Marketplace owners write the rules. Amazon\u2019s sellers are finding that out firsthand, as new policies ban advertisers from charging ad costs to credit cards as a primary payment mechanism.
The post Amazon Tightens Grip on Seller Cash With Card Payment Overhaul appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Marketplace owners write the rules. Amazon\u2019s sellers are finding that out firsthand, as new policies ban advertisers from charging ad costs to credit cards as a primary payment mechanism.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nInstead, Amazon will automatically pull those costs from sellers\u2019 sales proceeds. Credit or debit cards will be used only as a backup if seller proceeds fall short. The new card rules, which were originally set to go into effect April 15, have since been pushed back to Aug. 1 after sellers complained. However, the underlying shift to deducting ad costs from proceeds is seen as inevitable, and its implementation could threaten the working capital structure many depend on.\nThe new rules effectively reroute payment flows from a credit-based system to an account-to-account (A2A) mechanism. For large enterprises with diversified balance sheets, the shift may register as a marginal operational tweak. But for the small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that form the backbone of Amazon\u2019s marketplace, the implications are more profound.\nAt its core, the change removes two financial tools that sellers have come to rely on: float and rewards. Credit cards, often viewed as mundane transactional instruments, serve a more strategic purpose for these firms. They provide a grace period between incurring expenses and settling them, smoothing cash flow and enabling reinvestment into inventory, marketing and operations. Rewards, whether cash back or points, also function as a modest but meaningful rebate on costs.\nBy bypassing cards entirely, Amazon is effectively reclaiming that value for itself while shifting the burden of liquidity management back onto sellers.\nRead more:\u00a0Mid-Tier Retailers Caught Between Amazon and Walmart\nUnpacking Amazon\u2019s New Card Rules\nAmazon\u2019s decision underscores a larger shift in how marketplaces are positioning themselves. Increasingly, they are not just platforms for transactions but orchestrators of financial flows. By controlling how money moves within their ecosystems, they gain leverage over participants\u2019 liquidity, risk exposure and ultimately, their viability.\nAmazon\u2019s new card rules serve as a reminder that the financial underpinnings of marketplace participation are as important as the mechanics of selling. They highlight the need for businesses to diversify their financial tools and remain vigilant about changes that could impact liquidity.\nFor sellers, the challenge lies in the asymmetry of power. Participation in a dominant marketplace often requires adherence to its evolving rules, even when those rules introduce new constraints. The result is a form of financial dependency in which the platform\u2019s decisions can reshape the contours of a business overnight.\nCrucially, the ad billing change didn\u2019t happen in isolation, and came on the heels of Amazon\u2019s new DD+7 (delivery date plus seven days) payouts that took effect in March, and a new 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge that is reportedly being implemented due to the impact of the ongoing Middle East conflict on energy prices.\nThe episode also reveals a broader truth about the evolving role of credit cards in business operations. Far from being mere payment tools, cards have become a form of strategic infrastructure. They enable businesses to manage cash flow, access short-term financing, and optimize expenses in ways that are deeply integrated into their operational models.\nAmong the key takeaways from \u201cSMB Growth Monitor: Small Businesses, Big Credit Needs,\u201d a PYMNTS Intelligence collaboration with\u00a0i2c, was the fact that 53% of business credit card use is preplanned, suggesting that \u00a0SMB card spending is often deliberate and tied to business operations rather than impulse purchases.\nSee also: Amazon and Walmart Push AI Deeper Into the Shopping Aisle\u00a0\nMarketplaces Become Financial Gatekeepers\nAt a more technical level, Amazon\u2019s shift can be viewed through the lens of interchange fees. When a transaction is processed via a credit card, the merchant, or in this case, Amazon as the billing entity, pays a fee to the card issuer and network. These fees, typically a few percentage points of the transaction value, represent a significant cost at scale.\nBy moving to an A2A model, Amazon sidesteps these fees entirely. Payments are effectively internal transfers within its ecosystem, executed without the involvement of card networks. The savings are substantial, particularly given the volume of advertising spend flowing through the platform.\nFrom Amazon\u2019s perspective, the logic is straightforward: reduce transaction costs, improve margins and streamline payment flows. From the seller\u2019s perspective, however, the calculus is less favorable. The cost savings achieved by Amazon come at the expense of the financial flexibility that cards provide.\nLooking ahead, Amazon\u2019s move may foreshadow a broader transition toward A2A payments as a foundation for \u201cagentic commerce,\u201d an emerging future in which automated systems handle transactions on behalf of businesses and consumers. In such a world, efficiency and cost minimization become paramount, and traditional intermediaries like card networks may play a reduced role.\nFor small and medium-sized sellers, the stakes are high. Access to working capital is a critical determinant of growth and survival. When that access is constrained, even temporarily, the effects can cascade through inventory management, marketing and customer fulfillment.\nThe Growth Corporates Working Capital Index by PYMNTS Intelligence and Visa shows that\u00a085% of middle market firms\u00a0are using working capital solutions.\nWhether this model becomes the norm remains to be seen. What is clear is that payment mechanisms are no longer a peripheral concern; they are central to the dynamics of modern commerce.\u00a0 For now, the lesson is both simple and complex: in the world of digital marketplaces, the rules of payment are the rules of power.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Amazon Tightens Grip on Seller Cash With Card Payment Overhaul appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-30T14:48:56-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-30T20:37:54-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Amazon-independent-sellers.jpg", "tags": [ "Amazon", "Amazon sellers", "cash flow", "credit cards", "ecommerce", "Featured News", "News", "PYMNTS News" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3694579", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/amazon/2026/amazon-sellers-gain-sales-and-cut-costs-with-ai-tools/", "title": "Amazon Sellers Gain Sales and Cut Costs With AI Tools", "content_html": "Independent sellers in Amazon\u2019s store saved time and money by adopting artificial intelligence (AI) tools in 2025, the company said in a report released Thursday (April 30).
The post Amazon Sellers Gain Sales and Cut Costs With AI Tools appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Independent sellers in Amazon\u2019s store saved time and money by adopting artificial intelligence (AI) tools in 2025, the company said in a report released Thursday (April 30).\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nAmazon outlined this and other trends among sellers in a press release outlining findings from its latest annual Small Business Empowerment Report.\n\u201cAmazon has long invested in helping sellers grow and thrive,\u201d Mary Beth Westmoreland, vice president, worldwide selling partner experience at Amazon, said in the release. \u201cNow, generative AI is reshaping what\u2019s possible for small businesses, putting powerful tools in their hands that were once reserved for larger retailers.\u201d\nAmazon\u2019s Seller Assistant, an agentic AI expert for sellers that can do things like provide sales projections or offer advice on product improvements, had more than 230,000 monthly users in 2025. When the AI assistant recommended actions, sellers followed its advice 90% of the time.\nThe company\u2019s generative AI listing tools, which create high-quality listings in a fraction of the time it would take sellers to do it manually, were used by independent sellers to create more than 12 million listings in 2025.\nOther AI-powered tools highlighted in the release include a Product Opportunity Explorer that surfaces unmet demand, emerging trends and pricing insights based on its analysis of billions of customer interactions; an onboarding assistant that helps new sellers by answering questions, explaining requirements and guiding them through the process; and Packaging Recommendations that save sellers money by optimizing how products are packed and shipped.\nIndependent sellers account for more than 60% of the sales in Amazon\u2019s store, according to the release.\nDuring 2025, the number of sellers with over $1 million in sales on the platform grew by 36% to surpass 75,000, the average annual sales of all independent sellers in the U.S. increased by 30% to top $375,000, and more than 11,000 U.S.-based sellers gained a tenfold increase in sales.\nThese sellers supported more than 2 million jobs across the country, per the release.\nAmazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a 2025 Letter to Shareholders posted April 9 that AI will play a role in all the company\u2019s businesses, including retail, cloud computing, advertising and autonomous ride-hailing.\n\u201cIt will reshape every customer experience we offer and unlock entirely new ones,\u201d Jassy wrote.\nOn Wednesday (April 29), during Amazon\u2019s earnings call, Jassy highlighted the company\u2019s new Seller Central experience and said it is the kind of tool that turns AI into a seller-service product.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Amazon Sellers Gain Sales and Cut Costs With AI Tools appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-30T10:50:52-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-30T20:58:57-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Amazon-sellers.jpg", "tags": [ "AI", "Amazon", "Amazon sellers", "B2B", "B2B Payments", "ecommerce", "News", "PYMNTS News", "Retail", "What's Hot", "What's Hot In B2B" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3693716", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/amazon/2026/amazon-says-rufus-gives-it-an-edge-in-agentic-commerce-race/", "title": "Amazon Says Rufus Gives It an Edge in Agentic Commerce Race", "content_html": "Amazon\u2019s first-quarter earnings call sounded less like a retail update than a briefing on the next phase of cloud computing. The overwhelming majority of the discussion centered on AWS, artificial intelligence infrastructure and the chips Amazon says are now becoming a major business of their own.
The post Amazon Says Rufus Gives It an Edge in Agentic Commerce Race appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Amazon\u2019s first-quarter earnings call sounded less like a retail update than a briefing on the next phase of cloud computing. The overwhelming majority of the discussion centered on AWS, artificial intelligence infrastructure and the chips Amazon says are now becoming a major business of their own.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nBut beneath the talk of Trainium, Bedrock and data centers was a more revealing retail story: Amazon, like everyone else, is still trying to figure out what agentic AI will actually mean for shopping, advertising and the future of eCommerce.\nCEO Andy Jassy made clear that Amazon sees AI agents as the next major interface between consumers and commerce. He called the opportunity in agentic commerce \u201cvery good for customers,\u201d and said he expects it to be good for Amazon as well. The clearest expression of that strategy is Rufus, Amazon\u2019s AI shopping assistant, which Jassy said has improved substantially over the past year. Monthly active users for Rufus are up more than 115%, while engagement is up nearly 400% year over year.\nThe bigger issue is where shoppers will start when they want an AI agent to help them buy something. Jassy acknowledged that Amazon is talking with third-party horizontal agents, but he was blunt about their current limits. He compared the moment to the early days of search-engine referrals to eCommerce. Search got better over time, he said. Agentic commerce is not there yet.\nThird-party agents, Jassy said, still have trouble getting \u201cthe pricing right or the product information right.\u201d They also lack the personalization data and shopping history that Amazon has built over decades. That gap may be the core of Amazon\u2019s strategy. The company does not need to win agentic commerce from scratch. It needs to turn its existing customer relationship into a better shopping agent than a general-purpose tool can offer.\nData Makes Rufus Run\nThat is Amazon\u2019s opening. Jassy argued that shoppers may prefer to begin with an agent tied to a retailer they already use because that retailer has better data. Amazon knows what customers bought, what they viewed, what similar customers purchased, where they ship items and how their accounts are configured. That gives Rufus a practical advantage that a general-purpose agent may not have.\nJassy put the ambition plainly: Amazon wants Rufus to become \u201cthe best shopping assistant anywhere.\u201d The comment captured Amazon\u2019s broader view of agentic commerce. The company is not treating it as a separate channel. It is treating it as a new layer on top of the shopping experience it already controls.\nThe earnings materials showed how far Amazon is already pushing AI into the store. The company said Rufus can research products, track prices and automatically buy items in Amazon\u2019s store when they reach a set price. Amazon also introduced sponsored products and brand prompts inside Rufus. Nearly 20% of shoppers who interact with a brand prompt in Rufus continue the conversation about that brand, according to the company.\nThat opens a different kind of advertising opportunity. In traditional search, a shopper types a query, scans a results page and clicks. In agentic shopping, the process may unfold through a conversation. Jassy said these experiences tend to be \u201cmulti-turn conversations,\u201d with the customer narrowing the need as the agent asks and answers follow-up prompts. That creates more chances to surface relevant products, including sponsored recommendations.\nThe seller side is part of the same strategy. Amazon introduced a Seller Central experience that dynamically generates personalized visualizations of data, insights and scenarios based on a seller\u2019s goals. Jassy said the early response and feedback have been strong. For Amazon, that kind of tool turns AI into a seller-service product. For sellers, it could make Amazon\u2019s marketplace feel less like a dashboard and more like an operating system.\nAWS Drives the Strategy\nThe broader AI strategy, however, still runs through AWS. Jassy said Amazon has \u201cnever seen a technology grow as rapidly as AI,\u201d and he framed agents as one of the biggest reasons customers are choosing AWS. Bedrock, Amazon\u2019s platform for building with AI models, saw customer spending grow 170% quarter over quarter and processed more tokens in the first quarter than in all prior years combined, according to the company.\nJassy also described a shift from simple AI responses to systems that remember context and take action. In the call, he said the future of agents is stateful, meaning they can store identity, remember prior interactions and use tools to complete tasks. That is central to Amazon\u2019s pitch for Bedrock Managed Agents, which the company announced in preview. It is also central to why Amazon sees AI as a long-term driver of both cloud spending and commerce activity.\nThat is the connective tissue in Amazon\u2019s earnings call. AWS is selling the infrastructure. Rufus is becoming the shopping interface. Seller Central is becoming more automated. Amazon Ads is preparing for conversational discovery. None of it suggests agentic commerce is fully formed. But it does show that Amazon is trying to own the parts of the stack that could matter most: data, compute, shopping intent, seller tools and advertising.\nThree other parts of the call showed how Amazon is using its core operations to support that shift:\n\nDelivery speed:\u00a0Jassy said Amazon has delivered more than 1 billion items same day or overnight so far this year. The company also announced 1-hour and 3-hour delivery options on more than 90,000 items in the U.S., with 1-hour delivery available in hundreds of cities and towns and 3-hour delivery in more than 2,000.\nAlexa:\u00a0Alexa+ expanded to Mexico, the U.K., Italy and Spain. Jassy said customers using Alexa+ are talking to Alexa twice as much, completing purchases on devices three times more, streaming music 25% more and using smart-home functions 50% more than with Alexa.\nGrocery:\u00a0Amazon said it generated more than $150 billion in gross grocery sales in 2025, making it the second-largest grocer in the U.S. Jassy said perishable sales have grown more than 40 times year over year where same-day perishables are available, and those shoppers add nearly three times as many items to their orders and spend more than 80% more than customers who do not buy same-day perishables.\n\nThe financial results gave Amazon plenty of room to keep investing. Net sales rose 17% to $181.5 billion in the first quarter, while operating income increased to $23.9 billion from $18.4 billion a year earlier. AWS sales grew 28% to $37.6 billion, and AWS operating income reached $14.2 billion. Net income rose to $30.3 billion, or $2.78 per diluted share, including $16.8 billion in pre-tax gains tied to Anthropic investments. Free cash flow fell sharply to $1.2 billion for the trailing 12 months, driven largely by higher property and equipment spending tied to AI.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Amazon Says Rufus Gives It an Edge in Agentic Commerce Race appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-29T20:51:02-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-29T20:53:21-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Amazon-earnings-AI-AWS-1.jpg", "tags": [ "Agentic AI", "agentic commerce", "AI", "Alexa", "Earnings", "ecommerce", "News", "PYMNTS News", "Rufus", "Amazon" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3689666", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/amazon/2026/amazon-transforms-audio-summaries-into-interactive-ai-dialogues/", "title": "Amazon Transforms Audio Summaries Into Interactive AI Dialogues", "content_html": "Amazon\u2019s U.S. customers can now chat via voice or text with the artificial intelligence hosts of the company\u2019s \u201cHear the Highlights\u201d feature.
The post Amazon Transforms Audio Summaries Into Interactive AI Dialogues appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Amazon\u2019s U.S. customers can now chat via voice or text with the artificial intelligence hosts of the company\u2019s \u201cHear the Highlights\u201d feature.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nThis feature already provided AI-generated audio summaries of key product features. Now, with the addition of a \u201cJoin the Chat\u201d feature, it can also answer questions during those summaries, Amazon said in a Tuesday (April 28) blog post.\nWhen customers ask questions during the summary, the AI host will pause, answer the question in real time, and then pick up where it left off with the summary.\nJoin the Chat is now available to U.S. customers in the Amazon Shopping app, on both iOS and Android devices. Hear the Highlights, of which Join the Chat is a part, is available for millions of products, though not all products.\nTo use these tools, app users go to a product detail page; tap play on the Hear the Highlights button, if there is one, to hear the audio summary; tap the raised-hand icon to initiate Join the Chat; and either type or use the microphone icon to ask a question.\nRajiv Mehta, vice president, conversational shopping at Amazon, said in the post that customers can use Join the Chat at any point during a Hear the Highlights audio summary to ask questions such as \u201cDo people find this sweater itchy?\u201d or \u201cIs this product dishwasher safe?\u201d\n\u201cThe AI hosts incorporate the question into the conversation, deliver a tailored response grounded in product details, customer reviews and other publicly available information, and then seamlessly continue the episode,\u201d Mehta said. \u201cCustomers aren\u2019t interrupting the experience \u2014 they\u2019re part of it.\u201d\nAmazon began testing the Hear the Highlights feature in May 2025, saying these AI-powered voice summaries make \u201cproduct research fun and convenient \u2014 it\u2019s like having helpful friends discuss potential purchases to make your shopping easier.\u201d\nThe company extended Hear the Highlights to all customers in May 2025, with some observers saying this feature could replace user-created reviews as the main source of product information.\nThe PYMNTS Intelligence report \u201cGetting to Know You: How AI Is Shaping the Future of Shopping\u201d found that voice commerce is one of the ways in which retailers are responding to consumers\u2019 demand for personalized, AI-driven experiences that offer convenience, customization and efficiency.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Amazon Transforms Audio Summaries Into Interactive AI Dialogues appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-28T17:42:59-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-28T17:42:59-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Amazon-voice-AI-1.jpg", "tags": [ "AI", "AI shopping", "Hear the Highlights", "Join the Chat", "News", "PYMNTS News", "Voice AI", "Amazon" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3688873", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/amazon/2026/amazon-expands-connect-service-to-cover-supply-chains-and-hr/", "title": "Amazon Expands Connect Service to Cover Supply Chains and HR", "content_html": "Amazon\u00a0has expanded its Amazon Connect service into four specialized agentic AI solutions.
The post Amazon Expands Connect Service to Cover Supply Chains and HR appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Amazon\u00a0has expanded its Amazon Connect service into four specialized agentic AI solutions.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nThe new artificial intelligence (AI) tools,\u00a0announced\u00a0by the company\u2019s Amazon Web Services arm Tuesday (April 28), are aimed at logistics workers, human resources, customer service departments, along with a previously announced healthcare offering.\n\u201cThese new Connect solutions draw on our expertise incorporating agents throughout Amazon\u2019s operations,\u201d the company said, noting the breadth of its experience in supply chain, hiring, custom interactions and its health and pharmacy business.\n\u201cWe\u2019ve built AI systems not just to think about these challenges but to solve them in the real world, at scale, every single day.\u201d\nA central component of this expansion is Amazon Connect Decisions, a tool designed to manage supply chain logistics and forecasting.\nThe company notes that\u00a0supply chain disruptions\u00a0can take weeks to resolve due to fragmented data systems and manual spreadsheet coordination, while its solution uses more than 25 specialized supply chain tools and foundation models from Amazon\u2019s Supply Chain Optimization Technologies (SCOT) to automate these processes\nAmazon Connect Talent is modeled after the company’s internal hiring processes, the release added, citing the company\u2019s annual recruitment of\u00a0hundreds of thousands of workers\u00a0for the holiday shopping season.\nAmazon Connect Customer \u2014 previously known simply as Amazon Connect \u2014 has been updated to include \u201cnew configuration capabilities that enable organizations to set up conversational AI in weeks, not months, and configure experiences without technical expertise.\u201d\nAmazon Connect Health was introduced in March to\u00a0automate administrative tasks\u00a0for healthcare providers. As covered here, this tool handles patient verification, scheduling, medical histories, documentation and coding.\nThe new offerings come as\u00a0AI agents\u00a0play an increasingly prominent role in the workplace, as PYMNTS wrote earlier this week.\nAgentic AI \u201cis starting to move from conference-room promise to\u00a0operating-room reality\u00a0in financial services, where banks, insurers and asset managers are testing software agents on the manual work that slows down decisions,\u201d the report said.\nThe report cited recent findings from the likes of Snowflake, KPMG and The Economist based around the same theme: the first major gains are likely to be the result of assigning agents tightly controlled tasks like gathering data, checking documents, routing approvals and preparing recommendations.\n\u201cThe larger shift is not simply faster\u00a0automation,\u201d PYMNTS wrote. \u201cIt is a new model for financial work, one in which firms use stronger data foundations, clearer governance and human oversight to turn fragmented processes into more continuous workflows.\u201d\n\r\n\r\nThe post Amazon Expands Connect Service to Cover Supply Chains and HR appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-28T15:13:42-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-29T22:55:25-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AWS-AI-cloud-1.jpg", "tags": [ "Agentic AI", "AI", "Amazon", "AWS", "B2B", "B2B Payments", "logistics", "News", "PYMNTS News", "What's Hot", "What's Hot In B2B" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3674485", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/amazon/2026/amazon-targets-the-glp-1-gap-big-pharma-left-open/", "title": "Amazon Targets the GLP-1 Gap Big Pharma Left Open", "content_html": "For most patients, a GLP-1 prescription means managing three separate relationships: a clinician, a pharmacy and an insurer. Refills require follow-up. Stock isn\u2019t guaranteed. Costs aren\u2019t always clear upfront.
The post Amazon Targets the GLP-1 Gap Big Pharma Left Open appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "For most patients, a GLP-1 prescription means managing three separate relationships: a clinician, a pharmacy and an insurer. Refills require follow-up. Stock isn\u2019t guaranteed. Costs aren\u2019t always clear upfront.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nAmazon built one system to handle all of it.\nThrough its One Medical arm, the company launched a GLP-1 Management Program bundling clinical screening, prescriptions, ongoing supervision and pharmacy delivery into a single offering. The program connects GLP-1 treatment to patients\u2019 broader primary care, proactively managing how weight loss intersects with cardiovascular health, metabolic conditions and overall health. Amazon isn\u2019t just filling prescriptions. It\u2019s owning the care journey.\nWhat Amazon Built\nThe program runs end-to-end. Patients get pre-visit screening, structured consultations, regular follow-up visits and evidence-based treatment protocols with built-in safety checks. Individuals who already hold a GLP-1 prescription but aren\u2019t Amazon One Medical primary care patients can access on-demand prescription renewals through telehealth, starting at $29 for message consultations or $49 for video visits, according to Amazon.\nThe pharmacy layer runs parallel. Amazon Pharmacy offers oral GLP-1 medications including Wegovy and Foundayo with insurance coverage starting at $25 per month or cash-pay options starting at $149 per month. Injectable options including Wegovy and Zepbound start at $299 per month with cash-pay pricing.\nFulfillment is the final piece. Same-day delivery is available in nearly 3,000 cities today and will expand to roughly 4,500 by the end of 2026, Amazon said. Customers can compare insurance and cash-pay prices side by side at checkout. The company says its automatic coupon program has saved Amazon Pharmacy customers more than $200 million to date.\nObesity affects more than 40% of U.S. adults and contributes to nearly $173 billion in annual medical costs, Amazon noted in its announcement. GLP-1 therapies address that population but have historically reached patients through fragmented channels, inconsistent pricing and recurring access gaps. Amazon’s model cuts across all three.\nPressure on Drugmaker Channels\nThe launch landed hard on pharmaceutical stocks. Shares of Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk declined on the day of the announcement, as Amazon\u2019s integrated model raised questions about the direct-to-consumer strategies both companies have built, according to Invezz.\nBoth drugmakers have invested in their own patient-facing platforms. Eli Lilly runs LillyDirect. Novo Nordisk operates NovoCare. Those platforms were built to maintain a direct relationship with patients and reduce dependence on intermediaries. Amazon\u2019s model may shift clinical decision-making toward providers inside its own network, reducing the reach of pharmaceutical marketing.\nThe timing adds pressure. Novo Nordisk is already in market with an oral GLP-1 pill for obesity, hitting 50,000 weekly prescriptions within weeks of launch, while Eli Lilly’s oral option is expected to follow later this year, according to CNBC. The oral format lowers the barrier to entry for new patients. It also fits Amazon\u2019s fulfillment model more cleanly than injectables. A pill ships in an envelope. A KwikPen requires cold chain logistics.\nWhat It Signals for Health Commerce\nAmazon has assembled the pieces before. Pharmacy. Primary care through One Medical. Logistics. The GLP-1 program is the first time those pieces run as a single product around a specific chronic condition.\nThe Trump administration announced pricing agreements with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk that will cut GLP-1 prices to as low as $150 per month and expand Medicare coverage through a pilot program starting mid-2026, according to Patient Care Online. Lower prices expand the patient pool. A larger patient pool rewards whoever controls the access point.\nAmazon controls the access point. The program is available now at One Medical locations across the U.S.\n \n\r\n\r\nThe post Amazon Targets the GLP-1 Gap Big Pharma Left Open appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-22T17:25:16-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-22T17:25:16-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "Tom Ostrosky", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/tostrosky/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c03508ef4a9a22917e6818ea1840d4afa0215a84e6815af4b7c77ed97120ed4b?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "Tom Ostrosky", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/tostrosky/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c03508ef4a9a22917e6818ea1840d4afa0215a84e6815af4b7c77ed97120ed4b?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Amazon-GLP-1-1.jpg", "tags": [ "Amazon Pharmacy", "glp-1", "Healthcare", "News", "One Medical", "PYMNTS News", "Amazon" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3671416", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/amazon/2026/amazon-recasts-marketplace-fraud-as-a-broader-trust-problem/", "title": "Amazon Recasts Marketplace Fraud as a Broader Trust Problem", "content_html": "Amazon is making a broader argument about fraud in online commerce. The threat is no longer limited to fake handbags, copycat electronics and trademark abuse. It now stretches across scams, fake reviews, product safety, organized retail crime and seller manipulation.
The post Amazon Recasts Marketplace Fraud as a Broader Trust Problem appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Amazon is making a broader argument about fraud in online commerce. The threat is no longer limited to fake handbags, copycat electronics and trademark abuse. It now stretches across scams, fake reviews, product safety, organized retail crime and seller manipulation.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nIn its first\u00a0\u201cTrustworthy Shopping Experience\u201d report, Amazon said it is using artificial intelligence (AI), tighter seller checks and wider enforcement efforts to stop many of those threats before they reach shoppers or merchants.\nThe report marks a shift from Amazon\u2019s earlier brand protection reports, which focused largely on counterfeits and intellectual property. The new version keeps those themes but widens the frame to include what Amazon describes as four connected priorities: proactive controls, tools that anticipate risk, action against fraudsters and consumer education.\nClaire O\u2019Donnell, Amazon\u2019s vice president of selling partner trust and store integrity, said that broader framing better reflects how the company already thinks about the problem.\n\u201cThe approach we\u2019ve taken to the report this year for the first time is this much broader look at our trust and safety efforts,\u201d O\u2019Donnell told PYMNTS. \u201cA key cornerstone \u2026 is how do we get more proactive\u201d so Amazon can identify issues with sellers or products ahead of time and keep them from reaching customers.\nThat push starts before many sellers even begin operating on the platform. Amazon said all new sellers must complete a verification process designed to make it easier for legitimate businesses to join while making it harder for fraudsters to get in. The company said it checks identity, business links and payment flows, then continues monitoring sellers over time.\nO\u2019Donnell said the goal is to add protection without burdening honest merchants.\n\u201cOur goal is those verifications are seamless for legitimate selling partners, but they\u2019re very difficult for bad actors to game,\u201d she said. \u201cAre you a real person? Are you connected to a real business? Does the money flow to that real business?\u201d\nAI Comes to the Rescue\nAI is playing a larger role in that effort. Amazon said its systems scan billions of attempted product page changes each day, while multimodal tools analyze text, images, seller behavior and supply chain patterns for signs of abuse. The company also said its Omniscan machine learning system has generated image sets for more than 12 million products to help verify required safety information before listings go live in several markets.\nThe company is also emphasizing prediction, not just detection. Amazon said an early warning system that pulls in signals from social media and other retailers helped it block infringing listings tied to a viral branded product eight days before the brand owner had even shared its intellectual property with Amazon. The report also pointed to SENTRIX, an AI system that Amazon said has improved its ability to identify and remove phishing sites, helping lift successful takedowns of phishing URLs by more than 10%.\nFor O\u2019Donnell, the message is that these threats increasingly overlap.\n\u201cI think that\u2019s exactly right,\u201d she said when asked whether trust and safety now looks more like one connected problem than a series of separate ones. \u201cWe\u2019re just sharing more of that interconnected trust and safety strategy externally.\u201d\nAmazon used the report to underscore the scale of its enforcement work. It said its Counterfeit Crimes Unit has pursued more than 32,000 fraudsters through lawsuits and criminal referrals since 2020 across 14 countries. In 2025 alone, the company said it identified and disposed of more than 15 million counterfeit products worldwide. It also said legal action helped shut down more than 100 websites tied to fake reviews and scams targeting the Amazon store, while its systems blocked hundreds of millions of suspected fake reviews before they appeared online.\nConnecting With Customers\nAmazon is also trying to show that trust extends beyond the transaction itself. The company said it directly contacted millions of customers in 2025 with product safety information and worked with 34 consumer organizations on 71 safety topics across seven countries. Its recalls and safety alerts page is designed to notify affected customers when governments announce recalls and direct them to refund, return or repair options.\nStill, O\u2019Donnell said the hardest challenge may be one that no platform can solve alone.\n\u201cIt\u2019s really organized retail crime,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a coordinated criminal enterprise.\u201d\nShe said retailers, brands and law enforcement will need to work together to stop networks that target supply chains, logistics systems and digital storefronts at scale.\nThat may be the central point of Amazon\u2019s new report. Marketplace fraud is no longer just a counterfeit problem or a seller problem. It is a broader trust problem, and one that large platforms increasingly believe must be tackled before customers ever see the threat.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Amazon Recasts Marketplace Fraud as a Broader Trust Problem appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-22T00:01:25-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-21T19:08:42-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Amazon-consumer-trust.jpeg", "tags": [ "Amazon", "digital transformation", "ecommerce", "Featured News", "Fraud Prevention", "News", "PYMNTS News", "Retail" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3668001", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/amazon/2026/amazon-dismisses-new-evidence-in-california-antitrust-suit/", "title": "Amazon Dismisses New Evidence in California Antitrust Suit", "content_html": "An Amazon spokesperson said Monday (April 20) that the company looks forward to responding in court to a motion filed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta as part of an antitrust lawsuit launched in 2022.
The post Amazon Dismisses New Evidence in California Antitrust Suit appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "An Amazon spokesperson said Monday (April 20) that the company looks forward to responding in court to a motion filed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta as part of an antitrust lawsuit launched in 2022.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\n\u201cThe Attorney General\u2019s motion is a transparent attempt to distract from the weakness of its case, coming more than three years after filing its complaint and based on supposedly \u2018new\u2019 evidence it has had for years,\u201d an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement emailed to PYMNTS.\nBonta said Monday a press release issued by the California Department of Justice that evidence released publicly and largely unredacted Monday details how Amazon pressures vendors and competitors to increase prices so that they are not lower than its own.\nBonta said the evidence is in a filing that he filed in a request for a preliminary injunction, which asks a court to halt what he called Amazon\u2019s illegal conduct while the lawsuit is underway. On Monday, he secured public access to the filing, according to the release.\n\u201cThe company is price fixing, colluding with vendors and other retailers to raise costs for Americans beyond what the market requires \u2014 beyond what is fair,\u201d Bonta said in the release. \u201cAmid a crisis of affordability, Amazon is illegally working to rake in profits by making sure consumers have nowhere else to turn to for lower prices.\u201d\nAccording to the California Department of Justice press release, Amazon caused price increases for consumers via three illegal schemes, including colluding with competitors through their common vendor to match each other\u2019s increased price, asking a competitor through a vendor to raise their retail price so that Amazon can do the same, and having a vendor remove a product from a competing retailer that is offering a lower price.\nThe department said in the release that these practices span years and product lines.\nIn the Monday statement, the Amazon spokesperson said: \u201cAmazon is consistently identified as America\u2019s lowest-priced online retailer, and we\u2019re proud of the low prices customers find when shopping in our store. Amazon looks forward to responding in court at the appropriate time.\u201d\nThe Guardian reported Thursday (April 16) that Bonta said that documents that had not yet been made publicly available showed that Amazon pressures sellers using its platform to raise their prices on competitors\u2019 websites if those prices are even a penny lower than Amazon\u2019s.\nBonta filed the antitrust lawsuit in September 2022. On Thursday, it was reported that a California court ruled that key factual disputes must be resolved before the case can proceed, which denied Amazon an early victory in the antitrust case.\nAccording to the Monday press release, a hearing on California\u2019s preliminary injunction motion is scheduled for July and the case is set to go to trial in January 2027.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Amazon Dismisses New Evidence in California Antitrust Suit appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-20T17:25:39-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-20T17:25:39-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Amazon-antitrust-1.jpg", "tags": [ "Antitrust", "News", "PYMNTS News", "third party vendors", "What's Hot", "Amazon" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3664115", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/amazon/2026/aws-launches-amazon-bio-discovery-to-speed-ai-drug-development/", "title": "AWS Launches Amazon Bio Discovery to Speed AI Drug Development", "content_html": "Amazon Web Services has unveiled an artificial intelligence-powered application for better, faster drug development.
The post AWS Launches Amazon Bio Discovery to Speed AI Drug Development appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Amazon Web Services has unveiled an artificial intelligence-powered application for better, faster drug development.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nAmazon Bio Discovery, announced last week, is designed to offer scientists direct access to a wide range of specialized AI models known on biological foundation models (bioFMs) that are trained using large biological datasets.\u00a0\n\u201cThese models generate and evaluate potential drug molecules, known as candidates, helping scientists accelerate antibody therapies during the early stages of drug discovery,\u201d the announcement said. \u201cBut access alone is not enough.\u201d\nAmazon Bio Discovery allows scientists to converse naturally in their preferred terminology with an AI agent to choose the appropriate models for their research goals, optimize inputs and gauge candidates for experimentation, the announcement said.\nIn addition, scientists also train models on their prior experimental data for more accurate predictions, and send candidates to physical labs for synthesis and testing, \u201cwith results routing back to the application for rapid iteration, creating a lab-in-the-loop experimentation cycle,\u201d the announcement added.\n\u201cAI agents make powerful scientific capabilities accessible to all drug researchers, not just those with computational expertise,\u201d Rajiv Chopra, vice president of AWS healthcare AI and life sciences, said in the announcement.\n\u201cThese AI systems can help scientists design drug molecules, coordinate testing, learn from results, and get smarter with each experiment. This combination of cutting-edge AI and the robust, secure infrastructure AWS has built for regulated industries allows scientists to accelerate antibody discovery in ways that weren\u2019t possible before.\u201d\nThe announcement comes as pharmaceutical companies are reshaping their operating models around AI to offset the cost of drug development, as PYMNTS wrote earlier this year.\n\u201cBy embedding machine learning into trial execution and compliance infrastructure, drugmakers are targeting the most costly and failure-prone bottlenecks in how therapies are tested, reviewed and ultimately brought to market,\u201d that report said.\nBig Tech and hardware players are entering these workflows, blurring the boundaries between IT and life sciences. For instance, Nvidia and Eli Lilly announced a co-innovation lab to drive drug discovery.\nMeanwhile, Google\u2019s research division is using Gemma AI models for cancer therapy discovery, showing how large-language and generative models can analyze biological pathways and suggest novel therapeutic hypotheses.\n\u201cTaken together, these developments point to a broader reality: AI is no longer a niche computational aid in early R&D,\u201d that report said. \u201cIt is becoming an end-to-end operational ecosystem that supports patient selection, safety monitoring, documentation generation, trial logistics and regulatory engagement.\u201d\nFor all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI\u00a0Newsletter.\n\r\n\r\nThe post AWS Launches Amazon Bio Discovery to Speed AI Drug Development appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-19T16:53:21-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-19T16:54:49-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Amazon-Bio-Discovery-1.jpg", "tags": [ "AI", "Amazon Bio Discovery", "AWS", "Healthcare", "News", "pharmaceuticals", "PYMNTS News", "What's Hot", "Amazon" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3660465", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/amazon/2026/california-claims-amazon-punishes-sellers-for-lower-prices-on-other-sites/", "title": "California Claims Amazon Punishes Sellers for Lower Prices on Other Sites", "content_html": "Amazon pressures sellers using its platform to raise their prices on competitors\u2019 websites if those prices are even a penny lower than Amazon\u2019s, The Guardian reported Thursday (April 16), citing California authorities\u2019 comments on newly unsealed records that were filed as part of an antitrust battle between the retailer and the state.
The post California Claims Amazon Punishes Sellers for Lower Prices on Other Sites appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Amazon pressures sellers using its platform to raise their prices on competitors\u2019 websites if those prices are even a penny lower than Amazon\u2019s, The Guardian reported Thursday (April 16), citing California authorities\u2019 comments on newly unsealed records that were filed as part of an antitrust battle between the retailer and the state.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nThe documents have not yet been made publicly available, according to the report. They were obtained as part of a civil case filed by California in 2022, alleging that Amazon engages in price fixing, per the report.\nAccording to the report, documents show that one seller testified that Amazon stopped making one of his products a featured item in the retailer\u2019s Buy Box because that product was a cent cheaper on Walmart; another seller said that a product that had been \u201csuppressed\u201d by Amazon was reinstated to the Buy Box after he raised the price on Wayfair; and an Amazon engineer said the company uses Buy Box suppression to discourage sellers from using Temu.\nCalifornia Attorney General Rob Bonta told The Guardian that these documents reinforce the state\u2019s claims that Amazon \u201cunfairly punishes sellers whose products are sold at lower prices by other online retailers.\u201d\nAmazon said in a statement provided to The Guardian that its practices promote competition and that the company works to provide customers with low prices and a quality customer experience.\n\u201cJust like any store owner who wouldn\u2019t want to promote a bad deal to their customers, we don\u2019t highlight or promote offers that are not competitively priced,\u201d the company said, per the report. \u201cIt\u2019s part of our commitment to featuring low prices to earn and maintain customer trust.\u201d\nWhen Bonta filed the antitrust lawsuit in September 2022, he said that Amazon has policies that prohibit merchants from selling products at lower prices on other online platforms or their personal websites and that there was ample evidence indicating the company\u2019s practices lead to consumers paying more for various products.\nOn Thursday, it was reported that a California court ruled that key factual disputes must be resolved before the case can proceed, which denied Amazon an early victory in the antitrust case. The court found that there were too many unresolved factual disagreements about whether the company\u2019s policy promotes competition or suppresses it, per the report.\nA preliminary injunction is set to be heard in July, and trial is set for January 2027, according to a Thursday press release from the State of California Department of Justice.\n\r\n\r\nThe post California Claims Amazon Punishes Sellers for Lower Prices on Other Sites appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-16T21:43:57-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-16T21:43:57-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Amazon-sellers-111.jpg", "tags": [ "Antitrust", "News", "PYMNTS News", "third party vendors", "What's Hot", "Amazon" ] } ] }