INSIDE THIS ISSUE
News from the Seller Community
The latest must-know info on Policy & Tactics, AI, plus Review news from the world of eCommerce.
From the eCom Growth Show Podcast
What actually separates profitable eCommerce growth from simply spending more money? In this episode learn the real factors that go into building a brand.
Upcoming eCom Events
What not to miss, plus what’s coming next.
Black Hat Watch
Review manipulation remains the backbone of Chinese seller launch strategy. At least 50% of Chinese sellers use some form of review strategy that violates Amazon’s Terms of Service.
From Our Sponsor: eCom Triage
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- Conversion drops
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- Ranking slides
- Competitors steal market share
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News from the Seller Community
Policy & Tactics
This may not be a policy change yet, but keep an eye out: Amazon is quietly hiding reviews behind a click.
Some sellers are now noticing reviews sitting behind a “click to request” prompt instead of displaying openly. Still there, just harder to reach.
It’s not confirmed as a blanket policy change yet, but it’s showing up enough to be worth checking your own listings rather than assuming your review count and your visible social proof are the same thing.
If your conversion has dipped and your review count hasn’t, rule this out before you blame your images or your price.
AI
A brief overview of AI this week:
- ChatGPT Work can now log into websites and complete tasks on a user’s behalf without seeing or storing passwords.
- Anthropic’s Claude in Chrome is now generally available to all paid Claude plans, letting Claude browse, click, and fill out forms directly in-browser.
- Hm. Reddit’s share of citations inside ChatGPT answers reportedly collapsed from roughly 4% to almost nothing in about a week, with no announcement or confirmed explanation. Unconfirmed, single source, but worth watching if you’re leaning on Reddit for LLM visibility.
Reviews
You want reviews fast for a new launch, so you send samples to a tight circle:
- Same city
- Same day
- Brand-new accounts
Amazon’s algorithms read that pattern and it doesn’t look organic, it looks coordinated. Concentrated patterns like same zip code, same day, new buyer accounts, and shared IP addresses are exactly what trips manipulation detection.
Worse, if you get flagged, the appeals process tends to be punitive. You either admit guilt and lose the reviews plus take an account health hit, or risk a full suspension fighting it.
TIP: Spread any seeding effort across time, geography, and account history, or decouple the purchase incentive from the review ask entirely so there’s no quid pro quo to detect.
From the eCom Growth Show Podcast
Episode #86
What’s Really Holding Your Ecommerce Brand Back?
In this episode of The eCom Growth Show, Danan Coleman talks with Hai Mag, CEO of Eva Commerce, about what actually separates profitable eCommerce growth from simply spending more money.
With more than 20 years of experience building and scaling eCommerce businesses, Hai explains why brands need to strengthen their fundamentals before increasing ad spend, how TikTok and Amazon can work together when launching a new brand, and why AI is becoming a force multiplier for the people who know how to use it effectively.
The conversation also explores what success really means for entrepreneurs, why customer trust remains critical as the eCommerce ecosystem becomes more crowded, and what brands need to focus on if they want to remain competitive over the next five years.
Click the Play button above to watch.
For our full selection of episodes click here 👇
Upcoming eCom Events
Top Dog Summit (Sep 8-10)
An exclusive, hands-on event for seven-figure Amazon sellers and ecommerce operators.
Saudi International Digital Marketing & E-Commerce Expo (Sep 13-15)
Discover business operations to keep pace with the future of e-commerce, and Saudi Arabia’s own Vision 2030 digital transformation initiatives.
Amazon Accelerate (Sep 22-24)
The largest Amazon Seller event in the US bringing sellers from all over the world. And I (Danan) will have the list of parties on the event listing soon!
PS: Check out our ecom.events page for the parties and after-hours events happening at Accelerate. There are a lot. Scroll by date to see all that’s happening.
Amazon unBoxed 2026 (Sep 28-30)
Amazon Ads unBoxed 2026 is Amazon Advertising’s flagship annual conference, bringing three days of product announcements, expert-led sessions, hands-on training, and networking.
For a full list of industry events visit Ecom.Events:
[ Ecom.Events ]
Black Hat Watch
The Black-Hat Review Machine
Review manipulation remains the backbone of Chinese seller launch strategy. At least 50% of Chinese sellers use some form of review strategy that violates Amazon’s Terms of Service.
When you factor in the new reality that Chinese sellers now control more than 50% of Amazon’s top seller positions — up from just 15% in 2016 — you see what legitimate sellers are up against.
Zombie Account Farms
One trick are the farms. Operators maintain thousands of fake Amazon buyer accounts that simulate genuine browsing — searching, clicking, dwelling on pages — before purchasing. Instead of shipping real products, they mail lightweight items with tracking to random addresses.
Once tracking confirms delivery, the zombie account posts a verified 5-star review.
Cost: $3–5 per review.
The Stakes
Amazon blocked over 275 million suspected fake reviews last year, investing $500M+ annually. But the economics still work. Manufactured reviews can boost sales 12.5% in two weeks, and a single additional star increases demand by 38%.
These groups employ similar tactics to attack competitors with negative reviews.
The Good News
If you’re being hit with negative reviews, regardless of the black-hat posting them, eCom Triage finds the invalid ones and removes them.
See how we can help.
