Amazon's new AI agent sounds too good to be true + Tariff Protection Contracts explode (9/19/25)

This week Amazon had their Accelerate conference in Seattle and they unveiled some shocking news about their new AI agent that almost sounds too good to be true.

Amazon announced their new AI power tools for seller operations. These include a listing creator - when sellers use gen AI to create listings, they see a 40% increase in listing quality. This is helping them quickly create content that raises customer engagement and boost sales potential.

Seller assistant will actively monitor your inventory levels alerting sellers to actions they can take to optimize their costs and growth. Amazon is leveraging their machine learning algorithms and big data for demand forecasting.

But here's the huge one sellers were waiting for - their new AI creative studio. Amazon lets sellers develop professional quality ads both video and images through conversational prompts. Basically transforming what was weeks long processes into just minutes or hours.

One seller that makes smart bird feeders created an ad for Father's Day to reach shoppers searching for gifts. They used Creative Studio AI tools to design and build a sponsored video ad for the holiday. The results were shocking: 338% increase in click-through rate versus all other sponsored video ads they were running. 89% new to brand offers and 121% return on ad spent.

Last but not least, seller assistant for Amazon account health will continuously monitor a seller's account status and raise potential issues and actions before it's too late.

Takeaway: These AI tools will tremendously reduce your manual workload and improve your efficiency, saving you tons of time. Definitely explore these features to automate a lot of these mundane tasks. You can try out the AI Creative Studio right now at aistudio.amazon.com

Nine out of ten companies right now have introduced tariff related clauses in their contracts. They're scrambling to reduce the potential risks of tariffs and global trade disruption, according to contract management firm Agiloft in a survey released this week.

This includes specific language related to tariffs to hedge against uncertainty in pricing, sourcing, delivery timelines and compliance requirements.

“This indicates the reality that tariffs are no longer short term or isolated. They are persistent and unpredictable enough to warrant consistent contractual safeguards."

Takeaway: 9 out of 10 companies have introduced tariff related clauses. Shouldn't you review your contracts? Consider adding clauses to protect against sudden cost increases, especially important for sellers sourcing from China and other countries subject to tariff changes.

What are you doing to reduce your tariff risks in your contracts? Are you asking your suppliers to share the costs, or are you doing something else? Hit reply, let me know.

Amazon MCF is now available for sellers on all three of these major platforms. You can now leverage Amazon's fulfillment network for fast delivery across all of these different marketplaces.

This will expand your opportunities to easily keep your inventory in one place and fulfill them on multiple platforms without having to deal with multiple third-party logistic warehouses.

Takeaway: New opportunities for sellers to use Amazon's FBA infrastructure over all of these different sales channels. But watch out for the fees, guys. That could bite you in the end.

Q4 storage fees just jumped from 68 cents to $2.40 per cubic foot—that's 4x higher.

Yet most sellers are still planning like it's 2019. In my latest podcastIs to Is to  with Ephraim Ausch, Chief Logistics Officer at Tactical Logistics, we broke down exactly why this Q4 could make or break your business. Ephraim's seen 10% of his client base shut down in 2024 alone—the highest rate he's ever witnessed.

The biggest shock? Amazon Warehousing & Distribution (AWD) is completely jammed on the West Coast. Ephraim's drivers are getting turned away after 3-hour waits, and new appointments are pushed out to late August. Meanwhile, Amazon's shifting resources away from receiving inventory after October to focus on shipping orders. Miss these deadlines, and you're looking at 3-4 week delays that could kill your entire season.

We dive deep into the "Goldilocks method" of Q4 inventory management—how to stock just right without getting destroyed by fees or stockouts. Plus, Ephraim reveals why the traditional placement fee strategy is broken and what savvy sellers are doing instead.

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Have a great weekend,

Gary

P.S. Who do you know that would get value from the 80/20 of E-commerce? Forward this newsletter. They'll thank you later.