Walmart Just Went All-In on AI Shopping (And Your SEO Data Got More Honest)
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Digest #54 ā Subscribeā 8 minute read - listen instead? Click Hereā Hey Amazon Pros šHey Amazon Pros š This week we're talking about the biggest retail AI partnership yet, Amazon's first fee increase in two years, and why your Google Search Console data just dropped off a cliff (spoiler: that's actually good news). Plus, stick around for the end where we're revealing CortexIQ's AI Agent Command Center that's now live and working. TLDR; inside today's newsletter: š¤ Walmart + OpenAI: Shop through ChatGPT with Instant Checkout - here's what it means for Amazon sellers š° Amazon's 2026 fee increase: Quick heads up on what's changing January 15th š Google's num=100 drama: Why your impressions tanked and your data is finally honest š CortexIQ update: The AI agents are live - see what they're doing inside the platform š¤ Walmart Just Made AI Shopping RealWalmart and OpenAI officially partnered last week, and it's the clearest sign yet that conversational commerce isn't coming... it's here. Starting now, customers can shop Walmart directly through ChatGPT using Instant Checkout. No leaving the chat window. No searching through product pages. Just conversation to cart to checkout. Here's what's actually happening: You can ask ChatGPT things like "I need ingredients for pasta carbonara" or "restock my bathroom essentials," and it'll pull from Walmart's catalog, handle the transaction, and deliver to your door. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said it plainly: "For many years now, eCommerce shopping experiences have consisted of a search bar and a long list of item responses. That is about to change." He's calling it "agentic commerce" - AI that learns, predicts, and acts on your behalf instead of just returning search results. The numbers backing this up: Adobe predicts AI-assisted shopping will surge 520% year-over-year during the 2025 holiday season. ChatGPT is projected to handle 20 billion shopping-related messages in 2025. 39% of U.S. consumers are already using generative AI to shop. And here's the kicker: ChatGPT currently drives 20% of Walmart's referral traffic, up 15% since July alone. Why Amazon sellers should pay attention: This isn't just about Walmart gaining an edge in discovery. It's about the entire shopping paradigm shifting from keyword-based search to conversational recommendations. Amazon blocked AI crawlers from accessing their site to protect their $56 billion advertising business, but that defensive strategy might be backfiring. Early reports suggest ChatGPT and Perplexity provide better product explanations than Amazon's own AI assistant, Rufus. What this means for your business: If you're only on Amazon, you're betting everything on one discovery method - Amazon's search algorithm. Smart sellers are already thinking multi-platform and optimizing for AI discovery:
The brutal truth: Your brand's reputation across the internet is becoming your SEO. If ChatGPT doesn't know about your product or can't find credible information about it, you're invisible in this new world. The bigger picture: This isn't Walmart vs. Amazon. It's search bars vs. conversations as the primary way people discover and buy products. And right now, Amazon's walled garden approach means they're missing out on the fastest-growing discovery channel in ecommerce. š° Quick Heads Up: Amazon's 2026 Fee ChangesAmazon's raising FBA fees for the first time in two years. The basics: Average increase of $0.08 per unit (less than 0.5% of typical selling price) Effective January 15, 2026 No new fee types - just adjustments to existing structure The balanced take: It's below inflation and significantly less than carrier rate increases (3.9%-5.9%), which is fair. But it's still an increase during tight margin times, and "more granularity" usually means some categories get hit harder than the average. What to do: Use Amazon's Profit Analytics dashboard (updating with 2026 rates) to see your specific impact. Build this into your Q1 2026 pricing now, not in January when it's already eating margins. š Google Just Made Your SEO Data More Honest (And Rank Trackers Are Panicking)If you checked Google Search Console in mid-September and saw your impressions fall off a cliff, you're not alone. 87.7% of websites saw sudden drops in impressions. 77.6% lost visibility for keywords they were tracking. And the SEO industry collectively lost its mind. Here's what actually happened: On September 10-14, 2025, Google quietly disabled something called the For over a decade, this little URL trick let you see 100 search results per page instead of the usual 10. More importantly, it's how virtually every rank tracking tool (Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz, etc.) efficiently gathered data about where websites ranked for thousands of keywords. One request = 100 results worth of ranking data. Google killed it without warning. Now tools need to make 10 separate requests to get the same information. Why everyone's freaking out: Rank tracking tools suddenly needed 10x more API calls to gather the same data, massively increasing costs. Search Console impression counts dropped 30-50% for many sites overnight. Average position metrics shifted dramatically. Keywords that were being tracked suddenly showed as "lost." But here's the truth nobody's talking about: Those impressions weren't real. When rank tracking bots loaded 100 results at once using that parameter, your site ranking at position #67 would register an "impression" in Google Search Console. But actual humans don't scroll through 100 results. They rarely get past page 1. So that impression data was artificially inflated by bot traffic from SEO tools, not real potential customers seeing your site. What the data shows: Impressions: Down 30-50% for most sites (but these were bot impressions, not humans) Clicks: Completely unchanged (because bots don't click, only humans do) Average position: Actually improved for many sites (because low-ranking bot impressions are gone) CTR: Increased (fewer fake impressions with same real clicks = better ratio) Why this actually matters for Amazon sellers: If you're driving external traffic to Amazon listings or building a DTC brand, Google visibility during the research phase is critical. The num=100 change didn't hurt your actual visibility. It just made your data more honest. Your Search Console now shows impressions that actually reflect human behavior, not bot scraping. The practical takeaway: Focus on top 10 rankings for your key brand and product research terms. Positions 11-100 never mattered as much as SEO tools convinced us they did. Use your cleaner Search Console data to see where real humans are actually finding you, not where bots think you rank. What to ignore: Any panic about "Google killing 90% of the internet" or AI tools not being able to discover content. AI tools can still access search results. They just need more API calls to do it. Your actual traffic and visibility to real customers is unchanged. The only thing that died was inflated metrics that were never representing reality anyway. š CortexIQ Update: The AI Agents Are LiveWe've been building CortexIQ for months, and this week we're pulling back the curtain on what's actually running inside the platform. The AI Agent Command Center is now live with five specialized agents working 24/7 across your Amazon business. Meet the agents: Performance Guardian - Your monitoring system that never sleeps. Tracks campaigns every hour, watches for budget pacing issues and ACOS spikes, then sends performance reports straight to Slack. Optimization Engine - The strategist. Analyzes your data to recommend bid adjustments, mines search terms for new keyword opportunities, and flags underperformers before they drain budget. Listing Optimizer - Your listing health manager. Monitors suppressions, generates AI-optimized copy, tracks Buy Box status, forecasts inventory needs, and catches issues before they cost you sales. Market Intelligence - The competitive analyst. Tracks competitor pricing and ad activity, analyzes market trends, identifies seasonal patterns, and spots emerging opportunities in your category. Client Communicator - Built for agencies. Automatically sends client updates for wins, losses, and weekly summaries across multiple accounts so you can focus on strategy instead of status reports. How it actually works: Everything runs through Slack (or telegram or our web interface) with simple conversational commands. No complicated dashboards to learn. No switching between 15 different tools. Just tell the agents what you need and they handle it. See it in action: We're going live November 3rd and selecting 10 beta users from our early adopter waitlist. Those 10 beta users get 50% off as early adopters for being part of shaping the platform. The waitlist closes November 3rd when we launch, so if you want a shot at being one of the 10, get on the list now: agent.sellersynapse.comā ā š ļø ResourcesFree Amazon Tools from SellerSynapse:
That's it for this week! Have questions or feedback? Hit reply - we read every response. Forward this to a brand owner who needs to stay ahead of the curve. Ā© 2025 SynapseBytes by Seller Synapseā |