Ileane Smith led a candid, roundtable session unpacking Amazon’s new storefront access update right as a mysterious outage hit top influencers’ video placements just before the holiday rush. What happened – and why?
Stephen Breznau shared the gut-wrenching reality: overnight, placements were wiped out, revenue flatlined for days, and support was silent. Doug from DougAndNiki echoed the frustration: “After 6 years of getting it right, suddenly, thousands of videos just vanished, with no answers.” Teri and others chimed in – some lost as much as 90% of their sales at the year’s peak. The emotional and financial cost? Real and raw.
Then, Ehud Segev offered a compelling theory: Could Amazon’s algorithm be running a massive, periodic A/B test – shuffling placements to find new winners, just as they did years ago with product rankings? The data patterns certainly look that way. It’s not personal, but it feels like it.
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The silver lining? Collaboration. Influencers are building spreadsheets, hiring agencies like Riverbend for answers, sharing data – and leaning on the community. Logie was highlighted as a place to see your real performance metrics and connect with others analyzing these shifts. As Ehud noted, “It’s community that gets us through. We are the ones who stay.”
The session closed on an empowering note: Take back some control with Amazon’s new storefront user access – get help with uploads, tagging, idea lists, even international content. (Ileane shared her workflow checklist, too!)
