This Week in M&A Issue #203

Amazon’s Fall Shopping Event Is Coming: Here’s What Sellers Need to Know

Amazon has announced a major upgrade to its Seller Assistant platform. First launched last year as a tool that answered questions and guided sellers to helpful resources, Seller Assistant can now reason, plan, and take action with a seller’s permission, acting as an intelligent, always-on business partner.

Seller Assistant can monitor account health, optimize inventory, navigate compliance, create professional ads, suggest new product categories, and even develop strategic growth plans. Sellers can focus on innovation while the AI handles routine operations and complex business decisions.

Inventory management is a key area where Seller Assistant shines. It can proactively flag slow-moving products, recommend markdowns, or optimize shipments to reduce storage costs while meeting demand. It also continuously monitors account status, alerting sellers to potential compliance or product issues before they impact sales, and can guide them through regulatory requirements with step-by-step prompts.

Seller Assistant also supports growth strategy by analyzing sales patterns and customer behavior to recommend new product opportunities, optimize marketing campaigns, and plan international expansion. It can even prepare seasonal strategies and coordinate promotions, inventory adjustments, and marketing launches once approved.

Currently available to all U.S. sellers at no extra cost, Amazon plans to roll out Seller Assistant internationally in the coming months.

YouTube is rolling out a set of monetization updates aimed at helping creators earn more while giving brands new ways to partner with them. These updates come as YouTube celebrates paying out over $100 billion to creators, artists, and media companies worldwide over the past four years.

For long-form content, YouTube is introducing dynamic sponsorships, allowing creators to insert branded segments into their content, then swap or resell them to other brands once deals end. Rather than being permanently embedded, dynamic sponsorships offer more flexibility and long-term revenue potential. Testing starts early next year, with a wider rollout expected in 2026.

Shorts creators can soon link directly to brand websites, making it easier for viewers to discover and buy products while driving measurable results for sponsors. Testing begins later this year, with a full launch planned for next year.

YouTube Shopping is also getting smarter. AI-powered tagging will automatically identify and tag products mentioned in videos using images, voiceovers, and creator input. Automatic timestamps will show when products appear, reducing manual work and helping creators highlight products at just the right moment. Eligible U.S. creators will gain access over the next year.

Live streaming will get less intrusive monetization tools, including side-by-side ads that don’t interrupt the broadcast. Creators can also move public streams to members-only sessions seamlessly, boosting premium content and paid memberships.

YouTube is also experimenting with ways for top viewers to buy exclusive merchandise from their favorite creators, creating new shopping experiences for fans.

These new monetization updates position YouTube as a stronger platform than ever for creators, eCommerce entrepreneurs, and brands alike, unlocking new ways to earn, connect with audiences, and turn content into revenue-generating opportunities.

Ecommerce is changing fast, and apps are leading the way as visits to traditional online stores decline, according to Similarweb’s Global State of Ecommerce 2025 report.

Between July 2024 and June 2025, ecommerce app sessions jumped 13%, while visits to standard online stores fell 1%. Big marketplaces like Amazon and Temu are capturing most of this growth, with Temu’s traffic soaring 56.9% year over year despite U.S. tariffs.

Amazon remains the clear leader with 1.3 billion unique monthly web visitors and 651.7 million monthly active app users (MAUs), followed by Shopee with 392.8 million MAUs and Temu with 246.4 million. Niche retailers are also making waves, like Quince, whose web visits grew 130.9%, and Farm Rio, whose app MAUs surged 311.8%.

AI is emerging as another powerful driver of ecommerce. AI-referred visits, such as those from chatbots like ChatGPT, may still be a small portion of traffic, but they convert at an impressive 11.4%, more than double the 5.3% rate from organic search. In fact, according to Adobe, generative AI-powered shopping rose 4,700% year-over-year in July.

These stats pose a challenge for ecommerce entrepreneurs relying on standalone sites like Shopify stores. To stay competitive, they’ll need to diversify traffic sources, tapping into AI, marketplaces, social media, and platforms like YouTube.

As consumer habits shift toward apps and AI-driven shopping, brands that innovate in these areas are better positioned to capture high-intent audiences and boost conversions.