(1) Feed | LinkedIn
By Simon Ellicott · August 1, 2025 · Curated by George's Blog
Amazon is quietly shoring up seller credibility and promo trust, and I believe it’s all a play to keep external AI like ChatGPT from hijacking the customer journey entirely.
I’ve cheered for Amazon since the wild west early days of 2013. Back then it felt effortless, you searched, you found, you trusted what you bought. But in recent years, search got gamed. Sellers got so sophisticated at manipulating relevance that page after page of irrelevant, and in some cases fake, products began surfacing.
Traditional search became broken. It feels dated.
Rufus entered the scene, Amazon’s AI shopping assistant designed to restore order. But let’s get real: it hasn’t delivered game changing UX yet, reviewers say it still struggles with consistency and often feels half baked.
Still, its existence marks something deeper.
Yesterday’s announcement that Amazon is rolling out its own version of Honey, so shoppers no longer need tools like Keepa or CamelCamelCamel to validate discounts, is a major credibility play. It’s Amazon stepping into discount verification to cut out manipulation and take back control of trust cues.
Credit to Mansour Norouzi, for sharing this update.
Consumers already feel burned by faux markdowns. This helps neutralise that doubt.
Now I’ll say what most folks aren’t, this feels like Amazon’s attempt to lock down the customer journey, before external AI (like ChatGPT style interfaces) can come in and redirect traffic off platform. If customers can ask ChatGPT “What’s the best rice cooker right now?” and buy via affiliate links or competitor stores, Amazon’s deeply invested in making sure people stay in its ecosystem.
So to agencies and sellers, how do you react to this seismic shift?
Do you start designing campaigns and bundles knowing that Amazon owns the discount narrative?
Should promo strategies shift from "percent off badges" to storytelling based on history, supply chain transparency, or value?
Are you optimising product content and listing entitlements so AI assistants like Rufus, even in their imperfect form, prefer your products?
As Amazon tightens control over pricing credibility, do you raise the bar for authenticity in every brand message?
Amazon’s quietly positioning its AI and trust infrastructure to own what’s next.
Agencies, time to future proof strategies around this emerging reality.
Would love to hear how other teams are evolving pricing, promotions, and content strategy with Amazon owned credibility tools now in play.
What's your plan?
#Amazon #Rufus #AIDiscovery #AmazonAgency
—-------------------------------------------
📈 Helping Partner Agencies navigate GROWTH pains from Start-Up to Scale-Up to Sale
—-------------------------------------------