Roger Dunn

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🚨Breaking🚨: Amazon just quietly turned 'Buy with Prime' into an ad product.

Not with banners.

Not with sponsored listings.

With fees... and preferential visibility baked into the checkout layer.

Here’s what changed.

📦 What's launching

Starting next month, eligible brands can opt into 'Prime Signal' inside AI shopping assistants and Amazon surfaces across the web.

If a shopper is in an AI chat (or a browser assistant) and asks “best protein powder for runners” or “most reliable carry-on”, listings that can fulfill with Prime get a new badge and a faster checkout path.

And Amazon takes a variable cut per order, on top of existing fulfillment fees.

The kicker? Some early partners are reporting that non-Prime-fulfilled offers still show up... but are pushed below the fold, even when the price is lower.

This isn't a retail media placement.

This isn't classic marketplace ranking.

This is the commerce stack charging rent at the moment of decision.

🔒 "Prime Signal" won't change organic results on Amazon.com

🔒 It only applies offsite and in AI shopping contexts

🔒 Brands can opt out at any time

🔒 No user-level data is shared with brands

But the incentives are obvious. If Amazon can become the default fulfillment layer for agentic shopping, it becomes the toll booth for the whole category.

💰 What this means

Amazon isn’t just defending share from AI assistants.

They’re trying to become the fulfillment API for them.

Discovery happens in the conversation.

Consideration happens in the comparison.

Transaction happens in the fastest checkout.

If Prime fulfillment is the shortcut, Amazon controls the shortcut.

📈 The early numbers (reported by partners)

📈 Conversion lift of 12–18% when Prime Signal is present

📈 Cart abandonment down 9% vs non-Prime flows

📈 Higher repeat rate on replenishable categories within 30 days

None of this is shocking. Prime is a trust mark. In AI shopping, trust is the product.

💡 Tips for Brands

🧠 LEARN: Separate 'marketing efficiency' from 'stack dependency'

A short-term conversion lift can turn into long-term margin compression if the platform becomes your only path to checkout.

🧪 TEST: Prime Signal like a channel, not a feature

Run it in 1–2 categories, compare net margin after all fees, and watch whether your owned site traffic drops.

🔄 ITERATE: Build a non-Amazon fast lane too

If your DTC checkout is slow, brittle, or mobile-hostile, Prime will win by default. Speed is strategy now.

🔍 The bigger question

If AI agents become the interface, the winners won’t just be “who has the best product data.”

fastest delivery

lowest friction checkout

least buyer regret

And that’s why fulfillment is about to look a lot like advertising.

4% sounded small when OpenAI did it. Variable fees will sound “reasonable” too... until every agentic purchase has three tolls attached.

What's your take? Is this a fair trade for trust and conversion, or the start of fulfillment becoming the new retail media tax?

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