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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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Marketplaces are sending a clear message this week. Risk, compliance, and execution now sit squarely with sellers, not the platforms. From Amazon brand protection and account health to Walmart returns, catalog limits, and AI-driven discovery, this episode breaks down how responsibility is moving downstream and why disciplined operators are pulling ahead.

In this episode, we cover:

Amazon brand protection remains reactive
Amazon reaffirmed how sellers must report unauthorized brand name changes. The workflow exists, but recovery is still slow, disruptive, and operationally expensive. Once a hijack happens, sellers are already behind. Clean Brand Registry status, documented ASIN ownership, and escalation readiness are no longer optional.

Account Health is now Amazon’s primary suspension prevention system
Amazon is positioning Account Health as a daily operational discipline, not a reactive alert center. Missed deadlines and incomplete documentation now carry real downside. Suspensions are increasingly execution failures, not policy surprises.

Why macro signals still matter for eCommerce operators
With Kevin Warsh nominated as the next Fed chair, rate expectations are shifting again. Softer short-term rates may support demand, but financing costs and capital discipline still matter. Operators need plans that work across uneven demand and funding environments.

Walmart tightens control on returns and catalog growth
Return exemptions are discretionary, not guaranteed. Item and selling limits are actively enforced. Walmart is rewarding clean execution and proven performance, not SKU volume. Growth is earned, not assumed.

Leadership changes signal platform direction
Walmart’s CEO transition points to continuity and scale with rising expectations. Target’s leadership reset suggests slower, more selective marketplace expansion. Sellers should align strategy to where each retailer is heading, not wait for policy relief.

Seasonal and emotional demand is still alive
Valentine’s Day spending is hitting record highs, reinforcing that demand has concentrated, not disappeared. Consumers still spend when the moment matters. Readiness, clarity, and fulfillment speed win in compressed timelines.

Retail therapy is reshaping conversion
Discretionary spending is flowing toward categories that deliver emotional payoff and immediate improvement. Listings that lead with outcomes convert better than those overloaded with specifications, especially in ad-driven traffic.

AI is compressing the funnel, not flattening marketplaces
Meta is betting on agentic shopping while Amazon and Walmart tighten control over how AI operates inside their ecosystems. AI rewards clarity, structured data, and clean execution. Vague positioning gets filtered out faster than ever.

Unified commerce is becoming table stakes
Retailers are moving from omnichannel talk to unified operating systems. Centralized inventory, fulfillment, and data are now required to meet rising platform expectations without creating internal chaos.

The through line
Platforms are no longer promising protection. They are demanding discipline. AI is not removing friction. It is relocating it. Demand still exists, but it rewards operators who execute cleanly, move early, and stay aligned with platform incentives.

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Ad fraud has the potential to drastically change online business, if we keep underestimating it.

In this episode of Selling on Giants, we sit down with Rich Kahn, Founder and CEO of Anura.io, to break down what ad fraud really looks like today and why it’s no longer a question of if you have fraud, but how much.

Rich has spent more than three decades in digital advertising. He didn’t set out to build a fraud prevention company — he built one after his own marketing platform was hit and he realized there was no credible solution on the market. So he built it himself.

This conversation goes beyond theory and headlines. We unpack how ad fraud actually works in the real world, how it hides inside legitimate-looking performance data, and why many brands don’t notice it until ROAS drifts, lead quality drops, and chargebacks show up months later.

What we cover in this episode:

• What ad fraud really is — and how it operates today
• The three main forms of fraud: bots, malware, and human fraud farms
• Why human-driven fraud is more common and affordable than most brands expect
• How fraud can inflate conversions and ROAS, not just hurt performance
• Why polluted data pushes ad platforms to optimize in the wrong direction
• Why affiliate and partner traffic often carries higher fraud risk
• The early indicators most teams overlook
• What you can do immediately to reduce exposure
• Why prevention beats trying to recover ad spend after the fact
• How AI-driven media buying is making fraud more sophisticated, not less

Guest Resources & Contact

Want to go deeper on fraud prevention, traffic quality, and performance protection?
You can access valuable tools, insights, and free resources from Anura, including their Ultimate Guide to Ad Fraud.

Website: https://anura.io
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richkahn/

Highly recommended if you’re serious about protecting ad spend, improving attribution, and scaling with confidence.