Five years of Jassy, Alexa+ Shopping, and Prime Day deadlines
Development and opportunities under Andy Jassy – five years as Amazon CEO
In our latest podcast episode #17, Stephan and Maik discuss Amazon's current development and the Andy Jassy era as Amazon CEO. The starting point was a Bloomberg article that summarized how things have evolved under Andy.
Focus on what matters
A look at the past five years makes two things clear: a sharper focus on essentials and gains in efficiency.
Hiring freeze and strong growth
After Amazon ramped up headcount massively during the pandemic, it is clear that employee numbers have stayed flat under Andy while revenue continues to grow. That is a clear sign of efficiency gains within the organization.
At the same time, Andy cleaned house internally, closing existing projects such as Amazon Go and Fresh stores and pushing ahead with job cuts. More than 60,000 positions were eliminated.
Growth at sellers' expense?
Things get more interesting when you look at fee adjustments over the past five years. In the podcast, Stephan and Maik focus in particular on the fact that there has been no fee reduction in the past five years without a corresponding increase. When sellers were given a USD 1 break in one place, USD 2 in fees was collected elsewhere.
More than 13 major adjustments in recent years speak for themselves: not only fixed holiday peak surcharges or fuel cost increases were implemented, but also changes to long-term storage fees and costs for returns and remissions.
In parallel, category referral fees were lowered and low-price FBA selling price thresholds were raised to give sellers more room to maneuver at lower price points.
More insights and analysis in our latest podcast
In the current episode, you get more insights and analysis on five years of Andy Jassy as Amazon CEO and the resulting focus on AWS, AI investments, and more. We also welcome your feedback on the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts!
Training and seminars from REVOIC
For years, we have regularly offered a range of seminars on Amazon: from BASIC and ADVANCED seminars to multi-day advertising workshops.
Now we want to evolve our program further and expand our offering with new formats and content.
NOW YOU CAN TELL US WHICH FORMAT YOU WANT.
Your answers in our short form help us shape the right training for the future.
Thank you for your support!
From Rufus to Alexa+ Shopping
Alexa for Shopping is a new, highly personalized AI shopping feature from Amazon that brings Rufus and Alexa+ together and is available directly in the Amazon Shopping app, on the website, and on Echo Show.
The core idea
Alexa for Shopping is designed to work like a personal shopping advisor that combines your preferences, history, and context from Alexa and Amazon usage to automate and optimize product search, comparison, purchase, and reorders – including price tracking and shopping across other retailers.
Key features at a glance
Questions directly in the search bar: Users can enter complex questions, product comparisons, or order questions directly in the Amazon search bar; the system recognizes questions and delivers conversational answers (e.g. skincare routines, party planning, product comparisons, "When did I last order XY?").
Personalized recommendations: History from Alexa and Amazon (e.g. devices, past searches, birthdays, interests) is used to suggest relevant products, troubleshooting tips (e.g. dishwasher error codes), or gift ideas.
Product comparisons & AI overviews: Multiple products can be compared directly from search results; in addition, Amazon shows AI summaries of categories and individual product pages to make purchase decisions easier.
Price history & alerts: Up to one year of price history for many products; users can set alerts and trigger auto-buy or actions at specific target prices.
Our take
With Alexa for Shopping, Amazon is betting on a strong brand for AI-assisted shopping: Alexa is familiar and trusted by consumers. That will almost certainly help drive adoption.
You can find our popular Round Table and other news formats on our landing page.
Updated calculation basis for the brand bonus
From March 26, 2026, brand bonus credits will no longer be issued monthly, but within about one week of reaching the threshold.
EU stores (DE, FR, IT, ES) and the UK are treated as separate regions for the brand bonus, so you can qualify separately in each region.
In the EU, there is a 10% fee discount on the first EUR 45,000 of eligible brand sales and 5% on the next EUR 855,000, up to a maximum of EUR 47,250 in credits within 12 months.
In the UK store, comparable tiers apply with benefits of up to GBP 42,000, also as a discount on the percentage referral fee.
Requirement: timely brand registration (within 6 months of the first sellable ASIN) in Amazon Brand Registry as the first brand owner.
You can sign up here.
Deadlines and deal rules
Prime Day is expected to take place toward the end of June this year; an exact date has not yet been announced. So you can plan your promotions in time, here is an overview of the key windows and requirements.
Best Deals & Lightning Deals (self-service) have been open since March 24; the submission deadline is June 19, 2026.
Prime Exclusive Discounts have been running since April 6 and can be submitted up to 12 hours before the end of the event.
Coupons: Dates are still to be announced and will open once the event dates are public.
The following discount requirements apply to pricing: You need at least a 5% discount off the lowest price in the last 30 days (matching the 30-day low is no longer enough). In addition, country-specific thresholds apply:
UK, DE, NL: 15% discount or €/£40 off the list price
FR, IT, BE, SE, PL, IE, ES: 5% discount or €/£40 off the lowest price in the last 30 days (excluding coupons)
Also note the ASIN requirements:
At least 3.5-star average rating and at least 5 reviews – or an ASIN with no reviews
Also operationally relevant for planning is the inbound deadline:
Inbound inventory deadline: May 27 (EU9)
You can find all information in Seller Central under Advertising -> Deals.
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!
Amazon has adjusted how it rates FBM customer service provided by sellers and brought a bit more clarity to customer ratings.
From May 1, new calculation rules for remissions apply at Amazon. They are no longer calculated per order but per unit. More in Amazon's news.
Amazon has also updated its VAT calculation service. From June 1, calculation will be at shipment level rather than unit level.
