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This week’s episode of Selling on Giants feels less like a collection of updates and more like a directional shift. Across Amazon, ecommerce, and brand marketing, the signal is getting louder and clearer. Platforms are done absorbing operational sloppiness, and the cost of getting the basics wrong is showing up faster and with fewer warnings.

We start with Amazon’s updated enforcement around frequently returned items. If a vendor does not have a valid U.S. return address on file, Amazon will now dispose of high return inventory and bill the vendor for both the product and the disposal. This is not a new program and not a policy expansion. It is Amazon removing ambiguity and converting operational gaps directly into financial consequences.

That same zero tolerance posture is showing up on the seller side as well. Sellers are receiving shipping address mismatch warnings even when Account Health looks clean and nothing operationally changed. Automated detection is firing before human review, and once the clock starts, sellers are forced into reactive support loops with little clarity. Clean configurations, minimal ship-from locations, and alignment between templates and reality are now as important as performance metrics.

From there, we zoom out to brand marketing and culture. Super Bowl sixty once again proved that attention can be bought, but meaning cannot. The ads that worked trusted the audience, stayed culturally aware, and kept the brand front and center. The ones that failed relied on celebrity, spectacle, or jokes without payoff. The lesson is not about Super Bowl budgets. It is about signal efficiency. If your message is unclear at the biggest attention moment of the year, it will fail everywhere else too.

That clarity gap is also showing up in consumer behavior. Valentine’s Day spending is rising, but consumers are adapting quietly to higher prices. Smaller bundles, fewer add-ons, and delayed purchases are becoming the norm. Seasonal demand no longer hides pricing misalignment. When value is unclear, churn does not show up loudly. It simply never comes back.

We also break down Amazon’s Q4 growth, which reflects demand concentration rather than a broad retail rebound. Consumers are choosing where to buy, not necessarily buying more. Convenience and delivery reliability continue to win, making Amazon less optional during uncertain periods.

Outside marketplaces, traffic is becoming more volatile. Google Discover updates reshuffled visibility quickly and without explanation, reinforcing that recommendation-based traffic is upside, not foundation. At the same time, Amazon’s physical retail experiments are better understood as ecosystem support moves, not retail disruption.

We close with two bigger themes. Fulfillment is no longer a cost center. It is risk management. And in B2B, technology is not the blocker. Leadership and culture are.

Across every story this week, the takeaway is the same. Gray areas are disappearing. Automation is moving faster than communication. Clean execution now matters as much as performance.

If you operate inside these platforms, this episode helps you understand what is changing and how to stay ahead as the rules harden.

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