🧟‍♂️ FINALLY, the ZOMBIES are DYING: BIG REVIEW CHANGE

Starting February 12, 2026, Amazon is fundamentally changing how customer reviews are shared across product variations, and this could immediately impact the review counts visible on your listings.

What's Changing

Currently, if you have a parent listing with multiple variations, all reviews are pooled together. For example, if you sell wireless earbuds in black, white, and blue, each with 30 reviews, shoppers see 90 total reviews regardless of which color they're viewing.

That's about to change.

Going forward, reviews will only be shared when variations represent the same core product with minor cosmetic differences. If the variation changes how the product performs, feels, or functions, those reviews will be separated into distinct pools.

When Reviews WILL Still Be Shared

Amazon will continue pooling reviews for these variation types:

• Color/pattern differences: Black yoga mat vs. purple yoga mat

• Size variations with identical function: Twin bedding vs. queen bedding

• Pack quantities: 3-pack resistance bands vs. 5-pack resistance bands

• Secondary scents on non-scent products: Lavender dish soap vs. unscented dish soap

• Model compatibility: AirPods case for Gen 2 vs. Gen 3

When Reviews Will Be SEPARATED

Reviews will be decoupled for variations with meaningful differences:

• Performance specifications: Bluetooth speaker with 10-hour battery vs. 20-hour battery

• Material changes: Stainless steel water bottle vs. plastic water bottle

• Flavor/scent as primary feature: Vanilla protein powder vs. chocolate protein powder

• Fit types: Regular-fit jeans vs. slim-fit jeans

• Platform/compatibility: Gaming headset for PlayStation vs. Xbox

Real-World Example

Let's say you sell kitchen knives with these variations:

• 8-inch chef's knife and 10-inch chef's knife in the same steel ✅ Reviews shared

• Chef's knife in black handle vs. red handle ✅ Reviews shared

• Ceramic blade knife vs. stainless steel blade ❌ Reviews separated

What This Means for Your Business

The good news: This eliminates one of the oldest black-hat tactics on Amazon where sellers would add completely unrelated products to old listings with thousands of reviews for instant (fraudulent) social proof.

The reality check: If you sell products where variations seem similar but affect the customer experience, like supplement flavors, candle scents, or products with different material compositions, you might see your review count drop significantly overnight.

Timeline and Action Steps

• Rollout period: February 12 - May 31, 2026 (gradual by category)

• Your notification: 30-day email warning before changes affect your products

• What to do now:

  1. Review your variation structure in Manage All Inventory

  2. Ensure variation themes accurately reflect actual product differences

  3. Fix any mismatched attributes (e.g., don't use "quantity" variation for color differences)

  4. If you restructure variations correctly after the change, eligible reviews can be re-shared

The Bottom Line

This isn't Amazon punishing sellers. It's about showing customers reviews that actually apply to the specific product they're buying. The goal is increased customer trust and reduced returns.

But make no mistake: Some listings will wake up with dramatically different review counts. Now is the time to audit your catalog and ensure your variations are structured correctly.

🕹️ OPENAI’s ACQUISITION of PINTEREST has IMPLICATIONS

OpenAI is reportedly in talks to acquire Pinterest for around $17 billion, according to The Information. Neither company has confirmed, but Pinterest stock jumped 3% on the news.

Why This Matters for E-commerce:

OpenAI isn't just building chatbots anymore, they're building a shopping ecosystem.

Pinterest would giev OpenAI three critical assets:

• 200+ billion labeled images showing real purchase intent ("gift ideas," "kitchen remodel," etc.)

• Established ad infrastructure built for search-driven shopping

• Direct merchant connections that could plug into ChatGPT's emerging commerce features

This is OpenAI's answer to Google's dominance in product discovery. While Google combined search data with Gemini AI, OpenAI would get Pinterest's visual search goldmine. The endgame: AI that doesn't just recommend products, it completes the entire purchase journey.

Impact on Sellers:

If this deal closes, expect ChatGPT to become a serious product discovery channel.

We're talking:

• AI-generated shopping recommendations that look like Pinterest Pins

• Voice and visual search that connects directly to merchants

• A new battlefield for product visibility beyond Amazon and Google

OpenAI is making aggressive moves into commerce, from their recent app store launch to this potential Pinterest play. For sellers, it's another signal that AI-powered shopping channels are no longer "future tech,” they're arriving now, and they're coming for market share.

The companies owning distribution will win. OpenAI clearly knows this.

🏧 WALMART PARTNERS with GOOGLE for GEMINI SHOPPING

NOTE: For the latest on Agentic e-commerce, don’t miss Scot Wingo’s talk at BDSS 13 Virtual next week. Scot founded what became GoTo (was Google Ads is based on) and later founded Channel Advisor.

Walmart and Google just announced a major integration that brings the retailer's full inventory directly into Google's Gemini AI assistant, marking another significant shift toward AI-first commerce.

Starting soon, Gemini users can discover and purchase Walmart and Sam's Club products without leaving the AI interface. Ask Gemini for camping gear recommendations, and it'll surface relevant items from Walmart's catalog, complete with pricing and availability.

The integration goes beyond basic product search. When customers link their Walmart accounts, they'll get personalized recommendations based on purchase history, seamless cart integration across platforms, and full access to Walmart+ and Sam's Club membership benefits, all within the Gemini conversation.

The partnership leverages Google's Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard designed to enable what they're calling "agentic commerce" where AI assistants handle the entire shopping journey from discovery to purchase.

Walmart maintains its competitive edge with rapid fulfillment: hundreds of thousands of locally curated products available for delivery in under three hours, with some items arriving in as little as 30 minutes.

This follows Amazon's aggressive Rufus AI rollout and ChatGPT's recent shopping features. The message is clear: AI assistants are becoming the new front door to commerce, and major retailers are racing to secure their place in this emerging channel.

For sellers, the implications are significant, product discovery is shifting from keyword search to conversational AI, requiring a fundamental rethinking of how products get found and presented to buyers.

The integration launches first in the U.S., with international expansion planned thereafter.

🛒 AMAZON PLANS a WALMART-STYLE SUPERCENTER STORE

Amazon is piloting a massive “big‑box” physical retail concept in Orland Park, Illinois, that blends grocery, general merchandise, and e‑commerce-style convenience in a single, Walmart‑scale store

For ecommerce sellers, this is a clear signal that Amazon is pushing harder into omnichannel, using brick‑and‑mortar not just as a pickup point, but as a full competitive answer to traditional supercenters.​

What Amazon Is Building

• Plans call for a roughly 229,000‑square‑foot, one‑story building positioned as a “first of its kind” large‑format retail store offering groceries, general merchandise, prepared foods, and “the best that Amazon has to offer” from Whole Foods, Fresh, and online.​

• The concept is explicitly framed as a retail store, not a distribution center, with a larger‑than‑usual back‑of‑house storeroom plus multiple commercial outlots, landscaped open space, and traffic improvements tied to the development.​​

How This Store Will Operate

• Amazon’s representatives describe a hybrid shopping experience: customers browse in person, then use phones or in‑store kiosks to locate and purchase items that may not be on the shelf, integrating digital discovery into a physical trip.​

• The store is being positioned as safer and more convenient than traditional formats, designed “purpose‑built” around current shopper expectations, essentially merging a supermarket, general‑merchandise big box, and an Amazon‑style endless aisle in one location.​

• The limited warehouse component is meant to support on‑site operations, not function as a regional fulfillment hub, suggesting inventory is optimized around local, high‑velocity retail rather than long‑tail ecommerce storage.​

What This Means For Ecommerce Sellers

• Amazon is no longer just “online plus warehouses”; it is building a Walmart‑style physical footprint where shoppers can fill a cart, order online‑only SKUs from kiosks, and potentially choose immediate pickup or fast local delivery from the same site.​

• This kind of store creates new merchandising real estate for brands that perform well on Amazon, while raising the bar on pricing and service expectations for independent ecommerce sellers in the wider Chicago region.​

• As these formats roll out, sellers should expect more blending of physical and digital programs, think in‑store promotion tied to Prime, local inventory preferences influencing Buy Box dynamics, and potentially new pathways to get products into Amazon‑branded aisles.

✌🏼 See you again Thursday …

The answer to today’s STUMP BEZOS is
Average CPC hit $1.12 on Amazon in 2025