Amazon Losing Big Brands & AI Creating New Life? | The E-tail Report

Amazon is in a quiet standoff with some of the biggest brands in the world, and the cracks are starting to show in product selection. We dig into the reports of major names dialing back what they sell on Amazon after disputes over wholesale pricing, as tariffs and fuel costs climb. If nearly 40% of e-commerce runs through one marketplace, even “small” pullbacks can ripple through categories, shopper choice, and every seller’s margin math. We also talk through the uncomfortable question: if huge brands struggle to absorb costs, what does that say about the smaller sellers trying to survive on thinner margins?

From there, we shift to a real tactical update for marketplace diversification. eBay is rolling out video ads inside Promoted Listings Priority, letting sellers run up to 45-second videos on a cost-per-click model in markets like the US, Germany, and Canada. For brands and agencies looking for options beyond Amazon advertising, better creative tools on a viable marketplace can change the testing roadmap, especially when competition and fees keep climbing elsewhere.

On the AI and tech side, we unpack why Anthropic’s growing share of enterprise LLM API spend matters, plus what it signals about the enterprise AI race with OpenAI. We also cover Anthropic’s move into biotech AI and end with Gartner’s projection that AI agents will spread across business apps by 2026. That future could supercharge AI-powered bid management, inventory forecasting, and customer service automation, but it also raises the hard topics: auditability, oversight, and liability when an agent makes a costly decision. If this helped you think differently about e-commerce strategy and AI risk, subscribe, share it with a teammate, and leave a review. What marketplace or AI shift are you watching closest right now?

Learn more about Velocity Sellers!

Check us out on YouTube!

Book a FREE Amazon Audit! 

Transcript

Welcome And Weekly News Format

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the E-Tail Reports. We're going to start to make this a little bit more of a common episode type. There's a lot of E-Tail news happening around the world at all times, and so we want to make sure that we're pumping this out to you.

Big Brands Pull Back On Amazon

SPEAKER_00 0:14

We're going to start on the e-commerce side. There's been a lot of chatter amongst the big brands, major brands, including uh Colgate, uh, Adidas, other again, big brands. They're dialing back their product selections on Amazon after the retailer refused to increase wholesale purchase prices to offset some of the rising tariffs, uh, fuel costs. They don't often like to get into politics on the show, but of course, you know, everything that's going on is affecting buyers and sellers alike. So it's very tragic to see some of these big brands remove some of their offerings. I think that's a sign for maybe some worse things to come, unless things get straightened out pretty soon. Um, Amazon controls uh or 40% of e-commerce runs through Amazon is a better way to say it. Um, so this weird cost absorption battle is definitely worth watching between Amazon and these major players that are on the one piece side.

Openings For Smaller Marketplace Sellers

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Um, but there is a little bit of a silver lining where if the brand selection starts to thin, then hopefully brands that sell um lead-free or fluoride-free toothpaste uh will be able to come in and compete with Colgate or with Adidas, maybe a new clothing brand, maybe potentially even manufactured in the US, um, will be able to compete with these, again, these big box brands. So there's good and bad here. It's it's good because, again, hopefully some smaller sellers can emerge. But it's also bad because if these big brands can't absorb the costs, then what does that say about maybe these smaller guys? We need a young scrappy guy, young scrappy seller, um, doesn't have to be a guy, a young scrappy seller to get in there and and and hopefully kind of uh build back a little bit where these brands are, these big brands are pulling back. So that would be nice. That would be

eBay Adds Video Ads To Listings

SPEAKER_00 2:00

exciting. Um, looking ahead at eBay, again, you're probably thinking, why am I talking about eBay? What's happening there? Um, who cares about eBay? A lot of people do care about eBay. They do have a pretty good hold on the e-commerce percentage of the e-commerce market. So it still is a viable site. And they're also starting to roll out video ads within its promoted listings priority, or in Amazon jargon, that's their version of CPC or their advertising in some of their promoted listings priority campaigns. So starting April 15th, uh it's available to US, Germany, and German and Canadian sellers. Videos can be up to 45 seconds. And it's the same CPC model for brands, you know, diversifying beyond Amazon is becoming more and more important. And seeing eBay take this right step in the creative direction is very promising. You know, they've been a little um uh been a little uh behind the times uh compared to Amazon, compared to Walmart. But it's great to see them again start to adapt to some of these things that are are very commonplace in the other big uh marketplaces.

Anthropic Gains Ground In Enterprise AI

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Moving on to some AI and tech news, Anthropic is in here this week quite a bit. Um, beside uh the general, you know, they acquired another company, um, which actually is one of my topics. But before that, uh they on a recent study have captured now 40% of enterprise large language large language models, so LLMs. Um, they've captured 40% of the API spend as open AI has dropped to 27%. Most people would tell you they know open AI, they know ChatGPT. Um, anthropic might not be on the common household name of AIs, which if you said this to me five years ago, I'd say, what are you talking about? You're a robot, you're trying to take over the world, get out of here. But they are slowly becoming, obviously, now they have become uh more and more important, where in 2023 Open AI share was at 50%. It was at 50% before that. Now it's down to 27, and Anthropic has taken a lot of that share. So um, Anthropic is approaching 19 billion with a B in annualized revenue. Um, while OpenAI has surpassed 25 billion again with a B. Um, but again, open uh Anthropic is starting to slowly kind of uh close the gap on open AI.

Anthropic Moves Into Biotech AI

SPEAKER_00 4:30

And a piece of that, I think that a big deal of that is this new biotech startup that they have acquired. Um so Anthropic has acquired Stealth Biotech AI Startup Coefficient Bio for a $400 million deal in stock, but absorbing a team of former Gen Tech Computational Biology Researchers, tongue twisters, today. And this follows the launch of Clawed Life Sciences in late 2025. So again, all these AI companies are now um going from technology to investing in biotechnology. It's the news, I have to report it. Um, again, I'm a very big AI doomer. I think that while it is useful and I like and I like and enjoy using it, I think that it's gonna bring about the end of the world.

AI Agents Growth And Business Risk

SPEAKER_00 5:18

The final segment on AI and tech comes from Gartner. It says that 40% of business apps will use AI agents by the end of 2026. You could tell me that 80% of business apps are already using AI, and I believe you. So to hear that less than 40 are using them right now is a little shocking. Industry analysts project that 40% of business applications will employ AI agents by year end 2026, up from a shocking 5% in 2025. Maybe I don't use enough business apps. I feel like every app that I open now says, hey, use our new AI. Use our new chatbot that is powered by AI. Need something done? Ask our AI bot. Um, this is very, very interesting. Uh, for e-commerce agencies, this really accelerates the timeline on AI-powered bid management, um, inventory forecasting, customer service, but it also raises a few questions about oversight, uh, auditability, liability when agents make consequential decisions. Um, are these AI people going to make a mistake that costs you a lot of money, or even potentially the business? And so I think we'll see a lot more of laws in place about AI, about the liability of AI, or we might not, and it might just be a free-for-all.

Final Takeaways And Subscribe Reminder

SPEAKER_00 6:39

So that is the news for today. I appreciate you all watching. Again, make sure to like, subscribe, and turn on notifications to stay up to date for all things e-commerce, for all things AI, for all things tech, for all things news. I'm Pete Sims. This is the ETL Report.