INSIDE THIS ISSUE
News from the Seller Community
Updates on Policy, AI and Reviews, from the world of eCommerce.
From the eCom Growth Show Podcast
Wonder what it really takes to scale on TikTok Shop? TikTok expert Ian Page breaks it down.
Upcoming eCom Events
What not to miss, plus what’s coming next.
Black Hat Watch
Why buying reviews is now a bet you can’t win.
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News from the Seller Community
Policy
Amazon announced a strict new product title policy capping most category titles at 75 characters (down from 200), including spaces. This includes a new attribute, which they’re calling Item Highlights, that has a 125 character limit.
Meaning you’ll still have 200 characters total in which to describe your products, but they’ll need to be used across both fields.
AI
New compliance requirements compel Amazon sellers to embed “contains synthetic performer” metadata into digital assets featuring photorealistic AI-generated people.
The update comes in response to a new New York law that requires businesses to identify when advertisements use realistic AI-generated people instead of human actors.
If you use AI to create lifestyle images, videos, or A+ Content for your Amazon listings, you’ll want to follow this thread:
Amazon Introduces New Rules for AI-Generated Images
Reviews
This actually happened to me.
Over the past week there have been reports of Amazon mistakenly flagging and blocking legitimate shoppers as bots when they try to read customer reviews.
Yikes.
A few items of note on this:
- Blocked Access. Some shoppers have been limited to reading only a small number of reviews per product.
- False Positives. Amazon is incorrectly catching human users in its automated defense against AI scrapers and data harvesters.
- Appeals Process. Affected users report having to email customer support and wait days to regain full review viewing privileges.
Good news, I’m confident this will get sorted out. It’s a good initiative, as once they nail how to spot the bots it will help us all.
In the meantime, know that this might happen to you, and be patient.
From the eCom Growth Show Podcast
Episode #83
TikTokShop: What it Really Takes to Scale
In this episode of The eCom Growth Show, Danan Coleman sits down with Ian Page, CEO of Bullseye Sellers and co-founder of Sellico, to explore what it really takes to build a profitable business on TikTok Shop. While many sellers see viral success stories online, Ian explains the reality behind those wins: months of persistence, a solid product, the right economics, and a strategy that extends far beyond TikTok itself.
From navigating TikTok’s frustrating approval process to leveraging affiliate marketing and understanding Amazon spillover, Ian shares what separates brands that succeed from those that burn through their budgets.
Click the Play button above to watch.
For our full selection of episodes click here 👇
Upcoming eCom Events
Market Masters 4 (Aug 20-24)
An exclusive, high-level eCommerce mastermind experience with Kevin King.
MDS Summit Singapore (Aug 23-26)
Million Dollar Sellers’ flagship annual gathering.
Top Dog Summit (Sep 8-10)
An exclusive, hands-on event for seven-figure Amazon sellers and ecommerce operators.
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!
For a full list of industry events visit Ecom.Events:
[ Ecom.Events ]
Black Hat Watch
Why Buying Reviews Is Now a Bet You Can’t Win
Last week I turned the spotlight on my own industry, talking about some of the bad actors out there charging for review removal and producing no results.
This week I want to turn the spotlight on us (yes, I also sell) Amazon sellers. Though we are “good guys” we sometimes, still, on occasion, consider taking the easy way, which can amount to a black-hat move.
It doesn’t make us bad guys, but it does put us at risk.
What I Mean
You’re tempted by a service that promises a stack of five-star reviews fast. But here’s the thing to know:
Amazon’s enforcement doesn’t work review-by-review anymore. It watches account-wide patterns, closer to a social score than a spot check.
What Can Happen
One case I came across involved two reports by two fraudulent buyer accounts triggering a sweep that wiped out 12,000 reviews.
The false claim from fraudulent buyers: Being forced to leave 5-star reviews in order to receive a warranty.
What the real situation was that Amazon said was review manipulation: Seller had an insert requesting a review and had a picture of 5 stars on there. Amazon claimed this was coercing the buyer into leaving 5 stars.
The Ultimatum: The seller has 2 options.
1. Admit guilt for review manipulation, keep their account and get all reviews removed from a specified date-range resulting in Amazon wiping out 12,000 reviews from the Seller account.
2. Admit nothing and the whole account is permanently suspended
Which option would you choose? Guilty or guilty and financially ruined?
The Right Way Always Wins
Tempting as it is, I can assure you the best way to be is above boards.
The safer path the most successful sellers are moving toward is organic and slow: campaigns built around genuine buyer traffic and content, where reviews happen as a byproduct instead of being the product.
And when it comes to shaving off the negative reviews that are doing harm, my company and I can help.
At eCom Triage we find and remove the negative reviews that shouldn’t be there.
See how we can help.
