How to promote Amazon Prime Day deals this year
And more in the content & commerce news round-up #5
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Welcome back to another Delivered news round-up, where I share headlines from the content & commerce space that I think are worth discussing and sharing.
Tariffs might be good news for Amazon Prime Day sales
Forty-five percent of shoppers intend to buy products on Amazon Prime Day that they think will be more expensive later in the year, according to a recent survey of Prime members. The survey also found that tariffs are motivating shoppers to seek out deeper discounts before making a purchase. Basically, the confusion and uncertainty around tariffs is driving people to optimize their shopping and find the best deal before it’s too late, ironically risking getting no deal at all. If I were a publisher promoting Prime Day deals, or even a retailer, I would be as transparent as possible with my audience about price changes—do a little extra legwork and tell them how often a product goes on sale, when it was last this cheap, etc. Maybe an infographic showing the price fluctuations of products likely to be impacted by tariffs?! Just spitballing here. Amazon Prime Day sales can sometimes feel a little scammy and not like actual good deals, so make your audience feel like you’re really helping them out and tell them if the discounts are worth their time and money. Maintain the trust you’ve worked so hard to build.
Dotdash Meredith has been preparing for Google to no longer send traffic to its sites for years…
In an interview with writer Oliver Darcy, DDM CEO Neil Vogel talked about the company’s stance on Google and its approach to AI, including its relationship with OpenAI and the lack thereof with other AI companies. The interview is focused more on digital publishing as a whole than commerce content specifically, but I think many of my readers will still find it relevant. DDM, an operating business of Barry Diller’s IAC, is a great example of a company that has adapted and thrived amid changing media landscapes, and I’m eager to see how it continues to do so in the age of zero-click search. What essentially began as About.com is now a media conglomerate that owns iconic print titles like People, Food + Wine, and Travel + Leisure, plus digital-first SEO darlings like Investopedia, Byrdie, and Verywell—almost all of which aggressively leaned into commerce content over the last eight or so years. (As a side note, I love how Dylan Byers described DDM in a Puck newsletter yesterday: “a profoundly unglamorous but very profitable operation that still actually publishes magazines.”) As more people use AI search for shopping tasks, DDM’s vast IP is incredibly valuable to AI chatbots that need product research content to fuel their models, and you can bet that a team that rolls up to Barry Diller is out there trying to make lucrative deals.
…while Business Insider definitely has not
In a memo shared with staff two weeks ago, BI CEO Barbara Peng announced that the company would be laying off 21% of its staff and “exiting the majority of its commerce business.” For a few years before and after the pandemic, Business Insider (or Insider, as it was called at the time) dominated the SERPs for commerce content. The difference between Business Insider and Dotdash Meredith is that the latter can be less dependent on search traffic because it has the power of iconic brands behind it. Business Insider/Insider went through one too many identity crises in the last decade for its commerce business to have clear brand values to rally around—is it a click-bait factory, or a serious business and tech publication? What’s it even called? I’m not sure the commerce verticals of all of DDM’s brands will survive in a post-blue link world (looking at you, The Spruce), but the ones with strong brand recognition and loyal audiences—F+W, T+L, People, InStyle—are well-positioned to power through.
Rothy’s is leveraging Substack communities to drive sales
When I first read in
’s culture newsletter that she hosted a pizza-making party sponsored by the shoe company Rothy’s, my first thought was “huh?” Then I saw this article in Modern Retail detailing Rothy’s event strategy and how Sundberg’s pizza party is one of many Substack-driven events the brand is hosting as part of its brick-and-mortar expansion (it’s planning to open 8-10 new stores in 2025). Many brands have embraced Substack as part of their marketing strategies, either by launching their own newsletters or through sponsored posts, but in-person events targeted to members of a specific Substack community are a new, more grassroots approach. It combines influencer marketing with a theme we’ve been seeing in retail lately of cultivating relationships with target shoppers through private events. Such events reach a small but highly engaged group of consumers, and Rothy’s is banking on those consumers to not just buy a pair of shoes, but become loyal customers who make repeat purchases and spread the gospel to their friends. The gamble is if a given Substacker’s community is the right demo for Rothy’s to target.A few quick hits:
Pinterest is testing an AI feature that lets advertisers turn their catalogs into shoppable collages. (TechCrunch). It’s a great idea but it’s funny to me how Pinterest is acting like collages resonating with Gen Z is a groundbreaking development—young women have loved collages since… forever.
Walmart launched a generative AI assistant to summarize and answer questions about reviews, offer recommendations, and help shoppers plan purchases (Retail Dive). It’s named Sparky and is only available in the Walmart app, for now.
News sites are getting crushed by Google’s new AI tools (The Wall Street Journal). Publishers need Google because it basically controls the internet, and Google needs publishers to produce the content it summarizes. It’s a messy situation, but Google continues to have all the leverage.
@substackteam you reading this?