Amazon never meant to build an ad empire. In the early days, Bezos hated the idea. Ads felt like a compromise, a tax on bad products. But once Amazon realized it could tie an ad impression directly to a purchase, the company stumbled into the most profitable business it would ever create. Today, Amazon Ads is a $56B machine, one built on a world where shoppers search, click, compare, and buy.
But that world is quietly disappearing.
Consumers aren’t searching anymore. They’re asking. Instead of typing “best air purifier,” they ask, “What air purifier should I get for allergies and a small apartment?” And when the question becomes a conversation, the interface changes. A search page with twenty options collapses into a single answer from ChatGPT, Rufus, or whatever assistant sits closest to the consumer.
This is the part sellers need to understand: conversations don’t return pages of choices. They return one recommendation. And that recommendation isn’t determined by keyword bids or clever SEO. It’s determined by whether the AI actually understands your product in the first place.
Amazon knows this, which is why it rushed to launch Rufus and why “sponsored prompts” suddenly exist. OpenAI knows it too; it has found billions of moments a day where it could insert a commercial suggestion. The discovery funnel that Amazon controlled for a decade is now being contested inside the conversation itself. The implication is brutally simple: if an AI assistant doesn’t recognize your product, can’t describe it, can’t match it to a real human question, you disappear entirely.
Search rewarded visibility.
Conversation rewards comprehension.
The sellers who win the next era won’t be the ones who game keywords. They’ll be the ones whose products make sense to a machine that’s trying to help a human make a decision. The discovery war has already shifted. The only question now is whether, when someone asks an AI for the best product in your category, you’re even part of the answer.
Lumian can help you get discovered on ChatGPT. Book a Free Consultation.
In this week’s issue:
Marketplace: Seller Returns, Fee Hikes, 30-Min Delivery
Seller Hacks: Lumian Listing Optimizer
Tweet Spotlight: Search vs. Conversation
Marketplace Madness
Amazon introduced new controls for “Returnless Resolutions,” letting sellers set a maximum item price ($1–$75) to decide which products qualify for keep-it refunds. Sellers can also enable it per SKU. Alongside this, Amazon launched a returns & recovery dashboard showing top return reasons, recommendations and recovered value from returned units.
Why it matters:
Sellers get finer control over low-value returns and clearer insights into what’s driving return rates, helping reduce processing costs, improve CX, and recover more value from returned inventory.
Amazon is rolling out sweeping fee updates on Jan 15, 2026 including higher FBA rates, new price-based fulfillment tiers, expanded inbound placement fees and a new Small Bulky size class. FBA fees now depend on product price:
sub-$10 items rise ~$0.12/unit
$10–$50 items rise ~$0.08/unit
above $50 take the biggest hit at ~$0.31/unit
The standout change is Amazon’s new Small Bulky tier, which lowers fees by 21–23% for heavier items between 18–37” or 20–50 lbs. Meanwhile, inbound placement fees climb for most products (+$0.06–$0.72/unit) and Small/Large Bulky items not enrolled in SIPP will incur extra packaging fees of $1.51–$4.04.
Amazon is also adding an “Overmax” handling fee ($17–$25) for extra-large units and shifting the Low Inventory Level fee to the FNSKU level.
Why it matters:
These changes will reshape margins for 2026. Sellers need to re-model costs, re-evaluate packaging and SIPP compliance, and identify SKUs that might benefit from the new Small Bulky category to offset rising FBA and inbound fees.
Amazon has begun piloting 30-minute deliveries in Seattle and Philadelphia, offering customers near-instant access to essentials like groceries, OTC meds, cosmetics, pet products, electronics, and more. Prime members pay $3.99 per order, while non-Prime customers pay $13.99, with an added $1.99 small-basket fee for orders under $15. The service uses specialized micro-fulfillment facilities positioned close to dense residential and commercial areas.
Why it matters:
Amazon is moving aggressively into the rapid-delivery space dominated by DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Instacart. With hyperlocal facilities, app-based tracking, and tipping built in, Amazon is positioning itself to reclaim convenience leadership and it signals a broader strategy as the company invests billions to expand its U.S. delivery network and bring ultra-fast fulfillment mainstream.
Seller Hacks
Lumian just launched an AI-powered Listing Optimizer. It’s FREE and impressively thorough. It reads the entire product listing (title, bullets, description, and backend keywords) and compares it against true top competitors using similarity modeling.
The tool also identifies missing keywords, weak image elements, and compliance issues, then generates a fully optimized, Amazon-ready rewrite. Sellers looking to improve visibility and conversion should absolutely consider using it.
Tweet Spotlight
Meme Therapy
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