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4. This Week in M&A Issue #186

This Week in M&A Issue #186

Hey champ!

Today’s trend of the week is “protein”. 💪

Protein is having a serious moment. In 2024, 61% of Americans said they’re aiming to increase their protein intake, up from 48% in 2019, and 63% want extra protein in their snacks. Google searches for “high-protein diet” even peaked just a few weeks ago.

According to The Hustle, this demand is fueled by a mix of social media trends, celeb products, and weight-loss drugs like GLP-1s, which shrink muscle mass, sending users reaching for high-protein options.

For online business owners, this is a huge opportunity to bulk up your profits. The U.S. protein supplement market hit nearly $10B in 2024 and is set to more than double by 2032.

Whether you sell snacks, create content, or build apps, there’s plenty of room to jump in. Think protein-rich treats, meal kits, or even a blog or YouTube channel focused on high-protein recipes and diets. If you’re in SaaS, a simple protein-tracking app could be a hit too.

Today we have for you:

• Amazon AI now monitors brands’ DTC websites for compliance violations
• Court documents shed light on Google’s secret search formula

And:

• Refer SaaS sellers to our marketplace and earn 30% of our commission
• Third-party Amazon sellers reach $2.5 trillion in sales
• Shopify launches AI tool that builds stores from keywords

Alright, let’s dive in.

Amazon

Sellers Face New Challenges as Amazon Scans DTC Sites for Policy Breaches

Amazon is now using powerful AI tools to monitor not just its own marketplace, but sellers’ external websites, including their direct-to-consumer (DTC) sites, for any policy violations.

This system, which has been quietly active since May 2024, came into the spotlight earlier this month, when a seller was flagged for a prohibited health claim found not on Amazon, but on their own website. The warning confirmed that Amazon’s AI links DTC content to product listings through ASINs and actively scans for inconsistencies in claims and branding.

The AI doesn’t just analyze text. It uses image recognition to read packaging and visuals across a brand’s online presence. If it spots a claim that violates Amazon’s policies, such as suggesting a product can treat or cure a disease, it can take enforcement action, even if the Amazon listing is completely compliant. Similarly, the system watches for pricing discrepancies. If a product is listed significantly cheaper on a DTC site, the seller may lose Buy Box eligibility due to Amazon’s Fair Pricing Policy.

Brand consistency is also being watched closely. If your branding, packaging, or messaging differs too much from what appears on Amazon, the system may interpret it as a deliberate attempt to bypass Amazon’s rules. This makes visual and messaging consistency across all platforms essential.

This marks a major shift for sellers who have traditionally used DTC sites to express their brand more freely. Now, anything you publish, anywhere online, needs to meet Amazon’s strict compliance standards. Sellers are being pushed to audit all digital content, align their marketing and compliance teams, and standardize their messaging across Amazon, social media, and their websites.

For brands in regulated categories like health and wellness, the challenge is even greater. Claims that may be legal or common off-Amazon are now potential liabilities if Amazon’s AI makes the connection.

As Amazon expands its oversight, it’s no longer enough to be compliant on the platform. Your entire digital footprint must play by Amazon’s rules.

Google Search

A newly released U.S. Justice Department document provides insights into how Google ranks websites in search results, based on the testimony of a Google engineer. The deposition provides a rare look at the signals Google uses to determine which pages appear higher in search.

One key takeaway is that Google uses three main types of signals, called “ABC signals”, to measure how relevant a page is to a search:

• A: Anchors – Links pointing to the page from other sites
• B: Body – The words on the page that match the search
• C: Clicks – How users interact with the page, like how long they stay before clicking back

These signals are part of what Google calls topicality, which measures how closely a page matches the search query. Engineers create and fine-tune these ranking signals so they can easily troubleshoot and improve them when needed.

The engineer also explained that page quality is judged separately from relevance. If Google determines a site is high-quality and trustworthy, that rating stays mostly the same across many different searches. This “static” score helps Google identify authoritative websites. However, final rankings still depend on how relevant the page is to each specific search.

Interestingly, the engineer said complaints about declining quality have increased, especially due to AI-generated content, which makes it harder to maintain trust in search results.

Another system mentioned is eDeepRank, which uses advanced AI to better understand content. This AI-driven system tries to break down its decisions into understandable parts so engineers can see why something ranked well or not.

Google’s original PageRank system still plays a role. It now works with algorithms that judge how close a website is to trusted “seed” sites. Pages closer to those trusted sources are seen as more reliable.

In short, Google’s ranking system is a complex mix of human-crafted rules, user behavior data, quality checks, and AI, all working together to decide what shows up in search results.

Amazon

Amazon’s latest Small Business Empowerment Report, released on May 20, 2025, highlights just how far independent sellers have come. Since Amazon opened its marketplace to third-party sellers in 2000, those sellers have generated over $2.5 trillion in sales and now support more than 2 million jobs across the U.S.

Today, independent sellers make up over 60% of total sales on Amazon. Over 55,000 sellers surpassed $1 million in annual revenue, and the average seller earned $290,000, up 16% from last year. Sellers in rural areas saw even faster growth, with sales increasing over 30% year-over-year. The top states for job creation by Amazon sellers include California, Texas, New York, and Florida.

Amazon’s Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service has played a crucial role in this success, helping sellers ship more than 80 billion items since 2006. Sellers are also using new AI features to create better product listings, manage inventory, and save time.

Amazon sellers are also increasingly going omnichannel. Over 300,000 sellers now use Amazon’s Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) to ship orders from other platforms, such as their own websites or social media shops. And sellers aren’t just serving U.S. customers. More than 2 billion items have been exported globally by U.S.-based Amazon sellers.

This report is a reminder that even though eCommerce sellers are facing stiff challenges, the opportunity to build a thriving brand is bigger than ever. Whether you’re just starting or scaling fast, there are more tools, more resources, and more global reach than ever before.

Webinar

How much of your day do you spend actually growing your Amazon business?

And how much of it is wasted fighting with Seller Central?

Because if you’re like most sellers, it’s not even close. 

You’re buried in stuff that shouldn’t even be your responsibility…

• Listing issues
• Flat file problems
• Random account and ASIN suspensions
• Support reps who copy and paste the same useless response.

Leaving you wasting your valuable time cleaning up Amazon’s mess.

But it shouldn’t be this way…

That’s why we’ve invited John Cavendish, the founder of Seller Candy to do a live session on Thursday, May 29, 10:00 AM ET to walk through exactly how they handle the biggest messes Amazon throws at you faster and more effectively than anyone else in the Amazon space.

If you’re tired of spending your energy on things that don’t actually grow your business, be sure to save yourself a seat.

Register for the training here

Read All About It!

💡 6 simple businesses you can start to make $1M: these businesses are crushing it

🔍 The state of SEO in 2025: an in-depth analysis

🚀 The ultimate guide  to launching a successful startup: beat the odds

🧠 Google’s official advice on how to rank in AI search: optimizing for AI search

YouTube

We’ve built one of the most lucrative referral programs in the industry, and now, we’re making it even better.

For the next 6 months, anyone in our referral program will earn 30% of our commission when they refer a SaaS business that sells with us.

Here’s why this is so powerful. Many SaaS founders you refer won’t just sell once. They:

• Often become buyers (earning you additional commission on every business they buy within a 2-year period)
• Might run a portfolio of SaaS companies ready to exit
• Could become repeat sellers as they build new projects

And that’s just from SaaS sellers. You also get 20% on any deals your referrals buy or non-SaaS businesses that your referrals sell.

Our buyer network has over $12.9 billion in verified liquidity. And right now, they’re hungry for more SaaS deals.

If you know founders who are even thinking about selling in 2025, now is the perfect time to nudge them.

You can learn more and apply to join our referral program here.

Shopify

Shopify has launched a new AI-powered tool called the AI Store Builder that makes it easier and faster for merchants to create their online stores, no design or coding skills needed.

Announced at the Summer ’25 Edition event, this feature allows sellers to type a short description of their business, such as “eco-friendly kitchen supplies” or “luxury skincare,” and the AI instantly generates several ready-to-edit store layouts, complete with images and text.

This is Shopify’s first fully integrated AI solution that automates the entire website setup process. It’s meant to save merchants time and remove the technical barriers of building a store from scratch, so they can focus more on growing their business and serving customers.

Merchants can further personalize their store using a new theme called “Horizon,” which features built-in AI and a modular system called “Theme Blocks.” These blocks let users customize store elements, like banners or animations, by simply describing what they want, with the AI generating the necessary code behind the scenes. This gives merchants far more creative freedom without needing to understand web development.

Shopify has also enhanced its AI assistant, Sidekick. It now supports voice chat and screen sharing, allowing users to speak to it directly and get real-time guidance. Whether it’s navigating settings or answering questions about tariffs, Sidekick offers hands-free support and is now available on the Shopify mobile app as well.

Since Sidekick’s full launch in December 2024, usage has more than doubled, showing just how valuable AI has become for Shopify sellers looking to streamline their operations and stay competitive.