On June 3, the White House signed an Executive Order on Strengthening Customs Enforcement. If you import inventory and sell on Amazon, this one matters.

Here is the fast version.

The core idea in one line: foreign sellers now have to be as real, traceable, and accountable as U.S. based sellers already are.

The problem it fixes

For years a foreign company could be the "importer of record" with no office, no employees, no bank account, and no assets in the US. So when they undervalued goods, dodged tariffs, or shipped junk, there was no one to fine and nothing to seize.

American-based sellers have to play by the rules. They often did not have to.

Some context on how big this got. Foreign sellers held about 18% of US marketplace sales in 2017. They crossed 50% on Amazon by 2023. An estimated $220 billion in annual US marketplace sales runs through foreign sellers paying zero US income tax.

That is a built-in 50% cost edge over US sellers on the identical product.

What the order actually does

US-based FBA or wholesale: Almost no new burden. You already file formal entries with a US entity, an EIN, and a bond. This forces your foreign competitors up to the standard you already meet. You are the group this helps most.

Foreign sellers using FBA: Now need real US assets, bonding, disclosed ownership, and CTPAT or a validated broker. Their costs and accountability rise toward parity with yours.

Temu, Shein, and direct-from-China dropship: This is where it bites hardest. De minimis already closed in 2025. Now the informal lane is gone too. Per-parcel imports get more expensive, slower, and far more documented. The cheap frictionless model loses both legs it stood on.

The rule of thumb: the more your business relied on slipping goods in cheaply with minimal accountability, the more this hurts. The more you already operate like a real US business, the more this works in your favor.

What to expect

Most provisions kick in on a clock. Disclosure, penalty, and transparency rules get drafted within 90 days. The big importer-of-record changes (asset requirements, the informal entry ban, ownership disclosure, the updated registry) land within 180 days.

A legislative recommendation package is due in 45 days, so expect this to keep moving.

This does not fix everything. It does not touch platform-level tax collection or marketplace fee parity on its own. But it builds the foundation those fixes depend on.

You cannot enforce fair taxes or product safety against a seller you cannot find. Now there is someone to find.

Most sellers don’t realize TikTok has something Creator Search Insights. It's a native search research tool, and it's free.

Think Helium 10, but for TikTok content instead of Amazon listings.

Here's what it does. It shows you what people are actually typing into TikTok search. Then it tells you which of those topics have demand but not enough content to satisfy it.

That second part is the money.

The filter is called Content gap. High searches, low supply. That's the white space. You make the video, you own the topic, you get the reach. No guessing.

There's a second filter called Searches by followers, but it only turns on once you cross 1,000 followers.

You can favorite topics to build a content queue. TikTok also drops suggestions right into your profile banner so you stop staring at a blank screen.

Then it closes the loop. Tap Analytics and you see how your posts rank in search. You can filter to Inspired posts, the ones you made from topics the tool handed you, and measure if the research actually moved.

How to find it: open the TIKTok app, tap Search, type Creator Search Insights, tap View.

This is demand-side data straight from the platform, telling you exactly where the audience is looking and where nobody's answering.

If TikTok Shop is on your roadmap, this is where content strategy starts.

New Similarweb data just dropped on AI advertising. Here's what it means for you.

Organic click share fell 11 to 23 points across every vertical in a single year. Less than 0.13% of all web referral traffic comes from AI. That sounds like AI doesn't matter.

It's the opposite. Buyers aren't leaving a trail because the shortlist gets built before they ever visit a page. 35% of US shoppers now use AI for product discovery. And 70% of brands don't consistently show up in AI answers about their own category.

If the model doesn't name you, you're not in the running. Simple as that.

ChatGPT ads are live, and your category probably isn't there

Ads went live in ChatGPT on Feb 9. One in five conversations now carries one.

Here's the part worth reading twice. When ChatGPT serves a sponsored result, it shows one. Not a page of competitors. One. Yours or somebody else's.

About 1,000 brands are buying so far. The list is Envato, HubSpot, Fiverr, Canva, Shopify, Zapier. Almost all SaaS and digital tools. Retail, CPG, health, and physical product brands are barely in the room. That's the early-mover window, and it won't stay open.

This is not Google Shopping

83% of the queries that trigger a ChatGPT ad would never have triggered a Google Shopping ad. The system reads the whole conversation, not a keyword. Only 2% of ad headlines say "buy now."

The numbers that matter

Engagement is the real edge. ChatGPT chats run 6x deeper than Google AI Mode. 73% of people keep talking after the ad appears. The average chat is 17 turns, with 4 more turns of brand exposure after the ad fires. You're buying presence, not a glance.

The one to care about for physical product sellers

Three AI surfaces, three different games. The one that matters most for you is AI Overviews. It pulls product cards straight from your Google Shopping feed. Over 100,000 brands are already in there, auto-populated, no ad buy required.

Clean, complete feed equals free visibility. Messy feed equals invisible. That's the whole equation.

Where this is going

Rollout is moving fast. US, Canada, and Australia are live. UK, Japan, and South Korea are next. CPM and CPC both run, so you split spend by objective: awareness versus the rare high-intent click.

The honest gaps: attribution isn't solved, the native tools give you no competitor or share-of-voice view, and nobody has long-term LTV benchmarks yet. You're flying with limited instruments. Plan accordingly.

Do this now

The shelf is moving. Show up where the conversation happens, or watch the model recommend the brand that did.

The education phase is over. The FTC is now enforcing the Consumer Review Rule with real money behind it. Penalties run up to $53,088 per violation. Not per campaign. Per violation. One bad email blast to your list could stack into the millions.

Here's what Amazon sellers need to know.

What's now illegal:

Paying for reviews. Offering a discount, gift card, or anything else in exchange for a positive review is a direct violation. The old "leave us a 5-star review and get 10% off" play is dead.

Cherry-picking. You can't filter out the 1-star and 2-star reviews and only show the good ones. Suppressing negative feedback counts as deception.

Insider reviews. Your employees, your VAs, your family members. If they review your product without disclosing the relationship, that's a violation.

Fake social proof. Buying followers, likes, or views to look bigger than you are.

Fake "independent" review sites. Running a review blog that looks neutral but is secretly yours.

Why this hits Amazon sellers harder than most:

E-commerce is named as a top target. So is health, beauty, and wellness. If you sell supplements, skincare, or anything in those lanes, you're on the list.

Your agency isn't a shield. If a third-party firm or PR shop runs shady review tactics on your behalf, the FTC can still come after you. "I didn't know what they were doing" is no longer a defense.

Influencer slip-ups are your problem. If an affiliate or influencer fails to disclose a paid post, your brand can be held liable.

What to do this week:

Audit your post-purchase email and SMS flows. If you offer anything for a review, it has to be offered whether the review is good or bad. Same incentive either way.

Check your own website's review widget. You can pull spam and profanity. You cannot delete a review just because it's negative.

Tell your team in writing that they have to disclose if they post about your products.

Vet every influencer and affiliate for proper disclosure before they post.

Worth noting this targets your own site and off-Amazon marketing more than the Amazon platform itself, but the principles carry. If you're running incentivized review programs or steering buyers anywhere, tighten it up now.

✌🏼 See you again Thursday …

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Juniper Research says agentic commerce will generate $1.5 trillion by 2020