Amazon bet big on AI | ClickZ Amazon Insights Newsletter

PLUS: Smarter Google strategies for sustainable growth

Author

Zihan Lyu
April 30, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

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Welcome to ClickZ Amazon Insights, an essential newsletter crafted for eCommerce professionals navigating platforms like Amazon and similar marketplaces.

Editor’s Pick 🌟

Marketing thought leadership has a tendency towards binaries. The funnel is either completely dead or very much alive. Brand marketing is either pointless or the solution to all your problems, and ChatGPT is ending 30 years of search overnight.

At Fospha, we love the measurement challenge of any new channel that offers our clients ways to reach more customers. However, Google is still very much the biggest advertising platform. Performance Max (PMAX) and Search products alone represent around 30% of our clients’ digital share of wallet.

In uncertain times, it’s more important than ever for brands to nail these core channels, so we produced the definitive best practice guide on PMAX and Paid Search. Here were our top findings:

  • ⚖️ Best performing brands allocate 55% of Google budget to PMAX and 12% to Paid Search.

  • 🏆 Brands that pair Search and PMAX with ~50% of their budgets in YouTube, Demand Gen and Paid Social see optimal results.

  • 🎨 Especially for PMAX, high-volume creative is key for AI-powered optimization.

The Insight Track

ECOMMERCE INNOVATION

Amazon is piloting features that allow users to purchase from third-party brand sites via its app or directly on external sites, gathering valuable consumer data and expanding touchpoints beyond its platform.

Marketers should note Amazon’s aim to retain shopper discovery within its ecosystem while collecting purchase insights that inform both advertising targeting and product merchandising decisions. This signals both data-driven ad opportunities and a potential shift in eCommerce platform collaboration models.

RETAIL PRICING STRATEGY

Amazon is pressuring suppliers for double-digit discounts to counteract U.S. tariffs, aiming to maintain competitive pricing and protect $5–10 billion in operating profit.

This trend signals increasing retailer leverage over suppliers and highlights the importance for marketers to monitor shifting pricing dynamics and consumer membership behaviors across leading eCommerce platforms.

RETAIL STRATEGY TRENDS

Amazon’s upcoming Prime Day may feature fewer promotional offers due to increased US-China trade tariffs, impacting third-party sellers vital to eCommerce sales.

Marketers should monitor how these tariff pressures reshape deal strategies, influencing consumer engagement and Amazon’s revenue mix. Adapting campaign tactics to reflect reduced deal volume and evolving marketplace dynamics will be crucial for optimizing future performance.

AI CLOUD INVESTMENT

Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are deploying $75 billion, $100 billion, and $80 billion respectively into AI-driven data centers, signaling a new era where AI infrastructure and cloud capacity drive competitive differentiation.

For marketers, these investments forecast rapid AI integration into digital platforms, shifting the landscape for eCommerce, targeting, and automated engagement. Understanding these trends enables marketers to anticipate tool capabilities, pivot strategy, and maximize value from emerging AI-powered marketing platforms.

Influencer Corner 📢

Meta Ads vs. Google Ads: Which One is Better for D2C Brands?

Meta ads excel at:
👉 Building brand awareness.
👉 Nurturing new customers with engaging content.
👉 Retargeting cold leads who didn’t convert initially.

Google ads are great for:
👉 Capturing demand when people are actively searching for solutions.
👉 Generating high-intent traffic with low CPC.
👉 Converting cold leads into paying customers quickly.

Which one should you focus on?
👉 Meta ads work best if you’re focusing on top-of-funnel and brand-building.
👉 Google ads work best when you’re ready to convert customers actively searching for your product.

Rumour has it that OpenAI might be quietly working on a native Shopify checkout inside ChatGPT.

Apparently ‘leaked’ code shows:

👉 'shopify_checkout_url'
👉 'buy_now'
👉 'product_offer_ratings'

No redirects. No search. Just chat, compare, and buy in one flow. Unconfirmed, but catching attention.

If this happens?

Google, TikTok, even product pages as we know them are all about to change.

Optimization Hub ⚙️

SEARCH INNOVATION

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) integrates traditional SEO with AI-focused strategies, ensuring content is both visible in classic search results and cited by AI models like ChatGPT or Perplexity. Marketers must structure content to answer specific questions, prioritize authority, and track AI-driven citations. Adapting to GEO is essential for maintaining discoverability in an AI-driven search landscape.

DISCOVERY COMMERCE INNOVATION

TikTok Shop’s newly released playbook, developed with Accenture Song, provides marketers and brands actionable frameworks for driving growth through discovery commerce, leveraging real-time creator content and robust measurement. With TikTok Shop rapidly capturing eCommerce market share, ignoring these trends risks falling behind competitors capitalizing on content-driven online retail.

INNOVATIVE PERSONALIZATION STRATEGIES

Cookieless personalization is reshaping digital marketing by requiring brands to use first-party and zero-party data, contextual targeting, and server-side solutions instead of third-party cookies, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA. This shift enables marketers to maintain effective, consent-driven customer engagement while safeguarding user privacy. Marketers must adapt quickly to sustain relevance and trust.

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