[ BDSN ] How to find your competitor's traffic sources

This Tuesday at 1pm EST, the Wizard of Ads is making one final appearance this year in an Encore training webinar.

If you missed any of the first 3, this is the one to not miss, as he will be covering many of the tactics you may have missed in previous webinars (or need clarity on),

Including:

• Why 2 keyword repetitions don't work (but 3 is magic)

• The exact bid range that makes this profitable

• His complete root word selection system (and more)

• Where your inventory gaps are killing conversions

• How shipping speed affects your click costs

• Why some campaigns drain money while others print it

• The exact zip codes to monitor

• His complete conversion analysis system

• The complete Unigram/Bigram/Trigram system

• ⁠His exact bid modifiers that make it work

• The catch-all phrase strategy that amplifies everything

• The complete low-bid framework

• His exact campaign structure system

A replay is not being sent, so you gotta show up live or you miss out.

Register here

💰 TRACK EXTERNAL TRAFFIC to YOUR COMPETITOR’S LISTINGS

SmartScout just dropped a powerful new feature called Traffic Links, and it’s a game-changer for sellers leveraging external traffic.

This tool shows you which blogs and websites are driving traffic to your competitor’s Amazon listings—many of which are monetizing through the Amazon Associates program.

That means these sites are already incentivized to send high-converting traffic to products like yours.

✅ Want to pitch samples to publishers? Now you know who to contact.
✅ Want to be featured in blog content? The leads are waiting.
✅ Want SEO and AI signals from Google & ChatGPT? This is how you build them.

This feature is available on the SmartScout Business plan. You can see link traffic for your ASINs and for any product—even your competitors’.

If you're not paying attention to off-Amazon traffic, you're missing where a lot of the real discovery happens.

🕹️ WALMART UNLEASHES SPARKY for SHOPPING 

Walmart just debuted Sparky, a generative AI shopping assistant built into its app, designed to transform how customers shop—from scrolling and searching to engaging in real-time, personalized conversations.

This isn’t just another chatbot. Sparky can:

• Summarize product reviews

• Compare items

• Recommend purchases for occasions

• Understand images, audio, and video

• Plan full shopping experiences (like a beach trip or BBQ)

Coming soon: Reordering, service booking, and even “how-to” task guides linked to relevant products.

According to Walmart’s new “Retail Rewired” report:

• 27% of shoppers now trust AI for recommendations (more than trust influencers)

• 69% cite speed as the #1 reason for using AI

• Nearly half would let AI reorder common household items

Yet only 8% would trust AI to handle all shopping solo, showing AI still needs human oversight.

Behind the scenes, Walmart is building agentic AI—retail-specific AI agents that collaborate to fulfill complex shopping goals, not just answer questions. Think: snap a photo of a broken hinge and get the right part, video guide, and delivery ETA—all within the app.

This comes as Walmart cuts 1,500 corporate roles and expands automation across the board—rolling out:

• Wally, an AI tool for merchants

• Drone delivery with 30-minute service goals

• Custom AI models trained on internal retail data

Walmart is going all-in on AI—from warehouse to checkout to your shopping list. Whether Sparky becomes the new retail standard or stumbles depends on how well it balances speed, trust, and utility.

But one thing is clear: the age of clicks and filters is fading—conversational commerce is here.

Through June 17 only, you can get 35% off 6 months of Helium 10’s Platinum plan (normally $99/month!). That’s big savings but it’s only good until tomorrow. After six months you still get 10% off. Click here to snag this.

🚀 “CUSTOMERS MENTION” gives review-rich listings a boost

Amazon just rolled out a new Sponsored Ads placement called “Customers Mention” and it could change how sellers approach reviews and ad strategy.

This new ad section highlights products that are positively mentioned in customer reviews. In other words, if shoppers are raving about specific features or experiences, those mentions may now fuel increased visibility in paid placements, not just conversions.

• Positive reviews now influence click-through rates in sponsored ads, not just organic rank.

• This boosts the ROI of listings with strong social proof.

• It further tightens the link between review quality and ad performance.

Amazon has also been quietly testing other ad formats like “Picks from Amazon Influencers”, making search results feel more organic—even though they’re packed with paid placements. The goal? Blend advertising into the shopping experience more seamlessly than ever.

Get proactive about generating high-quality, specific reviews that mention the exact benefits shoppers care about. These are now ad fuel.

With mega campaigns like Prime Day around the corner, aligning ad execution with review optimization could unlock serious upside.

Amazon Ads isn’t just about placement—it’s about perception. And now, your happiest customers are helping you win clicks.

💣 UPC WAKE-UP CALL: SILENT ASIN SUPPRESSIONS

400,000+ Listings Flagged Daily by Amazon’s New AI System “Bulldog”

BDSS Dream 100 member Vanessa Hung just issued a serious warning every Amazon seller should hear:

Amazon is now automatically flagging listings where the UPC or EAN doesn’t match the brand name registered in GS1 — and most sellers don’t even know it’s happening.

Amazon’s internal AI (nicknamed Bulldog) is scanning listings at scale to verify UPC legitimacy — and quietly suppressing ASINs when it finds:

• UPCs from third-party or recycled barcode providers

• Mismatched GS1 prefixes that don’t align with the brand

• UPCs that trigger Brand Registry denials or A+ content blocks

• Submissions tied to legacy barcodes or umbrella GS1 licenses

Many sellers have lost listings without warning. Vanessa says in one case 236 ASINs were suppressed in one sweep — no email, no notification.

The only clue? Buried inside:
Seller Central > Manage Inventory > Listing Tools > Suppressed and Inactive Listings > Detail Page Removed

✅ What Should You Do?

🔍 1. Audit Your UPCs Today

• Go to your GS1 account and download your license certificate

• Make sure the brand name in GS1 matches what’s in Brand Registry/Seller Central

• Check if you’re using a reseller’s or umbrella GS1 license — Amazon might not honor it

📝 2. Mismatched Prefix? Submit a Letter of Authorization

• If you're using a GS1 account under a parent/umbrella brand, submit a Letter of Authorization during listing creation

• Vanessa’s team has had success getting these accepted by Amazon support

📂 3. Monitor Suppressed Listings Regularly

• Weekly, check:
  Manage Inventory > Listing Tools > Suppressed and Inactive Listings > Detail Page Removed

• Flag and document any sudden drops in traffic, A+ blocks, or submission stalls

🚧 4. Plan for a UPC Migration (If Needed)

• For large catalogs or high-velocity SKUs using non-GS1 codes, begin building a migration plan using:

  • New GS1-registered barcodes

  • Listing relaunch strategies with fresh GTINs

  • Brand Registry coordination

🤝 5. If You’re a Reseller

• Work only with brands that have GS1-compliant UPCs

• Know that Amazon may remove your contribution rights if the GTIN doesn’t reflect the brand’s ownership

Amazon no longer sees barcodes as just product identifiers — they are trust signals.
If your GS1 doesn’t prove you’re the brand owner, Amazon will assume you’re not.

And that’s where listing control — and sales — quietly vanish.

👉 Tip from Vanessa: If your UPC situation is murky, don’t guess. Audit, validate, and protect your catalog now.

😱 SEO for AI LLMs (a Y-combinator company)

Anvil is a cutting-edge SEO platform designed to help brands improve their visibility in AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.

As more shoppers use AI assistants to research and discover products, traditional SEO tactics aren’t enough. Anvil helps sellers:

• Track visibility across AI tools and large language models (LLMs)

• Optimize content so it gets recommended or summarized by platforms like ChatGPT

• Boost discoverability when consumers ask AI tools for product recommendations

It’s like modern SEO for the AI age—ensuring your product or brand shows up when customers aren’t just Googling, but asking AI.

TrueOps is looking for a few BDSN readers for a case study. They’re looking for $1m+ sellers, ideally ones already using a legacy refund provider or trying to do it in house.

They want to see if they can find anything more for you. If they find nothing they’ll wire you $1,000. If they find anything extra, they‘ll give your first $1,000 in claims so you will get $1k at least either way.

✌🏼 See you again Thursday …

The answer to today’s STUMP BEZOS is
A creator needs 5,000 to become an affiliate.