Transcript 0:00 [upbeat music] This, this is The Billion Dollar Sellers Podcast, your go-to source for cutting edge strategies and success stories from the world of Amazon and e-commerce. 0:10 Buckle up and get ready to take your Amazon business to new heights. Don't forget to subscribe to The Billion Dollar Sellers newsletter. Welcome your host, welcome your host, Kevin King. Hey everyone. 0:22 Welcome to The Billion Dollar Sellers Podcast. I'm your host, Kevin King, and today is Monday, January 19th, 2026. We've got a lot to cover, so let's jump right in. But first, I've got a question for you. 0:34 Buyers typically ignore 83% of reviews older than how many months? Think about it and I'll give you the answer at the end of the show. Now, let's talk about something big happening tomorrow. 0:45 BDSS13 Virtual kicks off tomorrow afternoon and runs through to Thursday. Over two and a half days, smart sellers will be attending live to get a competitive edge on their competition. There are two ways to join us. 0:57 If you want a live pass, then you can grab your ticket at the official website, and there's an option to include the replays in your ticket. 1:03 Or you can join the Billion Dollar Sellers Club for $9, and you'll get $497 of credit on a live ticket. I've put links to both options in the show notes. 1:13 Hosted and curated by yours truly, it is the premier online event in the Amazon selling space. There is nothing else like it in format, content, or networking. 1:22 And here's just a small partial list of what you'll miss if you don't attend. 1:26 You'll learn how to build Amazon product images with Nana Banana Pro from start to finish, going from product analysis to a complete listing image set. 1:33 That includes main images, lifestyle scenes, infographics, and gift concepts. You'll even get the simple three-step prompt workflow that you can copy. 1:42 You'll unlock $300 in AI Studio credits, and you'll actually use them. That means getting set up fast, making sure you don't waste credits, and leaving with a repeatable creation pipeline. 1:53 You'll create your agentic team in one session, walking away with five to seven custom GPTs and gems that operate like specialists across your econ business, plus the blueprint to build your own. 2:03 There's the 2026 launch playbook that protects profit, focusing on the few levers that matter most now, including how to raise click-through rate to lift your conversion ceiling and validate clickability before you buy inventory. 2:15 You'll learn how to not waste your honeymoon phase with a pre-day one checklist and a plan to maximize ranking, velocity, and compounding sales momentum. There's the social flood formula that creates real traction fast. 2:28 And you'll discover how to build lists without relying on Amazon, learning how to build a branded utility app that works like a lead magnet, so you can gate the results behind email capture to grow your owned audience. 2:39 We've got the AI-3D ad factory showing you how to produce high-end 3D video ads with hooks engineered to convert using a proven script framework that feels natural, not salesy. 2:49 You'll learn smarter video scripts that print money, the five inputs that reliably improve ad angles and messaging using your bullets, search terms, business reports, reviews, and product opportunity explorer. 3:00 And you'll discover how to stop bleeding margin and scale what's profitable. 3:04 That means exposing the five silent profit leaks, understanding why totals lie, and making cleaner decisions on SKUs, ads, inventory, and ops with confidence. 3:13 And there are more than 40 additional topics that are too long to list here. Just one of these strategies could times your investment by 100 or more. Okay. Let's move on and look at some interesting stats. 3:24 Morgan Stanley recently put out some data on the online use of AI shopping agents, and it's expected to increase dramatically by 2030. The numbers here tell a compelling story. 3:34 In 2026, we're looking at about 24 million agentic shoppers compared to 240 million non-agentic shoppers. But by 2030, that 24 million is projected to grow to 126 million. 3:46 That's more than a five times increase in just four years. If you wanna see all the data laid out visually, check out the written version of today's newsletter. 3:54 Speaking of AI shopping, this brings us perfectly to some major news. ChatGPT ads are here for ecom sellers. OpenAI dropped a bombshell Friday afternoon. Within the next few weeks, ChatGPT will start showing ads. 4:08 For the first time, the world's most popular AI chatbot is opening its doors to advertisers, and this changes everything for e-commerce sellers. 4:16 In the US, ChatGPT is introducing ads for people on the free tier and $8 a month tier. The ads will appear at the bottom of responses, clearly labeled as sponsored. 4:27 If you're paying for Plus at $20 per month or Pro at 200 per month, you won't see ads. OpenAI swears ads won't influence ChatGPT's answers. 4:36 The company says our responses will still be objectively useful and not advertiser driven. 4:40 Conversation data won't be sold to advertisers, though ads will be personalized based on your chats, and you can opt out of that personalization. 4:48 OpenAI revealed two ad formats that should make every seller pay attention. In the shopping and grocery example, a user asks ChatGPT about authentic Mexican food ideas for a dinner party. 4:59 ChatGPT responds with suggestions, then shows a sponsored product carousel at the bottom with a hot sauce that's available at a nearby grocery store with 25 to 35-minute delivery. Does this sound familiar? 5:11 It looks almost identical to Instacart ads, which makes sense since OpenAI's new CEO used to run Instacart. So what does this mean for sellers? First, a new discovery channel is opening. 5:22 ChatGPT has massive reach, and users are having product discovery conversations right now. Soon, you'll be able to show your products when those conversations happen. 5:32 OpenAI specifically mentioned this will help small businesses and emerging brands trying to compete by leveling the playing field. Uh, second, there are product carousels in chats. 5:42 The examples OpenAI demonstrated show horizontal scrolling product cards similar to what you're used to on Amazon or Google Shopping. 5:50 This is familiar territory, but in a conversational context where users are actively seeking solutions. Third, there's conversational commerce. 5:59 The ability for shoppers to ask questions directly about your ad or chat with your business through ChatGPT is revolutionary. This isn't a static link. It's an interactive buying experience powered by AI. 6:10 Fourth, answer engine optimization just got more important. I've been talking about AEO for a while. Now there's a direct monetization path. 6:18 If ChatGPT is recommending products and organic answers and showing ads, you need to be thinking about both. And two years ago, Sam Altman called ads a last resort. 6:28 Now, with twenty billion dollars in revenue against trillion-dollar commitments, ads aren't optional, they're necessary. 6:34 The sellers who figure out how to show up in AI-driven conversations, both organically and through ads, will have a massive advantage. The ones who ignore this will wonder where their traffic went. 6:44 Next up, let's get into the BDSS software tool of the day. This is the ultimate one-shot Amazon competitive intelligence prompt. This battle-tested prompt structure comes from BDSS Dream 100 member Steve Simonson. 6:57 It combines proven methodologies from elite Amazon seller resources, including seller prompts, Bellavix, and advanced analytics frameworks to deliver comprehensive competitive intelligence in a single AI interaction. 7:09 Designed for ChatGPT, Claude, or Groq, it leverages chain-of-thought reasoning to produce actionable insights across all critical competitive dimensions. 7:17 This prompt walks through identifying top competitors, analyzing listings, doing keyword research, mining reviews, and much more. 7:24 You can find this full prompt in the written version of today's newsletter linked in the show notes. Now let's talk about something that can transform your listings. Features tell, but benefits sell. 7:34 George Maresca at clearads.com says, "No one cares that your product is made from a hundred percent Turkish cotton. They care that it keeps their baby safe, soft, and close." 7:44 That's the difference between a feature and a benefit. Understanding this distinction is the key to writing Amazon listings that actually convert. 7:51 Most sellers use features, which is just information about the product, but shoppers buy benefits, which is what those features do for them. Here's how to make this shift. Step one is to list your product's features. 8:03 Write down the technical specs, materials, and attributes of your product. For example, with a baby sling, you might have hundred percent Turkish cotton, adjustable metal ring, machine washable, and lightweight design. 8:15 Step two is to ask, "So what?" For each feature, ask yourself, "Why does this matter to my customer? What problem does it solve and what feeling does it create?" Step three is to rewrite features as benefits. 8:27 Translate the what into why it matters. 8:30 With a benefit-focused approach, you would say, "Soft, breathable fabric that keeps your baby cool and comfortable all day," or, "Easily adjusts for perfect comfort even as your baby grows." 8:39 Step four is to lead with the benefit, then support with the feature. Now structure your bullet points to put the outcome first, then back it up with the detail. For example, "Stay comfortable all day long. 8:49 Our lightweight design means no shoulder strain, even during long outings." The bottom line is this: stop describing what your product is. Start showing what it does for people. 9:00 That's how you earn more clicks, build more trust, and drive more sales. Now, if you're looking to reach page one on Amazon simply by sending free products to micro-influencers, check out Stack Influence. 9:11 Use their platform to automate micro-influencer product seeding collaborations at scale, getting thousands of collabs per month, and increase your Amazon ranking, generate UGC, and boost up your recurring revenue like never before. 9:23 Top Amazon brands like Magic Spoon, Unilever, and Mary Ruth Organics have been able to get to number one page positioning on Amazon and increase their monthly revenue as high as thirteen X in as little as two months. 9:35 You pay influencers only with products, so you can stop negotiating fees. You increase external traffic Amazon sales to get to top page rankings. 9:44 You get full rights image and video UGC to build your brand with authentic content. And it's a hundred percent automated management, so you don't lift a finger to get influencer collabs at scale. Don't believe it? 9:56 Check out the results from the Blueland micro-influencer campaign, which generated a thirteen times ROI scaling up influencers on Amazon. 10:04 After successfully raising investment on Shark Tank, Blueland turned to Stack Influence to boost their Amazon sales and become a top-selling listing using micro-influencer marketing. 10:13 You can increase your Amazon listings ranking for targeted keywords and multiply your organic recurring revenue in twenty twenty six. Get ten percent off by signing up this month. There's a link in the show notes. 10:25 Now let's talk about Amazon's quiet return to Google Shopping ads. 10:29 Amazon famously pulled the plug on its massive Google Shopping ad spend in July twenty twenty-five, disappearing from one of its biggest advertising channels worldwide. 10:37 While ads resumed in most international markets after thirty days, the US remained dark, fueling speculation about marketing tests, trade policy concerns, or AI strategy shifts. But Amazon never fully left. 10:50 Recent auction data reveals Amazon has been quietly advertising on Google Shopping in the US since at least October, staying just below Google's ten percent impression share reporting threshold. 11:00 The company that once dominated with almost seventy percent impression share reduced itself to a trace amount. And here's what's particularly revealing. 11:09 These rare Amazon shopping ads appear almost exclusively in the health and beauty category. This timing aligns perfectly with Amazon's aggressive pharmacy expansion plans. 11:18 The company expected to offer same-day prescription delivery to more than half the US by the end of twenty twenty-five, and these targeted ads appear designed to support that. What does this mean for other advertisers? 11:29 The good news for most US sellers is that Amazon remains largely absent from Google Shopping across other product categories, leaving significant opportunity. 11:37 Tinuiti reported seventeen percent year-over-year US shopping click growth in Q4, benefiting from Amazon's reduced presence. 11:44 The nine-hundred-pound gorilla may not be coming back for most categories, but in health and beauty, Amazon's making a calculated exception to fuel its pharmacy ambitions. 11:53 Before we wrap up, here are a few more hot picks for you. First, Amazon supplement sellers face a serious March deadline. Second, Amazon new seller registrations hit a decade low in twenty twenty-five. 12:05 And third, an article about what sellers need to know about live shopping in twenty twenty-six. You can find links to all these articles in our, uh, written newsletter at billiondollarsellers.com. 12:15 And here's your parting shot for today. The people you spend time with determines who you become. Love your family. Choose your peers. Never waste an opportunity to tell someone you love them. 12:27 And remember that question I asked you at the beginning? Well, the answer is that buyers ignore eighty-three percent of reviews older than three months. Pretty interesting, right? That's all for today, folks. 12:40 I'll see you at BDSS thirteen virtual this week. This is Kevin King signing off on the Billion Dollar Sellers Podcast.
