Top Amazon Sellers News This Week

This week’s retail news highlights Amazon’s expansion beyond ecommerce into social video, connected TV advertising, and enhanced brand metrics, while retailers other other retailers race to remove friction from shopping, demonstrating how crowded the space. 

• Amazon turns the living room into a commerce engine: Amazon is tightening the link between content, ads, and conversion. Instagram Reels are landing on Fire TV, suggesting a push to make the living room a destination for short-form, creator-led video, while Samsung Ads is tapping Amazon data to deliver more precise Connected TV (CTV) targeting. At the same time, 
• Enhanced Brand Store metrics: Amazon is refocusing Brand Store quality ratings on what matters most (sales) pushing brands to optimize not just for engagement, but for measurable revenue impact across screens.
• “Add It” click-to-cart tech further reduces buyer friction: Albertson’s new Add-It tech lets shoppers add products or recipe bundles without leaving the page. Like Walmart’s Get It button and Amazon’s one-tap Add to Delivery, this reflects retailers racing to remove friction from shopping.
• Home Depot courts creators with a new portal: Home Depot launched a new Creator Portal connecting brands with home-improvement influencers, campaign opportunities, and affiliate programs, a move that demonstrates the retailer is making creators a core part of its marketing strategy.

Dive into this roundup for what these developments mean, and how to adapt before these experiments become the new baseline.

Retail’s New Battleground: CTV, Creators, & Instant Checkout

Retailers are battling to own the full commerce journey: from inspiration on TV screens to one-tap checkout. This week’s retail news finds Amazon, Meta, Samsung, Albertsons, Walmart, and Home Depot aligning on one strategy: stronger ties with CTV networks, creators, and ad tech to transform viewing into buying.

The Living Room Becomes the New Storefront

Amazon and Meta are planting a flag in connected TV as a commerce driver, not just an awareness channel. Instagram is testing a new TV app on Amazon Fire TV, bringing short-form Reels (still vertical and under three minutes) onto the living room screen. 

While Meta says monetization isn’t the immediate focus, the implications for brands suggest that creator-driven discovery is expanding beyond mobile, and CTV advertising is becoming another surface where products can influence purchase decisions.

At the same time, Amazon is strengthening the ad infrastructure behind that screen. Samsung Ads’ new integration with Amazon Publisher Cloud allows advertisers to combine Samsung’s CTV audience data with Amazon’s shopping and browsing signals securely via clean rooms—without sharing raw user data.

Together, these moves point to a future where:

• Short-form video discovery happens on TV, not just phones.
• Ads can be targeted based on real shopping behavior, not guesswork.
• Retailers control both the media surface and the transaction data.

For sellers, CTV is no longer the “upper funnel,” it’s becoming shoppable, measurable, and increasingly tied to performance.

Performance, Not Just Presence, Wins on Amazon

As Amazon expands its media reach, it’s also enhancing how it measures success on-platform. Brand Store quality ratings now prioritize sales performance over dwell time, reinforcing Amazon’s message that engagement only matters if it converts.

Sellers can now:

• Benchmark storefront sales against similar brands.
• See optimization recommendations tied directly to revenue impact.
• Focus investment on layouts and content that actually drive purchases.

In an ecosystem where traffic may increasingly come from CTV ads or social video, Amazon is making sure Brand Stores are optimized to close the loop once shoppers arrive.

Click to Cart: Retail Media’s Endgame

Albertsons’ new Add-It ad tech shows where retail is heading next. Through this click-to-cart technology, off-site ads let shoppers add products to their cart without leaving the external page, with plans to expand into CTV and social next year.

This mirrors the moves we covered last week, with Walmart piloting the “Get It” button and Amazon rolling out a one-tap “Add to Delivery” feature for Prime members.

What does this mean? Frictionless commerce wins budgets. As General Mills Customer Marketing Manager, Janine Cushman, told AdExchanger, brands will follow the retailers that make sales easiest, even if that means shifting spend away from slower platforms.

That said, ultra-frictionless shopping comes with risks, including accidental purchases, cancellations, and returns. These are something brands will need to monitor closely.

Creators Become the Front Door to Commerce

Home Depot’s new Creator Portal ties the whole strategy together. By formalizing relationships with influencers, offering affiliate tools, training, and even supplier access, the home improvement retailer is turning creators into scalable commerce partners. It’s a playbook already being used by Sephora, Chewy, Lowe’s, and others, especially as affiliate-driven ecommerce races toward a projected to surpass $280 billion by 2028.

For instance, Lowe’s has paired its creator network with entertainment partnerships like Mr. Beast, blending content, storefronts, and retail media into a single loop. Home Depot’s World Cup–themed creator content shows how retailers are aligning cultural moments, creators, and commerce long before the buy button appears.

What Sellers and Brands Should Do Now

• Design for the big screen: Short-form video and CTV ads may soon drive direct commerce. Test creative that works beyond mobile.
• Optimize Brand Stores for conversion: With sales now driving quality ratings, storefront user experience matters more than ever.
• Reduce friction, but measure fallout: One-tap checkout may boost conversion, but be sure to track cancellations and returns closely.
• Invest in creator partnerships early: Retailers are building creator marketplaces. Brands that show up early gain visibility and leverage.
• Plan across ecosystems, not channels: The winners won’t be social-only, CTV-only, or marketplace-only, but those who connect all three.

Retail’s next battlefield isn’t just where shoppers buy, it’s where discovery, ads, creators, and checkout collide in a single, seamless flow.

Other Retail News This Week

1. Upgraded MCF Analytical Dashboard Brings Deeper Omnichannel Insights

You can now access detailed Multi-Channel Fulfillment performance data in Seller Central, including fees, delivery speed, SKU-level trends, and top-performing products. With flexible date ranges, trend comparisons, and downloadable order-level reports, this dashboard makes it easier to track performance over time, identify cost inefficiencies, and optimize fulfillment strategy. These metrics are critical for improving margins and delivery performance heading into peak demand.

2. EU Brand Owners Gain A New Way To Drive Average Order Value With Virtual Bundles

Amazon now allows registered brands to group two to five ASINs into discounted virtual bundles, without physically packaging products together. This feature creates an easy path to cross-sell complementary items and increase conversions using existing FBA inventory.

3. Protect Account Health During The Holidays

Amazon encourages sellers to update vacation status or seller-set holiday schedules to avoid missed orders and late shipments. Taking a few minutes to configure these settings now can prevent account health issues during the busiest time of year. Keep in mind that Account Health Support will be closed on December 25, 2025, and January 1, 2026, so resolving potential issues early is essential to ensure smooth operations over the holiday period.