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  • 80/20 of Ecom - Prime Day's hidden weakness + shipping rates drop unexpectedly - 7/18/2025

80/20 of Ecom - Prime Day's hidden weakness + shipping rates drop unexpectedly - 7/18/2025

AOV down 35% despite "record" sales, plus unexpected relief on container costs from Asia

Author

Gary Huang
July 18, 2025

In partnership with

Hey there,

Amazon Prime Day looks positive initially, but if you look closer at the numbers, you can see it actually underperformed last year. And then some good news on the shipping side as shipping rates are unexpectedly dropping this summer.

We'll have special training on how to use AI to manage PPC campaigns automatically so that you could potentially fire your agency. And last but not least, we have a special replay of an AI workshop that will be taken down on Saturday.

Now let's get into the 80/20 of E commerce:

  • Four-Day Amazon Prime Day 2025 Delivers Historic Sales Milestone

  • Reduced Asia–US Container Rates Bring Cost Savings to Importers

  • AI Replaces $5,000/Month PPC Firm—Here’s How

  • The Harsh Truth: 2 Out of 3 Sellers Are Now Doomed

The event ran from July 8th to 11th with sales that were record breaking and strong performance over multiple categories.

However, if you look closer at the numbers, the average order values were down 35% according to Max Blank from Triple Whale's LinkedIn post. This means that although Amazon smartly extended the length of Prime Day from 2 to 4 days this year, the sales did not increase respectively.

Some people speculate that this could be either the TikTok shop effect with people spending less per order, and others, myself included, feel that the overall weaker economy and uncertainty surrounding the tariffs are spooking consumers to hold back on their spending. We'll see how things go as we enter back to school in a few months.

Takeaway for Amazon Sellers: The 4-day format worked for Amazon but didn't deliver proportional sales increases. Plan for extended events but expect lower order values as consumers become more price-sensitive.

Previously, freight rates were expected to increase given the clarity that we're getting with the China tariffs. However, Asia-US container shipping rates are declining according to FreightWaves.

This contrasts with the earlier forecasts of rate increases. The main reasons include continued uncertainty related to tariffs, decreased demand, as well as market dynamics changing as trade policy changes.

Takeaway for Amazon Sellers: Take advantage of these decreasing container rates from Asia to cut down on your shipping costs, but continue to monitor the potential fluctuations in the rates.

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Ready to see AI handle your PPC like a pro? 

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Something massive dropped last Thursday—and the ripple effect is already shaking the ecom world.

Kevin King kicked off a firestorm with this bold claim:
“Two-thirds of Amazon sellers won’t survive what’s coming.”

This isn’t about recession or algo tweaks. This is the AI Apocalypse.

 Here’s the hard truth:
Your Amazon listing is speaking the wrong language.
While you’re stuffing keywords, AI engines are learning from Reddit, YouTube, and TikTok.
Your “optimized” listing? It’s invisible to how AI actually thinks.

A PPC expert dropped another bomb:
“57% of your traffic isn’t even looking for what you sell.”
Keyword research alone won’t save you.
Meanwhile, Reddit comments are outranking your $10K copy.

This shift is already happening—and it won’t wait for you to catch up.

Replay Expires Saturday:
 Watch the AI Apocalypse Webinar Replay

2 hours of brutally honest insight from 8 AI experts

Don’t be part of the 2-out-of-3.
Watch now—before this intel disappears.

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