Ecommerce Braintrust

🎙️Interview With Adam Rubens of Amazon   DESCRIPTION Welcome to The Ecommerce Braintrust podcast, brought to you by Julie Spear, Head of Retail Marketplace Services, and Jordan Ripley, Director of Retail Account Management.   Today's episode is a special edition. Our colleague Matt Rosenfeld, who leads the accelerator team within Acadia's retail business, was at Amazon's Accelerate conference, where he recorded a live session with Adam Rubens, Product Marketing Lead for Sponsored Products, Brands, and Stores at Amazon.    Matt and Adam cover a lot of ground, from Amazon's newest advertising capabilities to the growing role of AI and automation, and what all of it means for brands and marketers trying to build sustainable growth on the platform.   It's a quick conversation, but it's packed with insights. So sit back and enjoy.   Quote: One of the biggest mistakes is just shutting things down too early. Give it enough time to learn, especially with all the new AI tools. Give it enough time to ingest that data so that it can make good decisions."   Adam Rubens KEY TAKEAWAYS In this episode, Matt and Adam discuss: The evolving responsibilities of product marketing at Amazon Ads and how seller feedback influences product development New features in Seller Assistant, including support for ad-related queries and campaign launches for Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands The effectiveness of video ads versus static ads, with emphasis on when and why video outperforms static creatives The role of video ads in different stages of the marketing funnel and their impact on consumer awareness and decision-making The increasing presence of AI and automation in Amazon advertising, and the importance of human skills like storytelling and data interpretation Addressing concerns that Amazon's AI primarily optimizes for Amazon's benefit and how inputs from brand owners influence outcomes Essential preparations for Prime Big Deal Days and Q4, including content optimization, audience building, and measurement baseline setup Common mistakes brands make when adopting new ad products, such as stopping campaigns prematurely before allowing enough data to accumulate Using metrics beyond ACOS to evaluate campaign incrementality, with a focus on "New to Brand" metrics and long-term sales Underused Amazon Ads features, specifically audience bid boosting and Sponsored Brands Collections The misconception that large budgets are necessary to succeed with Amazon Ads, and the value of starting small and scaling up Predictions for the future of automation in reporting and campaign management, and how these changes will free marketers to focus on creative and strategic work  

🎙️Interview With Matt Rosenfeld & Ross Walker   DESCRIPTION Welcome to The Ecommerce Braintrust podcast, brought to you by Julie Spear, Head of Retail Marketplace Services, and Jordan Ripley, Director of Retail Account Management.   Today, we're welcoming back our Director of Retail Media, Ross Walker, alongside Matt Rosenfeld, who many of you know as the founder of CRUSH, now the accelerator team within Acadia's broader retail business. They are joining us to parse through all of the major updates that came out of Amazon's 2026 Accelerate and unBoxed conferences.   Let's dive in!    Quote: A new advertising product geared towards generating reviews for products...it's been something that clients have asked about for years.   Matt Rosenfeld KEY TAKEAWAYS In this episode, Julie, Jordan, Matt, and Ross discuss: Ad-Based Review Generation: Amazon announced a dedicated advertising format geared toward generating customer reviews, providing a structured, in-console alternative to Amazon Vine and gray-market tactics. Featuring prominent placements for verified purchasers—such as the Amazon homepage—this retargeting tool provides brands with a direct lever for product launches. Geographic & Incrementality Insights: The introduction of automated line-item geographic insights reduces the need for complex manual reporting or DSP workarounds. This update makes it significantly easier for brands to run geo-lift studies, measure paid media incrementality, and identify regional market penetration. "Branded Conversations" in Alexa for Shopping: Expanding beyond basic Sponsored Prompts, Amazon is introducing Branded Conversations (slated for January 2027), allowing brands to craft tailored responses to specific consumer voice prompts. This moves ad strategy toward "prompt performance creative," helping brands address product nuances and accelerate conversions before shoppers visit a product detail page. AI Seller Assistant: A new AI assistant within Seller Central is designed to help brands navigate complex backend account issues, streamline troubleshooting, and open direct escalation pathways, decreasing reliance on routine agency support or confusing support queues. Multi-Channel Hub in Seller Central: Amazon is pulling in external platforms (including Shopify, eBay, TikTok, and Walmart) to centralize listings, inventory, and orders. This feature provides massive leverage for Amazon-first brands seeking easy multichannel syndication, though it offers less value to brands anchored on Shopify. Global from Day One Program: While Amazon's international expansion program lowers the barrier to entry by potentially acting as the seller of record in foreign marketplaces, brands must still navigate heavy tax and regulatory compliance hurdles independently in regions like the UK and EU. Claude Integration: Automated full-funnel and Performance+ campaigns are seeing low enthusiasm among mature brands that demand tactical control over ad spend. Conversely, seller-side LLM integrations—such as using Claude via Model Context Protocol (MCP) to troubleshoot listing suppressions and automate ticket generation—point toward the eventual phaseout of cumbersome flat files and manual catalog management.

🎙️News Review with Armin Alispahic and Pat Petriello DESCRIPTION Welcome to another edition of The Retail Round Up: your monthly recap of the biggest headlines and developments in the retail world.   We have a packed slate today. Joining us to break down all the madness are our resident experts: Pat Petriello on the media side, and Armin Alispahic covering operations and organic trends.   Let's get into it! Quote: You want to treat your account health as something you protect every day, not something you look at when there's a problem.   Armin Alispahic KEY TAKEAWAYS In this episode, Julie, Jordan, Pat, and Armin discuss:   Alexa for Shopping Goes Fully Agentic: Amazon has officially launched a major overhaul of Alexa for Shopping in the US, transitioning it from a standard conversational chatbot into a full-fledged, autonomous shopping agent. Amazon Ads Partners with OpenAI: A closed pilot brings Sponsored Product ad placements directly into ChatGPT conversations. AI Auto-Translates Secondary Product Images: Amazon rolls out automatic image text translation across 14 international stores in the Americas and Europe. Ads Agent Launches Omnichannel Recommendations: Real-time reach forecasting in DSP helps advertisers plan cross-format buys across Streaming TV, Online Video, Display, and Audio. Amazon Blocks Meta's Muse AI Assistant: Amazon cuts off Meta's shopping bot in an escalating standoff over customer data and agentic commerce. Account Health Assurance Extends to Listing Level: Amazon adds grace periods for listing enforcements and introduces a human-driven "Seller Challenge" review mechanism.  

DESCRIPTION Welcome to The Ecommerce Braintrust podcast, brought to you by Julie Spear, Head of Retail Marketplace Services, and Jordan Ripley, Director of Retail Account Management.   This week, we're talking about what happens when TikTok becomes more than a social platform and starts playing a central role in the commerce funnel. We'll look at how TikTok Shop creates demand, how that demand shows up on Amazon, and how brands can measure and scale the relationship between the two.   Joining us today is Matt Rosenfeld, who many of you know as the founder of CRUSH, now the accelerator team within Acadia's broader retail business.   Let's dive in!    Quote: I think what's unique about TikTok is that all brands are essentially doing today is trying to find an arbitrage for attention. And the way you unlock the arbitrage is by finding ways to drive attention where it's disconnected from direct dollar investment.    Matt Rosenfeld    KEY TAKEAWAYS In this episode, Jordan and Matt discuss: The evolving role of TikTok in driving awareness and sales for consumer brands, especially how it compares to the earlier days of Facebook, Google, and Amazon as commerce channels The unique ability of TikTok to "arbitrage attention" through creator-led content, making organic growth less directly tied to ad spending How TikTok engagement can deliver higher-quality, high-intent traffic to Amazon, improving conversion rates versus traffic from Meta or Google Challenges of attribution from TikTok to Amazon and the importance of monitoring branded search trends over perfect attribution models Traits of brands succeeding on TikTok: volume of samples sent, content creation strategy, and community engagement—why premium brands historically struggled, and what's changing Tightening connections between Amazon and TikTok, such as Amazon's discounted multichannel fulfillment for TikTok orders and the future potential for Prime integration or collaboration Strategic advice for brands: why TikTok is becoming a tier 1 initiative for most e-commerce brands and how sample distribution and community building can yield significant upside The rising cost of customer acquisition across channels and TikTok's continued position as a cost-efficient engine for attention

🎙️News Review with Michael Childers and Pat Petriello DESCRIPTION Welcome to another edition of The Retail Roundup: your monthly recap of the biggest headlines and developments in the retail world.   We have a packed slate today. Joining us to break down all the madness are our resident experts: Pat Petriello on the media side, and Michael Childers covering operations and organic trends.   Let's get into it! Quote: "Our world is really complicated, but if you boil it down, the game is all about discoverability and buyability. Both Amazon and TikTok are masters in one sphere and moving towards the other."   Pat Petriello KEY TAKEAWAYS In this episode, Julie, Jordan, Pat, and Michael discuss:   Amazon's latest upgrade to its AI Seller Assistant still has limitations. Its new Buy Box diagnostic feature helps explain potential issues but doesn't yet provide the specific insights needed to quickly identify and resolve them. Sponsored Products are expanding into creator content. Amazon is testing new ways to bring products into off-Amazon discovery, but the scale and performance of these placements remain to be seen. Delivery speed is becoming another competitive lever. Brands can now bid for faster delivery, creating potential conversion gains, but also another cost to factor into profitability. Amazon Ads is becoming one connected ecosystem. Bringing Sponsored Ads, DSP, AMC, and data tools together should simplify campaign management and enable more automation, though brands will need to pay closer attention to account governance. Walmart is building a stronger full-funnel ad business. Its investments in streaming TV and first-party data position Walmart Connect as an increasingly serious competitor for larger brand advertising budgets. Fall tentpole planning should already be underway. Brands should lock in inventory, pricing, promotions, and advertising plans early, and avoid aggressive pre-event discounts that could hurt deal eligibility later.