INSIDE THIS ISSUE
News from the Seller Community
The latest must-know info on Policy & Tactics, plus Review news you can use.
From the eCom Growth Show Podcast
AI is changing eCommerce discovery, traditional SEO is evolving, and here’s what brands must now do to stay visible when shoppers ask AI for product recommendations …
Upcoming eCom Events
What not to miss & what’s coming next. Get your full update on the best industry events (and parties).
Black Hat Watch
Recent black hat tactics targeting Amazon sellers heavily leverage automation, artificial intelligence and have been building. Learn the latest.
This Week’s Dad Joke
Hoo boy. 😁
Be Part of Our Walmart Beta
We’re expanding our review removal service to Walmart.
First we have to test it.
We’ve been refining our process and seeing great results, and are now ready to invite select brands to test the removal of negative reviews on Walmart.
If you sell on Walmart, we’re looking for 5 brands to help. Onboarding is free, and our support team will work with you closely to evaluate results.
[ Walmart Negative Review Removal Beta ]
News from the Seller Community
Policy & Tactics
Amazon Ads Announces Review Requests
This is interesting. Amazon is rolling out a new ad type inside Amazon Ads Agent, which shows a review request to verified buyers on busy pages like the homepage.
Buyers can leave a one-tap star rating and optionally add a written review with photos or video.
This new ad option is an open beta in the US only, starting late October 2026, for products with fewer than 1,000 total ratings and an ad console account in good standing.
Finally, a compliant, paid route to generate review volume on Amazon.
Reviews & Ranking
Your Star Rating Is Not An Average
A seller asked me this week how many removals it would take to get from a 4.3 to a 4.5. I gave him the honest answer:
Nobody knows, and anyone who quotes you a number is guessing.
Amazon’s star rating is a weighted score, and the secret sauce they use to calculate it will for sure remain exactly that:
A secret.
But there are things we do know. Recency, verified purchase status and reviewer trust all move the needle, so an old review and a new one don’t count the same.
My advice:
Log your displayed rating per ASIN every week and know which listings sit within a tenth of a rounding cliff. That’s where a single review is worth real money.
From the eCom Growth Show Podcast
Episode #73
How Can eCommerce Brands Take Back Control of Product Discovery From AI?
In this episode of The eCom Growth Show, Danan Coleman interviews Adrian Nikolov of Haide Digital to explore how AI is changing eCommerce discovery, why traditional SEO is evolving, and what brands must do now to stay visible when shoppers ask AI for product recommendations …
Click the Play button above to watch.
For our full selection of episodes click here 👇
Upcoming eCom Events
PI LIVE Europe 2026 (Oct 19-21)
PI LIVE Europe is a three-day festival for brands, retailers, publishers, creators, agencies, and technology partners building growth through partnership marketing.
Creator Commerce Collective (Oct 28)
Hosted by Levanta under the theme “Human-Made,” this is a brand-led gathering for the people shaping product discovery and commerce strategy. Request your invite.
Cross Border Summit 2026 (Nov 3-5)
A three-day ecommerce conference for cross-border sellers, Amazon and multi-channel operators, DTC founders, agencies, and service providers looking to scale internationally.
Prosper Show 2027 (Mar 2-3)
Never too early to start thinking about this one. Prosper brings together marketplace sellers, ecommerce brands, operators, agencies, technology providers, and industry experts for two focused days.
For a full list of industry events (and great parties to attend) visit Ecom.Events:
[ Ecom.Events ]
Black Hat Watch
We Knew It Was Coming
Recent black hat tactics targeting Amazon sellers heavily leverage automation, artificial intelligence.
This has been building, and it’s no real surprise.
The Good
Believe it or not, Reverse Review Bombing (Account Traps), is becoming a thing. This is where the bad guys flood a listing with fake positive or unverified reviews overnight to trigger Amazon’s automated manipulation flags, resulting in sudden product or account suspensions.
Now even good reviews can be used against you.
The Bad
Taking it to a new level, AI-Scaled Negative Reviews involving automated systems generate hundreds of distinct, plausible 1-star reviews at near-zero marginal cost, bypassing older detection methods that looked for copy-pasted text.
The bad just got worse.
The Ugly
Using AI to come up with bogus pics and other docs (this has happened to me on my own accounts) the weenie babies (I like coming up with names for these guys) deploy fabricated customer service nightmares (such as fake pet supplement reactions with detailed mock veterinary visits or specific allergic symptoms) to scare real buyers away.
Lovely.
The Solution
There’s help. Here at eCom Triage we get rid of the reviews that shouldn’t be there, and we help with other account issues too.
Check out our site, look at what we offer, and set up a call and let’s see what we can do.
[ See Our Services ]
This Week’s Dad Joke 😁
My addiction to helium is out of control …
But no one takes my cries for help seriously.
