News from Amazon 1 04/2026

Joybuy: The next Amazon killer?

Joybuy is the European marketplace push from JD.com, China's second-largest e-commerce company with annual revenue of USD 187 billion (2025) and net income of USD 2.8 billion.

The company ranks #44 in the Fortune Global 500 and has been profitable for 20 years. JD.com also recently acquired Ceconomy (the parent company of MediaMarkt and Saturn) for EUR 2.2 billion, securing an offline footprint in Germany as a strategic advantage. So Joybuy is not a newcomer, but a well-funded player with a clear market-entry strategy.

What makes Joybuy different?

Unlike Temu, Joybuy does not focus on cheap products and anonymous sellers, but on a curated brand assortment. On top of that, it offers free same-day delivery: if you order by 11 a.m., delivery arrives the same day, powered by its own logistics infrastructure.

The JoyPlus subscription model costs EUR 3.99 per month, less than half of Amazon Prime (EUR 8.99). The market launch was supported by a massive campaign across Netflix, Disney+, Sky, ZDF, and around 2,000 outdoor advertising posters. Its predecessor Ochama failed - Joybuy is the second and clearly more determined attempt.

Our take

Joybuy is not a short-term Amazon replacement, but a serious additional channel with real potential, especially for brand manufacturers. We recommend putting Joybuy on your watchlist now, requesting terms, and running initial tests with selected high-performing brand ASINs. At the same time, price parity with Amazon should stay in focus, as Amazon monitors prices across channels.

You can find our popular Round Table and other news formats on our landing page.

Letter to Shareholders 2025: What sellers and vendors need to know

In this year's Letter to Shareholders, Andy Jassy published an unusually open message. For the first time, Amazon publicly admits to tearing down and rebuilding existing systems, including Alexa, which was rebuilt from scratch, and the Bedrock inference infrastructure, rewritten by six engineers in 76 days. Free cash flow dropped from USD 38 billion to USD 11 billion, a decline of 71%. In 2026, Amazon is investing around USD 200 billion in capex, almost entirely in AI.

Chips, grocery, and speed as new growth areas

Trainium and Graviton (Amazon's in-house chip developments) are now positioned as a standalone business area for the first time, with a run rate of USD 50 billion, alongside indications of potential third-party sales. At the same time, Amazon has become number two in US grocery retail and has grown same-day fresh delivery by 40x since 2025. Amazon Now is expanding to Europe with a 20-minute delivery target, meaning speed is becoming a core conversion requirement for sellers.

What makes this letter special

What sets this letter apart from all previous ones is, above all, the unusual level of openness. Jassy does not apologize for the sharp decline in free cash flow, but communicates clearly and directly where things are heading. This cultural shift is clearly visible, not only in the language of the letter, but also in the fact that chips and grocery are openly named for the first time as standalone strategic business models that go far beyond Amazon's classic core business.

Amazon changes the rules for discounts

Starting April 23, 2026, every strikethrough price on Amazon must be verifiable, either because another seller charges the same price or because customers have actually bought at that price. Anyone who simply enters an inflated MSRP to fake a large discount will lose their strikethrough price. Starting May 18, Amazon takes it one step further: the so-called "Typical Price" will be recalculated. If you offer your product at a discount for more than half the time, your promotional price automatically becomes the normal price, removing the second path to showing a strikethrough price.

What does this mean for you?

If you calculate fairly and set realistic MSRP values, you do not need to worry - nothing changes for these sellers. The main impact is on sellers who have relied on permanent discounts or non-verifiable list prices. Now is a good time to review your ASINs: Is your MSRP still accurate? Are there products that have run almost exclusively at promo price for months? Cleaning this up now protects your most important conversion lever: the strikethrough price.

Amazon takes over the purchase journey

Buy for Me: Buy without leaving Amazon

Amazon has been testing a feature called "Buy for Me" in the US for some time, which we already covered in our newsletter. In short:

The feature enables users to buy products from external retailer websites directly inside the Amazon app, without leaving the app at any point. This is made possible by Amazon's AI models Nova and Claude, which open the external website in the background and complete the full checkout process autonomously. For merchants not selling directly on Amazon, there is also an option to feed products into the Amazon ecosystem via "Shop Direct Feeds." However, there are already early critical voices: some merchants report that sales were processed through this feature without explicit consent (a topic that will likely fuel debate over the coming months).

Auto Buy: Automatic purchase at your target price

The second new feature is called "Auto Buy" and is integrated directly into the Buy Box. Customers can set a maximum target price, define the desired quantity, and choose a validity period. As soon as the product reaches that price, Amazon buys automatically and the customer is informed via app notification. For sellers and vendors, this has clear strategic implications: as customers actively wait for lower price points, demand concentrates even more around deal events like Prime Day or Black Friday. At the same time, volume in vendor-funded deals is likely to increase further, as those promotions are exactly what triggers automatic purchases.

Our take

Both features clearly show Amazon's strategic direction: the entire purchase path, from discovery to checkout, is increasingly meant to happen within the Amazon ecosystem. We therefore recommend continuously tracking average selling prices while strengthening measures like Subscribe & Save and brand-owned promotions to reduce long-term dependency on major deal events.

In 2026, we are focusing on new marketing channels to keep you up to date with Amazon news: Our REVOIC podcast is published every Friday, and our YouTube channel has been fully revamped and now delivers fresh content regularly.

We look forward to your feedback!

Starting April 17, 2026, Amazon will apply a new fuel and logistics surcharge to FBA shipping fees - 1.5% in Europe and 3.5% in the US and Canada.

Starting May 1, 2026, Amazon removal and disposal fees will no longer be charged after order completion, but directly per unit at the time of processing.

Starting June 1, 2026, Amazon will no longer calculate VAT per unit, but on the basis of the total invoice amount at shipment level, which can lead to different unit prices for multi-item purchases.