Hey there,
It has been a month since I returned from Amazon Accelerate 2025, where 47 new product announcements delivered a flood of opportunities for sellers. And I finally have some time to reflect on what all I saw there (what’s good, what’s not and what’s the same).
While much of the press focused on new AI features, one of the bigger themes at was Amazon declaring their intention to control the entire e-commerce fulfillment ecosystem, not just Amazon.com.
These updates are generating plenty of discussion, and understanding these shifts now can help brands and sellers evaluate opportunities and plan for the evolving landscape.
SIGNAL VS. NOISE
The Signal (These moves will reshape your business)
Amazon MCF now supports Walmart, Shopify, and SHEIN with early adopters reporting 19% higher sales and 19% fewer stockouts. Until recently, Walmart suspended accounts for using Amazon fulfillment. Now Amazon is waiving blank box fees for Walmart orders, making this accessible even for tight-margin sellers.
Amazon's AI now intelligently pairs your products with reviewers who are already familiar with your brand. Translation: better review quality, higher relevance scores, and faster review velocity. Among all the AI noise, this is the only genuinely new Vine feature that will meaningfully impact your launch strategies.
If you're treating B2B buyers the same as individual consumers, you're leaving serious money on the table. Business buyers operate fundamentally differently than consumers - they're purchasing for teams, departments, or entire companies, which means larger quantities, longer decision cycles, and different pain points.
The Noise (Ignore these distractions)
Product Opportunity Explorer "AI update" (LIVE for months, nothing new here)
AWD "new" palletized discount (available to all users since summer)
Enhanced A+ Content features (already live for most sellers, just rebranded)
FBA Regional Launch (Amazon chooses regions, not you—classic feature destined to quietly disappear)
RISK ALERT
Nothing's really changed since the AI title tool broke policy live on stage in 2024.
Amazon is evangelizing AI recommendations as a key way to optimize business, but the outputs don’t fully capture context, brand voice, or the subtle policy nuances that keep accounts healthy.
The teams building these AI tools don’t always align with the teams enforcing compliance, so sellers who follow AI suggestions without review risk violations, particularly around product claims and keyword stuffing.
Your comprehensive protection strategy:
Always test AI suggestions on low-risk products first (never your bestsellers)
Never auto-approve AI-generated content without thorough expert review
Document your reasoning when you reject AI recommendations (so the system learns from you)
Set up proactive alerts for any automated changes to your listings
The bottom line is that these tools absolutely require human expertise to be implemented properly.
While the majority of sellers are fighting tooth and nail for consumer attention, Amazon Business is quietly serving brands worldwide with dramatically different and more profitable economics:
With Amazon’s new B2B-specific ad targeting, you can serve more targeted campaigns to buyers with different messaging and inventory planning - a hugely underexploited space.
Your immediate action items:
Set up dedicated campaigns targeting business buyers with bulk-focused keywords
Adjust your inventory allocation strategy for handling larger order volumes
Test business-specific messaging throughout your listings and A+ content
The B2B discount structure on FBA fees creates margin opportunities that most sellers haven't even discovered yet.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Three critical observations from the hallways that didn't make it into any of the keynote presentations:
Amazon announced multiple features as breakthrough "new" capabilities that sellers have actually been using for months. This creates genuine confusion about what's actually changed and what truly deserves your immediate attention.
Despite Amazon's aggressive push for complete supply chain integration, the majority of sellers we spoke with remain hesitant about giving Amazon total control of their logistics operations. The smart money continues betting on thoughtful hybrid approaches.
Sellers immediately began calculating costs and testing various scenarios. This is clearly the feature that will fundamentally change day-to-day operations, not the flashy AI bells and whistles grabbing headlines.
MCF isn't new, but Walmart and SHEIN support is. And these channels are making waves (especially Walmart). Here's your strategic 5-step assessment:
Test these new channels, but don't put all your eggs in one basket. MCF can be a valuable tool for specific use cases, but Amazon's logistics track record; lost inventory, delayed receiving, limited control, etc. means you should maintain diversified fulfillment options.
Jess
CEO, AO2
P.S. Are you ready to trust Amazon with fulfillment across all your sales channels, or are you maintaining backup operational plans?
Reply and let me know - I read every single response and use your insights to guide our coverage.