☕ Your Ecommerce Coffee Break (Issue 179)

👋 Happy Thursday! Here’s your latest ecom news roundup: Holiday spend is down, Walmart leans on ChatGPT checkout, TikTok Shop drives live sales, Shopify connects suppliers with retailers, and California starts regulating AI chatbots.

Grab your coffee, it’s a 1-min skim or a 3-minute to make you a smarter online seller.

In Today’s Edition:

• Today’s Headlines Handpicked For You!

• 🎧 On the Pod: How To Hit $1M Months Selling Hard Gated Brands

• The End of SEO as We Know It

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📰 WHAT’S HAPPENING

📈 General Ecommerce News

• Average holiday spend to decline 10% [read more]

• Consumers Paying More Than Half of Trump Tariffs [read more]

• Global Growth Remains Sluggish [read more]

• California is first state to regulate AI chatbots [read more]

🛒 Platforms & Marketplaces

• Walmart wants you to check out (on) ChatGPT [read more]

• Suppliers can discover retailers in Shopify Collective [read more]

• Amazon Delays Seller Payouts [read more]

• TikTok Shop made live shopping a beauty staple [read more]

📱Social Media & Advertising

• Instagram will now restrict content on Teen Accounts [read more]

• OpenAI to relax ChatGPT restrictions and permit adult content [read more]

• The optimal email marketing frequency [read more]

• How to use TikTok Creator Search Insights [read more]

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🎙️ ECOMMERCE COFFEE BREAK PODCAST

How To Hit $1M Months Selling Hard Gated Brands

In this episode, we dive into the challenges of selling on Amazon, including gated brands and slow cash flow.

Aaron O'Sullivan, co-founder of Sellmyselleraccount.co and ecomstores.com, shares how acquiring aged Amazon seller accounts can provide instant access to restricted categories, speed up cash flow cycles, and mitigate the risk of account suspension.

He explains why the "vehicle" or age of your store is critical for achieving faster, more profitable growth on the platform.

🎧 Play Episode: [Website] [Apple Podcasts] [Spotify] [YouTube]

Please Rate & Review: Help others discover the show by rating the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

🔎 THE END OF SEO AS WE KNOW IT

Amazon is blocking ChatGPT from crawling its site. They're doubling down on their own AI assistant, Rufus. Meanwhile, Walmart is embracing ChatGPT for shopping. They're betting on AI to handle everything from product discovery to checkout.

This shift changes how people shop online. Instead of typing keywords into a search bar, they're asking AI for recommendations. Traditional SEO tactics—like keyword optimization and paid ads—are losing their power. AI prioritizes relevance and context over keywords.

What Sellers Should Do

• Write for humans, not algorithms. Describe your product as if explaining it to a friend.

• Focus on value. Highlight how your product solves a problem or meets a need.

• Build trust. Customer relationships and service are now your competitive edge.

• Use structured data. Implement schema markup to help AI understand your product details.

• Optimize for conversational queries. Think about how customers might ask for your product.

• Leverage rich media. Use images and videos to enhance product visibility.

• Encourage reviews. Positive feedback boosts credibility and AI rankings.

The future of shopping is conversational. Adapt now, or risk being left behind.

🚀 RECOMMENDED READS

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