Ecommerce Braintrust

🎙️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.  

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 tackling a topic that has evolved from a conference panel talking point into one of the most significant media budget shifts in digital advertising: Amazon DSP for non-endemic brands.  Historically, brands that don't actually sell physical products on Amazon's marketplace have questioned why they should buy Amazon media. Today the conversations we're having with brands are very different.  Joining us today to unpack why 2026 is the turning point for non-endemic media buying is our very own Director of Retail Media at Acadia, Ross Walker.  Let's dive in!    Quote: If you're a non-endemic brand and you're hitting a point of consistent diminishing returns with your traditional media channels, that's the first signal that you should consider testing into a new media channel like ADSP. Ross Walker   KEY TAKEAWAYS In this episode, Julie, Jordan, and Ross discuss: Endemic vs. non-endemic, simplified: It's really just "sells on Amazon" vs. "doesn't sell on Amazon" - the jargon is mostly industry inertia. Amazon DSP has hit parity with The Trade Desk: Years of building out premium CTV/STV, audio, digital out-of-home, and owned-channel inventory means Amazon can now support the same kind of full-funnel programmatic buys as legacy DSPs. The real edge is commerce data, at a lower cost: No other DSP has Amazon's depth of purchase-intent signal, and Amazon has intentionally kept platform and audience fees low to win market share while it can. Premium CTV reach is a genuine unlock: ADSP now reaches roughly 80 million authenticated CTV households a month through partners like Netflix, Disney+, and Roku - inventory that used to be exclusive to players like The Trade Desk. Attribution is no longer the weak link: Tools like Amazon Marketing Cloud, the Amazon Ad Tag, and conversion APIs let non-endemic brands tie a Netflix or Roku impression directly to a D2C sale, lead form, or sign-up - solving a measurement gap that's plagued programmatic for years. Endemic brands get more flexibility too: Brands that do sell on Amazon can now send DSP traffic to their own site or other retailers (Walmart, Ulta, Home Depot), though the richest behavioral/custom audiences are still reserved for traffic that stays on Amazon. Signals to know it's time to test ADSP: Diminishing returns on Meta/Google/Trade Desk, or an audience with strong, specific purchase intent are both green lights to start testing. What still differentiates DSPs going forward: As capabilities converge across platforms, the real differentiator becomes each platform's unique owned audiences and media properties (e.g., Amazon's Prime Video, Walmart's owned data via The Trade Desk).

Welcome to another edition of The Retail Roundup: your monthly recap of the biggest headlines and developments in the retail world. As always, we have Armin Alispahic with us to dig into operations and organic industry trends. We're also thrilled to welcome Damiano Ciarrocchi back to the show. He'll be sharing his takes on all things media.  There are a lot of interesting updates to dig into today! Let's get into it!   "For a long time, the digital shelf and the physical shelf have been completely disconnected. And the biggest problem in online grocery that we know of is just having out-of-stock items." -Armin Alispahic   KEY TAKEAWAYS In this episode, Julie, Jordan, Damiano, and Armin discuss: AI Corner: AI-Generated People Disclosure Amazon now requires disclosure for AI-generated photorealistic people in A+ Content. Brands should update creative workflows to include metadata tagging and audit existing assets for compliance. Amazon DSP: Omnichannel Metrics Amazon DSP now attributes sales across retailers like Walmart, Target, and Home Depot. This gives brands a clearer view of cross-retailer impact and marks a major step toward true omnichannel measurement. Amazon Marketplace Operations Buy Box eligibility: More sellers can now compete, but performance still determines who wins. Returnless resolutions: Brands can automate refunds for low-value items to reduce costs, but should monitor rules carefully to prevent abuse. Instacart Updates Immersive Feed: Vertical video ads create new opportunities for product discovery beyond search. Arpalus acquisition: AI-powered shelf scanning promises better inventory visibility and fewer out-of-stock frustrations. Walmart Connect Walmart acquired Vibe.co to make Connected TV advertising more accessible for brands. Negative keyword targeting is finally rolling out for Sponsored Products, giving advertisers much-needed campaign control.   MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Connect with Acadia's Retail Media Team Lead, Damiano Ciarrocchi Connect with Acadia's Operations Team Lead, Armin Alispahic Connect with our host, Julie Spear Connect with our host, Jordan Ripley Learn more about Acadia