The Selling From the Beach Newsletter

You and 3,978 had better like this newsletter or i’ll start clapping when the plane lands.

Welcome back friend!

And a big welcome to the +49 new readers this week!

There’s too much to write about.
Our newsletters are already too long. I can’t remember the last time one of them wasn’t clipped.

We have multiple stories lined up every edition and we have to be ruthless about what makes it in. Most things get cut. What you get here is only a) the highest value, b) the most impactful, or c) the most interesting.

I’m ain’t about writing a 20-page newsletter every 2 weeks.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the Pareto Principle. 80% of outcomes come from 20% of inputs. So we focus on the 20% that matters the most and we cut the rest. YOU get what matters the most. Nothing else.

And the rule is the same on Amazon. It’s the same in life. And it’s easy to forget. You win when you focus on the 20% of the things that create 80% of the results. You lose when you spread your time across the things that you fell in love with but aren’t getting it done.

So this edition is the twenty percent. Enjoy.

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✅The Instant Value Section (IVS)✅

(aren't you glad you opened the email now?)

Huge thanks to Andri Sadlak for supplying this week’s IVS. Andri is a very prolific SaaS operator. His latest venture is Azoma. Check him out, here.

Amazon’s New Prompt Ads: What Sellers Need to Do Now

Amazon started AI-generated “prompt ads” inside Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands. Most sellers still don’t know what they are, how they trigger, or how they actually work. After a closed-door session with Amazon’s Global Product Marketing Lead for GenAI (plus a 1:1 follow-up), here’s the operator-level truth.

What’s Actually Happening

• Prompts are now auto-enabled in SP/SB (you can turn them off).

• The AI ONLY uses your listing copy: title, bullets, description, backend attributes, brand store, keywords.

• Metrics will show which prompts fired → got clicked → and converted (“Add to Cart” included).

• You only pay CPC on the first click; the rest of the convo is free.

• Starts on your PDP, likely expands to competitor PDPs.

Why It Matters

• Early data: shoppers are adopting this faster than Amazon expected.

• Reviews and Q&A are excluded. Your listing is the only source.

• Whatever semantic signals you give in your PDP → the AI outputs.

• If your PDP is weak, your prompt ads will be weak. Period.

Here’s how to take advantage:

1. Rewrite titles/bullets into noun-phrase stacks. Rufus + prompts rely on them.

2. Fill backend attributes to 100%. COSMO uses them heavily.

3. Add short text phrases to images. The AI reads it and reuses it.

4. Write your description as Q&A. Prompts answer questions—give them answers.

5. Map features → benefits → use-cases. Clear inference = strong AI output.

The Sobering Face of Amazon Support

Here's an almost ~4 hour call to fix a catalog issue that Amazon itself created.

Super reps are dead.
Support has never been worse.

Everyone has needs "trick" or "hack" to get to actually talk to someone with empathy.

- "Call the Captive Team"
- "Call the Costa Rica Team"
- "Put in Chinese characters into your case log"
- "Email a VP directly"

Meanwhile the bots auto flag your listings for random keywords and frontline support either can’t help or won’t help.

I know they’re trying. How could they not?
They keep saying they’ve eliminated millions of "root causes."

Great. Thanks. Why does it still suck?

And here’s the part nobody wants to hear. This is the cost of doing business on Amazon.

I Paid $750/h for a DTC Consultant: Here’s what I learned:

The past 2 weeks here we have been working on creating a new DTC - direct to consumer brand to launch and it is so good to get back to my roots!  I launched my first ecommerce brand/website in 1998, ran it for a few years. Mostly though, I’ve been on 3rd party marketplaces. The DTC landscape is similar but also different.  I paid $750 for an hour-long call with a consultant in the space/niche to get caught up and it was super valuable. 

Here are 10 takeaways I got from the call:

1. Remember you're an ecommerce company first.  You just sell the products of this niche, but you're an ecommerce company first.

2. Higher value items, higher margin allows you to spend more on ads to acquire a customer.  $30 COA to sell a $35 average order is hard. 

3. Fulfilling lots of low ticket orders is death by a thousand cuts.

4. To do it right, expect to spend on a bunch of monthly shopify apps.

5. Use Particl to estimate sales and trends from customers

6. Find hero products and complementary products that are lower cost, and can get people to purchase from the brand at a lower risk/price point to test you out.

7. Avoid items with lots of sizes and return rates.

8. Get creative with checkouts & time limited discount options after purchase to increase average sales.

9. Become your own content creator.  Start there before paying others to do it as they will not move the needle.

10. Creating your content is like a lottery ticket. Keep putting it out and one will go viral and pay off.

Another thing I will say: It surprises me that simple amazon PL like items can also survive on their own DTC sites and I’m still not sure why more sellers don’t expand out to their own site.

The Deep Dive (Premium Content)

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What is Going On with this Main Image?

(click on it to zoom in)

I don’t know exactly what it is, but this main image from Boveda totally stopped me in my tracks.

• Fake Packaging (so they can add more callouts)

• Drop Shadow (so it stands out more in SERP)

• Ziploc Pouch (to fool the bots)

• 6! Callouts

• Fills the entire square space (and looks decent on mobile, too)

This one was extremely impressive. Got a main image you love? Email us.

(Or if you want help to make your main images look this good, let us know and we’ll get you set up)

400K Points for a Credit Card???

Here’s an awesome hack from our friend Eli at Freedom Travel Systems (FTS).
(if you missed his podcast with Rob, check it out here)

Capital One Venture X Business is offering 400,000 points. It’s the biggest bonuswe’ve ever seen.
That’s roughly $20,000 in business class travel when you redeem them the way FTS teaches.
Enough to fly a family of 3–4 to Europe in business class.

Why you should care as an Amazon seller: you spend money nonstop. If you put payroll, inventory, or ads on a card, you want the highest return possible.

Why this card works:

• You earn 2x on everything

• It’s the easiest card to use for payroll

• The bonus is limited in time

• It usually does not report to personal credit

• You need about a 730–740 score to get approved

What you need to do:
Spend $150,000 in 6 months to earn the full 400k bonus. If you run payroll or high monthly spend, this is straightforward.

Here’s a direct link.

Awesome Blue Pools at Poza Los Coyotes

Here is a photo my son, Chase, giving his mom a heart attack. 😅 

Poza Los Coyotes is an amazing spot near Liberia, Costa Rica. You get turquoise pools, a narrow canyon, and clear water coming straight from the Río Blanco, which starts at the Rincón de la Vieja volcano. It’s on private land, costs a few dollars to enter, and has multiple jump levels plus great photo angles.

Chase went this weekend and is already insisting we go back. Check it out on instagram here.

• Emmanuel asks about testing products that aren’t your own

• Ryan looks for help with HST

Amazon’s Super Reps I.e. “Specialist Support” is dead

My single favorite program ever launched by Amazon is now as garbage as the rest of seller support.

It now contains the exact same confused, unhelpful, and uncaring reps that DGAF about you.

Up until a few weeks ago, this button gave you a helpful, empathetic rep (usually English as a first language) who really went to bat for you, would follow up with phone calls, and not rest until your issue was solved.

Now?

• "I need to transfer that to the concerned team"

• "Here's a copy/paste of an Amazon help page"

• "Are we still connected?"

They're about as helpful as a screen door on a submarine.

I had written a post talking about how great this program was last year. See here: https://lnkd.in/gr2Syaw4

I don't know what Jenna Owens did, but it looks like she gutted it.

(Perhaps giving everyone access to it at Accelerate was a bad idea?)

How was today's newsletter? Love it? Hate it? Want to trade your morning commute for a seashell hunt?

• I loved it! 🐚🐚🐚

• It was okay 🐚🐚

• Not good. 🐚

To your success,

Rob & Max