports now provide a breakdown of Top of Search, Product Pages, and Rest of Search within Amazon Business campaigns.

• Previously, sellers only had access to a single aggregated "Business Placement" metric without further details.

• Now, you can accurately identify where spending in the Business segment is directed and how each placement affects performance.

This update enhances optimization control for advertisers, especially those with large budgets for Amazon Business. By analyzing performance at the placement level, sellers can adjust bids and budgets, offering B2B brands clearer PPC insights.

💬 Amazon Ads Introduces AI-Powered Creative Studio Assistant

Amazon Ads has launched a new agentic AI within Creative Studio that acts as a strategist, designer, and production team. Advertisers can easily create professional-quality ads—scripts, images, videos, and voiceovers—without needing external platforms.

Key Features:

• Comprehensive Workflow: Manages the entire creative process, from brainstorming to final production.

• Transparent Reasoning: Explains its choices for taglines, scenes, and audience targeting.

• User Control: Allows advertisers to adjust and refine outputs as needed.

This innovation not only accelerates production timelines but also reduces reliance on external agencies, enabling sellers to efficiently test and scale campaigns within Amazon’s ecosystem. While still evolving, this tool shows Amazon’s dedication to making creative production faster, more affordable, and integrated.

🛒 OpenAI Launches Instant Checkout, Challenging Amazon’s Core

OpenAI has introduced Instant Checkout for US ChatGPT users, enabling direct in-app purchases from numerous sellers, with features like payment integration and order tracking. This gives OpenAI a competitive edge over Amazon's limited AI initiative, Rufus, which is not fully integrated into its search experience.

Why this matters:

• OpenAI is rapidly combining search, recommendations, and transactions into a single flow.

• Amazon risks falling behind if it cannot accelerate Rufus's adoption or match the innovations in AI-driven shopping.

• Market pressure will increase as consumer behavior shifts towards chat-based commerce.

The main conclusion is evident: although Amazon pioneered online shopping, it now faces the risk of falling behind in the era of AI-driven retail.

💲 Amazon Introduces FBA Fee Discounts for Multi-Unit Business Orders

Amazon has launched a new incentive for business buyers, offering discounts on FBA fees to sellers who provide a minimum 3% discount on multi-unit orders. The discounts vary based on product size and quantity, allowing sellers to boost their profits.

Key points:

• Sellers giving a 3% or greater discount on multi-unit purchases qualify for reduced fees.

• Fee discounts depend on product size and order quantity.

• Sellers can still increase profits per unit even after discounts.

For instance, a large standard item priced at $10, sold at a 3% discount ($9.70 each), can earn sellers $1.20 back in FBA fee discounts, leading to an additional $0.30 per unit in proceeds.

This change can significantly enhance seller profitability, especially for lower-priced products with tight margins. Sellers should review their pricing strategies and consider multi-unit discounts to maximize gains.

🏴 Amazon Black Friday 2025 Submissions Now Open

Amazon has opened submissions for Black Friday 2025, with a deadline of October 24, 2025. Early submission is important to ensure visibility during this high-traffic event.

Updated fee structure for deals is as follows:

• Prime Exclusive Discounts: A flat fee of $50 per promotion, charged only if at least one unit sells.  

• Lightning Deals & Best Deals: Moving toward hybrid models that combine a smaller upfront fee with a percentage of sales, with special rules often applied during peak events.

Sellers' success on Black Friday 2025 will hinge on effective discounting, fee management, margins, and inventory. It will reward not just aggressive pricing, but also strategic planning and profitability.

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