Empire Flippers

This Week in M&A Issue #238

Lauren Buchanan — Mon, 25 May 2026 07:49:23 +0000

Aloha!

Today’s trend of the week is “Hacky Sack”.

Hacky Sack is having an unexpected comeback.

The simple footbag game that dominated the ‘80s and ‘90s is suddenly everywhere again, with Gen Z driving the trend across high schools, campuses, TikTok, and Instagram.

Some retailers have already sold out of stock as demand surges. Google search interest spiked in April, reaching 1.5 million searches, up 324% year over year.

For ecommerce brands, this creates several opportunities. Low-cost products tied to nostalgia and offline social interaction are clearly resonating with younger audiences. Sellers in toys, sports accessories, novelty products, and even apparel can tap into the trend while demand is still climbing.

Today we have for you:

A look at Google’s biggest search upgrade in 25 years
Amazon seller numbers fall while traffic per seller rises

And:

Amazon affiliate ROAS beat PPC performance during Prime Day 2025
Lessons from a $40 million exit
WordPress 7.0 is here

Alright, let’s dive in.

Google Search

Image Source: Giphy

Google’s New Search Experience Shifts From Rankings to AI-Generated Answers

Google held its I/O developer conference on May 19 and announced several exciting new updates.

New Search Experience
In its biggest search upgrade in more than 25 years, Google is rebuilding Search around AI-generated answers and persistent AI agents.

The new experience accepts text, images, documents, video, and even open browser tabs as inputs, then generates synthesized answers instead of traditional ranked results. The traditional Search bar is now more dynamic, including an expanding input field for longer queries and “AI-powered suggestions” meant to go beyond autocomplete.

In results, Google is pushing deeper into AI-generated answers. Users can continue in AI Mode from AI Overviews, generating a custom page with an AI-written summary rather than a list of links.

Google said AI Mode now has more than 1 billion monthly users, while Search and advertising revenue still grew 19% year over year to $60.4 billion in Q1. This shows the shift to AI answers has not yet undermined Search’s ad business.

Search Agents
Google also introduced “Search agents,” AI assistants that continuously monitor topics and send updates automatically. These agents can track blogs, news sites, social posts, shopping updates, finance, and sports data, then deliver summarized alerts when something changes.

This is a great way to get users to return to your site when you release new content or products. The feature is expected to launch in summer 2026 for AI Pro and Ultra subscribers.

Universal Cart
On the ecommerce side, Google announced Universal Cart, designed to combine products from multiple retailers into one checkout flow across Search, Gemini, YouTube, and Gmail using Google Wallet.

The system can surface price comparisons, stock availability, loyalty perks, merchant offers, and price-drop alerts while also flagging issues like incompatible products.

Google says its Shopping Graph now includes 60 billion product listings, creating the foundation for a much more integrated shopping experience across its ecosystem.

Amazon

Amazon Traffic Per Seller Is Rising Fast Across Global Markets

Amazon sellers are now getting a greater share of traffic.

New data from Marketplace Pulse shows that, on average, each active seller now receives about 3,544 monthly visits, up 25% over the past year. That is a significant increase over the previous four years, where total growth was only 31% combined.

The reason is that total traffic on Amazon keeps growing globally, while the number of active sellers is decreasing. Marketplace Pulse estimates that active sellers dropped 16% to under 1.56 million. At the same time, Amazon’s marketplaces together now generate around 5.5 billion monthly visits. With fewer sellers competing for a larger pool of traffic, each seller is getting a larger share.

Interestingly, this is no longer just a US phenomenon.

When this trend was first measured in 2021, the US was the only marketplace where traffic per seller was clearly rising. Now, nearly every Amazon marketplace is seeing the same shift, and in many cases, the strongest growth is outside the US.

Markets like Mexico, France, Poland, and the Netherlands have all seen traffic per seller increase between 40% and 57% in the past year. Brazil alone added 36 million monthly visits while its active seller base dropped 23%, driving a 57% jump in traffic per seller. Even mature European marketplaces are seeing steady double-digit increases.

Several structural factors are driving this. Selling on Amazon has become more expensive, with higher fees and rising ad costs. Competition has also intensified, with Chinese sellers now making up more than half of Amazon’s global seller base. At the same time, AI tools are widening the gap between larger, more efficient operators and smaller sellers.

One important nuance is that Amazon’s top ten marketplaces still account for 92% of both global traffic and sellers. So while the trend is global, the bulk of the opportunity is still concentrated in a small number of regions.

At the end of the day, the average Amazon seller now has more potential demand available, but capturing it requires a higher level of execution than before.

Amazon Affiliates

Amazon Affiliate Marketing Outperformed PPC During Prime Day 2025

Most Amazon brands went into Prime Day 2025 expecting PPC costs to rise. What many didn’t expect was that affiliate marketing was quietly outperforming PPC.

New data from Levanta shows that affiliate marketing continued gaining efficiency during Prime Day 2025, even as Amazon PPC became more expensive and less effective. While Amazon Sponsored Products ROAS dropped 12.5% year over year, affiliate ROAS actually increased by 5.3%.

The report analyzed 390 brands that ran affiliate programs during both Prime Day 2024 and 2025.

Here’s what changed in 2025:

Affiliate ROAS increased 5.3%
Amazon Sponsored Products ROAS fell 12.5%
Sales per brand grew 16.9% during the four-day event
Post-Prime Day sales stayed 57% above baseline

In the eight weeks leading up to Prime Day 2025, sales stayed above normal levels the entire time. In 2024, shoppers pulled back spending before the event, but that dip completely disappeared in 2025.

And the momentum didn’t stop when Prime Day ended. The week after the event remained a major sales opportunity, with sales sitting 57% above baseline levels.

Rather than acting as a short burst of sales, Prime Day has evolved into a multi-week shopping cycle.

The reason affiliate is gaining ground comes down to how the channel works. PPC gets more expensive as competition increases because brands pay for every click. Affiliates only pay when a sale happens. That means creators can keep driving discovery and traffic before, during, and after Prime Day without the same cost pressure.

If you’re making budget decisions before Prime Day 2026, these are important trends to pay attention to. The brands getting ahead are the ones building affiliate programs that stay active across the entire Prime Day season.

Read All About It!

5 ways to start a business with less than $1,000: tools and strategies

Lovable launches vibe coding mobile app: available on Apple & Google stores

How to build custom SEO reports with Claude Code: speed up reporting

A list of funding options and grants for entrepreneurs: plus how to win them

The Opportunity podcast

The Systems Behind a High-Value Business Exit

Most founders think selling a business is the finish line.

For Beth Mazza, it was a stepping stone to even greater heights.

After selling her first consulting firm for a modest valuation, Beth rebuilt her next company with an exit in mind from day one. The result? A $40 million exit and a crash course in what buyers actually value.

In this episode of the Opportunity Podcast, Beth shares the lessons she learned from both exits, from building systems that reduce founder dependency to creating relationships with potential buyers years before selling.

Beth also opens up about the emotional side of entrepreneurship and the identity shift that comes after exiting your business.

If you’re building a service business, thinking about a future exit, or simply trying to create a company that can operate without you, this episode is packed with practical insights and hard-earned lessons from someone who has successfully done it twice.

Websites

WordPress 7.0 Brings New AI Features and Better Design Tools

The much-anticipated WordPress 7.0 is now available. The focus is on making site building and management simpler, especially for non-technical users and small teams.

A major update is deeper integration with AI tools directly inside WordPress. Site owners will be able to use AI to help generate pages, structure layouts, and handle more routine website management tasks.

There are also changes to how pages are built using the block editor. The pattern system has been expanded, which means reusable page sections are easier to use across your site. Instead of rebuilding layouts from scratch, you can assemble pages from pre-designed blocks, which also helps keep design consistent.

Navigation has been improved too. Menus and site structure now adapt more smoothly across desktop, tablet, and mobile, making it easier to control how users move through your site without technical workarounds.

Another useful upgrade is the revision history system. It’s now clearer what changed on a page and easier to roll back to previous versions if something breaks.

However, this is a major WordPress release, and that means you shouldn’t rush to install the update before your site is ready.

The core update comes with underlying technical changes, including a higher minimum PHP requirement (PHP 7.4 or above) and changes to core systems and the editor.

The risk is not WordPress itself, but the ecosystem around it. Plugins and themes may not all be fully compatible yet. That can lead to broken layouts, missing functionality, or issues with key flows like checkout or email automation, especially on complex sites.

Most plugin developers also take time to catch up with major releases, which creates a gap between what WordPress supports and what your tools are ready for.

The practical approach is to avoid updating your live site immediately. Update plugins and themes first, test everything in a staging environment, and confirm compatibility. Keep full backups ready so you can roll back if needed.

Money Nomad

Looking for a side hustle?

Try Money Nomad, our sister marketplace built specifically for profitable side hustles and micro-businesses that are too small for Empire Flippers.

Check out this recent listing available on the Money Nomad Marketplace:

Listing #10102 – Open to Offers

YouTube | entertainment & media

This 8-month-old YouTube channel in the Entertainment & Media niche generates $1,417/month through YouTube monetization. With 5,136 organically-grown subscribers across the US, Canada, and UK, plus 200 long-form videos already published, it offers a solid foundation for continued growth. Learn More

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This Week in M&A Issue #237

Lauren Buchanan — Mon, 18 May 2026 08:10:17 +0000

Hello there!

Today’s trend of the week is “dog houses”.

If you’ve ever been told you’re in the dog house, this time it might actually be a good thing.

According to data shared with Retail Brew, Shopify orders for dog houses spiked 1,910% in April. And the audience is huge. Dog ownership in the USA is at an all-time high, with roughly 65–70 million households owning at least one dog.

Dog houses are also becoming significantly fancier, with many now including heating, air conditioning, and higher-end, sustainable materials.

There’s strong demand for upgraded components like insulated panels, cooling systems, weatherproof materials, and modular DIY kits. Customization is another opportunity, from nameplates and paint kits to interior bedding bundles.

Content also plays a big role. “Dog backyard makeover” videos, DIY builds, and summer comfort setups are highly shareable and can drive product discovery.

Looks like the dog house just became the hottest property in the backyard.

Today we have for you:

OpenAI brings product feed ads to ChatGPT
AI referrals are outperforming search in eCommerce conversion rates

And:

Reddit’s playbook for turning users into customers
Subscription strategies for eCommerce growth
Shopify merchants crossed $100 billion in sales in Q1

Alright, let’s dive in.

Paid Ads

Image Source: Giphy (Giflytics)

ChatGPT’s New Ad System Pulls Directly From Retail Product Catalogs

OpenAI is making it simpler for eCommerce brands to run shopping ads directly inside ChatGPT.

They have introduced automation that allows sellers to generate ads directly from their existing product catalogs. Instead of building campaigns item by item, brands can now plug in their catalog data and have ChatGPT automatically create structured shopping ads at scale.

This removes a major operational bottleneck. Large retailers often manage thousands of SKUs, and traditional ad setup requires significant manual work. With this update, campaign creation becomes closer to a “set it and scale it” system, similar to how Google Shopping works, but embedded inside ChatGPT’s interface.

This lowers the barrier for smaller teams to run structured shopping ads, while giving larger brands a way to activate entire catalogs in one system.

For sellers, the appeal is that ChatGPT already sits inside early-stage product discovery. Users ask what to buy, compare options, and narrow down intent before they ever reach a retailer’s site. This new update makes it easier for brands to insert themselves directly into that moment.

With this in mind, businesses need to ensure their product data is up to date, since product data is becoming the ad creative. So clean feeds, accurate attributes, and structured catalogs are essential as they are directly tied to how products may appear in AI-driven discovery surfaces.

Traffic

AI Traffic Is Becoming a High-Intent Acquisition Channel for Ecommerce

Adobe Analytics recently released its Q2 AI Traffic Report, and it shows AI assistants are driving major growth in ecommerce visits.

In Q1 2026, AI-referred traffic to US retail sites rose 393% year over year. March alone was up 269%. Over the 2025 holiday season, growth peaked at 693% year over year. This shows that AI tools are now part of everyday shopping behavior, not a side use case.

AI-driven visitors are outperforming traditional channels across key metrics. They spend more time on site, view more pages, and generate higher revenue per visit.

Adobe also found that AI traffic converts 42% better than non-AI traffic. That’s a major improvement from just a year ago, when AI referrals were converting at roughly half the rate of traditional channels.

Users coming from tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity aren’t starting from zero. They’re asking questions, comparing products, and narrowing choices inside the AI interface. By the time they click through to a store, much of the decision-making is already done.

This changes how funnels work. It means impressions and early-stage browsing matter less, while the final click is closer to a purchase decision than a research session.

Adobe also highlights a technical issue many retailers are still missing. Some ecommerce sites are not structured in a way that AI systems can easily read. If product data like pricing, availability, or descriptions is hidden in JavaScript or poorly formatted, AI tools may fail to surface or recommend those products.

Adobe’s dataset spans over 1 trillion retail visits and a large consumer survey on AI shopping behavior, making it one of the strongest early signals of where ecommerce demand is heading.

Product discovery

The Five Consumer Trends Driving Purchases on Reddit Right Now

Reddit has become one of the most important places on the internet for product discovery and buying decisions.

With over 110 million daily active users and a 40% increase in high-intent shopping conversations, the platform is now a go-to space for consumers looking for honest reviews, comparisons, and real user feedback. Reddit reported a 257% increase in revenue influenced by its content.

It also ranks #6 globally in organic search traffic with around 5 billion visits, and is among the most cited sources in AI-driven search tools like Google AI Mode and Perplexity.

Now, to help entrepreneurs harness this power, Reddit has released a 13-page guide for small businesses focused on how to show up inside its communities.

The guide highlights five consumer trends shaping behavior on the platform:

Throwbacks: Older products are being rediscovered and compared with newer alternatives, with users often deciding the older version still holds value.
Little luxuries: Small, meaningful upgrades are gaining traction. These aren’t large purchases, but higher-quality versions of everyday products where the value is easy to justify.
Detail-driven detectives: Buying decisions are increasingly research-heavy. Users rely on long threads, peer recommendations, and detailed comparisons instead of brand messaging.
Lifelong learnings: People turn to Reddit to learn what they don’t already know, sharing knowledge, from formal upskilling to hobby communities.
Community organizers: Subreddits function like digital neighborhoods where shared interests and belonging shape how people engage and decide.

So, why should you care about these trends?

Reddit reported 74% ad revenue growth last year, and its content is increasingly visible outside the platform.

In practice, that means a well-placed discussion or mention can influence buyers long after the original post.

Read All About It!

My First Million’s business idea database: 140+ real business ideas

This 14-year-old built a $14K/month app: in just 4 months

Shopify affiliate commission guide: structures and industry benchmarks

Etsy launches its app within ChatGPT: now live in beta

The Opportunity podcast

How to Grow Recurring Revenue in Ecommerce

A repeat customer is often worth 3x more than a one-time customer. But how do you keep consumers coming back time and time again?

In this episode of the Opportunity Podcast, Greg speaks with Matthew Holman, founder of D2C subscription agency Subscription Prescription, about how eCommerce brands can improve retention and increase recurring revenue by adding a subscription component to their business.

In this episode, they discuss:

What makes a business a good fit for subscriptions
The biggest mistakes brands make with retention and recurring revenue
The psychology behind multi-month subscription offers
Why value stacking works better than endless discounting
How customer surveys can uncover hidden growth opportunities

Whether you already offer subscriptions or are thinking about adding them, this episode covers practical strategies ecommerce brands use to improve retention, increase customer value, and grow recurring revenue.

ecommerce

Shopify’s Biggest Quarter Ever Shows Ecommerce Is Still Growing

Shopify merchants just hit a huge milestone.

In Q1 2026, sellers on the platform processed more than $100 billion in sales for the first time. Shopify also grew revenue by 34% year over year, showing that ecommerce spending is still strong despite a tougher market.

Shopify is pushing hard into AI tools for merchants. Usage of Shopify Sidekick, its AI assistant, reportedly grew 4x over the past year as more sellers use it to help run stores, manage operations, and improve customer experience.

Shopify is also preparing for a future where AI agents shop on behalf of consumers. Earlier this year, the company partnered with Google on the Universal Commerce Protocol, a system designed to help AI tools discover products and complete purchases automatically across the web.

Investors reacted cautiously despite the strong quarter because Shopify projected slower growth for Q2. The company expects revenue growth to land in the high-20% range next quarter, lower than Q1’s pace. Shopify stock fell after the announcement as markets focused on the softer guidance.

Still, the results show that ecommerce demand remains strong. Crossing $100 billion in quarterly sales shows that consumers are still spending online, and merchants are continuing to grow even in a tougher economy.

Money Nomad

Looking for a side hustle?

Try Money Nomad, our sister marketplace built specifically for profitable side hustles and micro-businesses that are too small for Empire Flippers.

Check out this recent listing available on the Money Nomad Marketplace:

Listing #10096 – $9,800.00

Amazon FBA, Other, eCommerce | Business & Entrepreneurship, Books & Publishing

Turnkey book donation and resale operation in Cambridge, MA featuring an active website, mapped drop-off system, and metal collection containers. Includes high-value reseller book boxes available at reduced pricing, ideal for Amazon FBA or e-commerce booksellers. Learn More

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This Week in M&A Issue #236

Lauren Buchanan — Mon, 11 May 2026 08:33:16 +0000

Howdy partner

Today’s trend of the week is “motor vehicle parts”.

Car owners are buying more car parts online. The main driver is cost, with many people looking to save money by buying parts and doing repairs themselves instead of going to a mechanic.

Engine parts bring in the highest value per sale, but the real volume is in everyday items. In 2024 alone, Shopify merchants sold over 70 million wheel parts, which shows just how big demand has become.

Accessories are also taking off. Dashboard products grew 140% year on year, and items like dash cams get more than 100,000 searches every month. Searches for magsafe phone mounts and car diffusers are also getting more popular as people look for simple upgrades that make driving easier and more enjoyable.

You can sell these products and pair them with helpful content like tutorials or YouTube guides to help customers solve problems, build trust, and keep them coming back.

Today we have for you:

Amazon just opened its logistics network to everyone
More Amazon sellers are hitting $1M

And:

ChatGPT ads just got a lot more accessible
Rewriting the paid ads playbook
Ask .com is officially closing its search engine

Alright, let’s dive in.

Amazon

Image Source: Giphy (Amazon)

Amazon Is Turning Its Logistics Engine Into a Business

Amazon is opening up one of its biggest strengths to other businesses.

It has launched Amazon Supply Chain Services, which gives companies access to its logistics network, even if they don’t sell on Amazon.

For years, Amazon built this network to serve itself and its sellers. Now it is packaging that capability as a standalone service. Businesses can now use one system for freight, warehousing, inventory, fulfillment, and last mile delivery.

This is not just for ecommerce brands. Amazon is going after industries like manufacturing, healthcare, automotive, and retail. Companies can move everything from raw materials to finished goods using the same infrastructure Amazon relies on.

Behind this launch is decades of investment. Amazon has built a global logistics system with planes, trucks, warehouses, and software that coordinates everything at scale. Now it’s trying to monetize that system, similar to how it turned its internal tech into AWS.

Strategically, this puts Amazon in direct competition with logistics giants like UPS and FedEx. The market reacted quickly, with logistics stocks dropping after the announcement.

There is also some skepticism. Amazon previously launched a similar service in 2023 that struggled to gain traction. Analysts are watching closely to see what has changed and whether this version can win larger enterprise clients.

So far, it’s a success, with major brands including Procter & Gamble, 3M, Lands’ End, and American Eagle already using the service.

For business owners, this creates a new option. Instead of stitching together multiple providers, you can plug into a single system that handles the entire flow of goods.

Amazon

New Amazon Report Shows Big Wins for Small Sellers

Amazon just released its 2025 Small Business Empowerment Report, and the numbers are looking good for third-party sellers.

In 2025, more than 75,000 independent sellers generated over $1 million in annual sales on Amazon, a 36% increase year over year. Average annual revenue for U.S. sellers rose to more than $375,000, up nearly 30%. More than 11,000 sellers grew their businesses by over 10x in a single year.

Independent sellers now account for over 60% of all sales on Amazon, reinforcing the idea that the marketplace is increasingly driven by small and medium-sized businesses rather than first-party retail.

A big reason for this growth is AI. Amazon has rolled out tools that help sellers create listings, improve pricing, and spot demand much faster. In 2025 alone, sellers used these tools to create more than 12 million product listings.

Amazon’s AI-powered Seller Assistant is also gaining traction, with over 230,000 monthly users. Sellers follow its suggestions about 90% of the time, which shows how useful it has become in day-to-day operations.

Fulfillment is the other major advantage. With Fulfillment by Amazon, sellers can offer fast shipping and reach customers globally without building their own logistics network. In 2025, U.S. sellers exported more than 580 million products.

These businesses supported over 2 million jobs in the U.S. alone, while Amazon expanded financing, education, and IP protection programs to lower barriers to entry and scale.

If you’re already selling on Amazon, this is a reminder that the tools are getting better and the ceiling is getting higher. If you’re just getting started, it’s a sign that the barrier to entry is lower than it used to be. The opportunity is there, but competition is rising, so execution still matters.

OpenAI Just Made ChatGPT Ads More Accessible to Smaller Businesses

Advertising in ChatGPT just got a whole lot more accessible.

The biggest change is that the $50,000 minimum spend is gone. In its place, OpenAI has launched a self-serve ads manager (currently in beta), where U.S. advertisers of all sizes can apply for access. If approved, you can run campaigns directly, upload creatives, set budgets, control pacing, and track performance without going through a partner.

They’ve also made the pricing more flexible. Originally, ads were sold on a CPM basis at $60 per 1,000 impressions. Now, you can choose between CPM (focused on reach) or CPC (focused on clicks). For CPC campaigns, OpenAI suggests starting bids between $3 and $5. The system runs on a relevance-based, second-price auction, so better-matched ads can win without always paying the highest bid.

Tracking has improved too. There’s now a Conversions API and pixel support, so you can measure actions like sign-ups, leads, and purchases. Reporting includes impressions, clicks, spend, CTR, CPC, CPM, and conversions, along with export options and UTM tracking.

Ad targeting works differently from traditional search. Instead of keywords, ads are matched to conversations based on context, your ad creative, and your landing page. They appear below responses and are clearly labeled.

OpenAI says ads do not influence ChatGPT’s answers. Ads currently run for Free and Go users in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, excluding Plus, Pro, Business plans, and users under 18.

It’s still early, but this is the first real chance to test ads inside ChatGPT without a huge upfront commitment. If you like getting in before a channel gets crowded, this is worth keeping on your radar.

Read All About It!

How to 7X your newsletter growth with a quiz funnel: lead magnet

Shopify local SEO tactics to rank higher: boost your rankings

The Hustle’s business startup kit: 9 templates for business planning

This app made $120K in 24 hours before it was even finished: launch playbook

The Opportunity podcast

The Real Reason Your Paid Ads Aren’t Working

Most paid ads don’t fail overnight. They slowly drain your budget while convincing you everything is “almost working.”

In the latest episode of The Opportunity podcast, we are joined by Hernan Vazquez, a paid ads expert with over a decade of experience.

Hernan breaks down why so many online business owners are spending more on paid ads and seeing worse results. The strategies that used to work aren’t holding up anymore, but many business owners haven’t adjusted.

We get into what’s actually changed, from rising costs to how platforms now rely more on creative than targeting. As a result, more businesses are shifting to low-ticket offers and building full funnel ecosystems instead of relying on a single campaign.

If your ads feel unpredictable, expensive, or just harder than they should be, this episode will help you understand why, and what to rethink before you pour more money into them.

Search

Ask Jeeves Is Officially Shutting Down After Nearly 30 Years

One of the web’s longest-running search brands has gone dark.

Ask.com, originally launched as Ask Jeeves in the late 1990s, officially closed on May 1, 2026 after nearly three decades online. The company confirmed the shutdown in a message on its homepage, saying parent company IAC decided to discontinue its search business as part of a broader shift in focus.

Ask.com’s homepage now carries a farewell message thanking users, engineers, and employees who supported the platform over the years, adding that “Jeeves’ spirit endures.”

Ask Jeeves launched before Google became dominant, but it struggled to compete once Google turned search into a faster, cleaner, algorithm-driven experience. IAC acquired the company in 2005 and rebranded it as Ask.com in 2006. By 2010, the company had already scaled back its own search technology and shifted toward a question-and-answer format.

For a lot of early internet users, Ask Jeeves stood out because it let people type full questions instead of just keywords. Long before AI chatbots existed, users could ask things like “How do I fix a leaky faucet?” or “What are the best restaurants in Rome?” in natural language.

Modern search is moving back toward conversational interfaces through AI products like ChatGPT, Gemini, and AI-powered search summaries. In many ways, Ask.com was trying to build that experience almost 30 years ago. The technology was just not ready yet.

Ask.com may not have survived the search wars, but many of the ideas behind it ended up shaping the next generation of search anyway. Farewell Jeeves.

Money Nomad

Looking for a side hustle?

Try Money Nomad, our sister marketplace built specifically for profitable side hustles and micro-businesses that are too small for Empire Flippers.

Check out this recent listing available on the Money Nomad Marketplace:

Listing #10088 – Open to Offers

General E-commerce, Amazon FBA | Pets & Animals

Black Swift is an established U.S. Amazon FBA private-label brand in the pet niche, generating $5,219/month in revenue and $1,212/month in profit. With validated products, optimized listings, and Brand Registry protection, the foundation is built for a buyer to scale through deeper inventory investment and expanded product lines. Learn More

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This Week in M&A Issue #235

Lauren Buchanan — Mon, 11 May 2026 08:29:31 +0000

Top of the mornin’ to ya!

Today’s trend of the week is “bluetooth wallet trackers”.

Ever been running late and your wallet just vanishes? It’s a panic most people know all too well, and now, a fast-growing trend is trying to solve it.

Bluetooth wallet trackers are surging in popularity, with Google searches up 8429% over the past year and another 312% in just the last month. These small devices slip into your wallet and connect via Bluetooth, making it easy to track them if they go missing.

The trackers started gaining traction after the launch of AirTags, but what’s driving this latest spike is TikTok, with an average of 1.3k TikTok mentions per month. Travel-focused creators are recommending wallet trackers as simple, practical hacks, pushing them into the mainstream.

Growing demand, strong social media momentum, and a range of affordable product options make wallet trackers a category worth branching into right now.

Today we have for you:

Google Search revenue grew 19% in Q1
Shopify data challenges the idea that jobs are safer than entrepreneurship

And:

New free tool simplifies porting Google Ads to ChatGPT
How Amazon sellers are using AI in their business
OpenAI crawl activity surges after GPT-5 launch

Alright, let’s dive in.

Google

Image Source: Giphy

AI Isn’t Killing Search; It’s Helping It Grow

Great news, search is not dying.

Google just reported that Search revenue grew 19% year over year to $60.4 billion in Q1 2026.

For the past two years, the narrative has been that AI chatbots would reduce demand for search. The data now says the opposite. AI is being layered into Search and expanding how people use it.

CEO Sundar Pichai directly linked this growth to AI features inside Search. Products like AI Overviews and AI Mode are increasing usage, not replacing it. Users are running more queries and coming back more often.

Two things are driving this.

First, engagement. AI helps users handle more complex queries, which leads to more searches overall. Google says total query volume hit an all-time high this quarter.

Second, monetization. Ads are still performing. AI-generated results are fitting into Google’s existing ad system without hurting revenue. The company says monetization rates are similar to traditional search.

Google has also reduced the cost of serving AI responses by more than 30% since Gemini 3. That matters because higher usage only works if margins stay intact.

For business owners, this changes how to think about distribution. Search is evolving into a mix of direct answers and links, with AI playing a bigger role in what gets surfaced.

Visibility is becoming less predictable, but Google remains central to how people discover information online.

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship May Be More Stable Than Employment

New data from Shopify suggest entrepreneurship is becoming more common, more durable, and more profitable, challenging the idea that traditional employment is the safer long-term path.

Three trends stand out. First, more new businesses are launching.

Since 2018, the number of Shopify merchants making their first sale has increased sevenfold. This is happening alongside a weaker job market, with around 1.2 million US job cuts in 2025, many linked to advances in AI. More people are exploring self-employment as an alternative.

The second signal is about experience.

Repeat founders consistently outperform first-time founders. Shopify data shows that entrepreneurs launching a second business generate more than twice the sales per store compared to their first venture. This is because skills compound. Understanding customers, selecting markets, and operating lean systems improve with each cycle.

The third signal is revenue growth over time.

Entrepreneurs on the platform who started between 2017 and 2020 increased their average sales by 25% between 2022 and 2025. This reflects both individual learning and a broader shift. Ecommerce now accounts for over 20% of global retail sales in 2025, giving online businesses a growing base to scale from.

The traditional idea of stability tied to a single employer is weakening. At the same time, the cost and complexity of starting a business is falling, and the tools available to founders are improving quickly.

Starting a business is still risky, but it is becoming more structured. Outcomes improve with repetition, and the growing digital economy is creating more opportunities for independent founders to build and scale businesses.

This New Tool Lets You Launch ChatGPT Ads in Minutes

Marketers curious about advertising inside ChatGPT just got a shortcut.

On April 27, search intelligence firm Adthena launched ChatGPT AdBridge, a free, one-time tool designed to move existing Google Ads campaigns into ChatGPT’s ad ecosystem without starting from scratch. By connecting via OAuth, it pulls in your current campaigns and transforms them for ChatGPT in just four steps, removing hours of manual setup.

AdBridge reads (but doesn’t alter) your Google Ads data, then layers in AI to expand keyword coverage, tighten negative keyword lists, and generate creative assets tailored to ChatGPT’s conversational format. The result? A ready-to-upload CSV for ChatGPT Ads, plus supporting files like keyword lists, creative briefs, and ad copy.

One of the biggest challenges it solves is adapting negative keywords. While Google Ads allows massive lists, ChatGPT caps them at just 25 per campaign. AdBridge analyzes your full list and selects the most relevant ones based on how ChatGPT matches conversational intent.

It also goes beyond setup, offering insights into which brands appear in auctions, how often they show, and which prompts trigger ads, all valuable intel for optimizing performance.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT ad pilot is gaining momentum, now with over 600 advertisers. Costs are dropping too, with CPMs falling from $60 to as low as $25, and minimum spend decreasing from $250,000 to $50,000, making the channel far more accessible.

Read All About It!

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AI

Image Source: Marketplace Pulse

Sellers Are Using AI, Just Not Where It Matters Most Yet

A new Marketplace Pulse report looked at how Amazon sellers generating more than $2 billion in combined annual revenue are using AI in their business.

The answer is…not much.

The study found that 83.4% of them are using AI somewhere in their business. That sounds huge, but most sellers are only using it in a few specific tasks, averaging just over 3 use cases each.

Right now, AI is mostly being used for content work.

The most common use cases are improving product listings (63.5%) and generating images or videos (49.2%). These use cases are easy to test, easy to see results from, and quick to iterate on.

Where AI is not being used as much is in the areas that actually move the profit needle. Things like pricing, ad optimisation, inventory forecasting, and competitor analysis are still mostly handled without AI support. These are more complex tasks, but also higher impact.

The results are also a bit mixed.

The biggest single response in the survey was that AI has not made a measurable difference yet (25.4%). Even among heavier users, there is no clear link between using more AI and getting better results.

Higher performing sellers are a bit more likely to report positive impact from AI, while lower performing sellers are about twice as likely to say it has had no impact. But it is not clear if AI is driving performance, or if better businesses are simply in a better position to use AI effectively.

So right now, most sellers are using AI, but largely for surface-level tasks. But few sellers trust using it inside the core decisions that actually drive the business.

Search

OpenAI Bots Are Flooding the Web: What It Means for Your Content

OpenAI’s bots are hitting the web far more often after GPT-5, and it’s changing how your content gets discovered.

A recent study analyzed over 7 billion OpenAI bot events across enterprise websites from November 2024 to March 2026. It focused on three crawlers: ChatGPT-User (user-triggered page fetches), GPTBot (training), and OAI-SearchBot (used for live search results).

Since GPT-5 launched in August 2025, OpenAI’s automated crawling has roughly tripled. OAI-SearchBot saw the biggest jump, growing 3.5x and adding around 2.2 billion events. GPTBot also climbed 2.9x, contributing an additional 1.8 billion events.

Search-related crawling is now leading the way. Before GPT-5, search and training crawlers ran at similar levels. Now, OAI-SearchBot has overtaken GPTBot. Some industries saw huge increases, especially healthcare (+740%) and media/publishing (+702%).

Meanwhile, ChatGPT-User activity dropped 28% between December 2025 and March 2026 compared to the previous year. This suggests ChatGPT is leaning more on pre-indexed content and improved retrieval, rather than fetching pages in real time.

So what does this mean for online business owners?

Your content is being scanned and indexed more than ever, even if fewer users click through to your site. Visibility is expanding beyond traditional search engines into AI-generated answers. Also, because search-style crawling now outweighs training, your content is more likely to be used in live responses.

What should you do?

Ensure your site allows access to GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot (check your robots.txt). Focus on clear, high-quality content that directly answers questions to improve your chances of being featured. And don’t rely solely on clicks. Visibility and brand presence inside AI tools are becoming just as important.

Google still dominates crawling, but OpenAI is growing fast. If your content isn’t optimized for how these systems crawl, index, and surface information, you risk becoming invisible in a channel that’s only getting bigger.

Money Nomad

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Youtube | Entertainment & Media

Evergreen YouTube channel focused on classic German films and nostalgia driven content. The audience is primarily German speaking viewers with high engagement and consistent interest in cultural classics. Currently monetized via YouTube ads, with clear upside in sponsorships, affiliates, and media partnerships. Learn More

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This Week in M&A Issue #234

Lauren Buchanan — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 09:41:08 +0000

What’s up, Buttercup?

Today’s trend of the week is “protein”.

Protein is no longer just something you associate with gym routines or post-workout shakes. It is now showing up in everyday products you see while shopping, scrolling, and eating, far beyond the usual protein powders and chicken fillets.

The US protein product market is growing fast. It is valued at $41.2 billion in 2025 and is expected to reach $69.8 billion by 2033. Protein snacks alone have grown by more than 47% recently.

The commercial impact is already visible. General Mills generated over $100 million from protein cereals in FY2024, showing that there is serious money to be made in this niche.

For online business owners, this opens up a pretty wide opportunity. The protein trend is expanding beyond traditional food brands into supplements, wellness products, and lifestyle categories. That opens up space for new content ideas, affiliate offers, private label products, and brand strategies built around protein as a core selling point rather than an added feature.

Today we have for you:

WooCommerce merchants can now sell directly inside YouTube videos
WebStreet opens new allocation for accredited investors

And:

Small publishers have lost 60% of their search traffic
The behavioral science behind how customers really make decisions
The app market is surging as AI lowers the barrier to entry

Alright, let’s dive in.

eCommerce

Image Source: Giphy (Linio Peru)

WooCommerce Turns YouTube Into a Built-In Sales Channel

WooCommerce merchants can now sell products directly inside YouTube videos.

The setup is handled through the Google for WooCommerce extension. It connects your store to your YouTube channel and syncs your product catalog through Google Merchant Center.

Once connected, you can tag products directly in your videos and Shorts. Viewers can click on those products while watching or explore them in a dedicated shopping tab on your channel. It removes extra steps between someone discovering a product and actually buying it, which is often where you lose them.

People already go to YouTube to figure out what to buy. They watch reviews, product demos, and comparisons before making a decision. With this integration, WooCommerce is helping merchants meet customers where they already are instead of trying to redirect them somewhere else.

On the backend, everything stays in sync automatically. Product details like pricing, inventory, and descriptions are pulled from your WooCommerce store into Google Merchant Center, then distributed across YouTube and other Google surfaces. The same system also powers ads across Search, Shopping, and Display, so you’re not juggling multiple tools.

There is also a paid ad component built in. Performance Max campaigns use AI to create and test different ad variations using your existing product data. You set your goals, like return on ad spend, and the system handles most of the optimization.

Importantly, this is no longer just for physical products. Service-based businesses can now run campaigns without a traditional catalog, focusing instead on actions like bookings, calls, or lead generation.

For store owners, this adds a new sales channel that fits into how people already shop, without adding much extra work.

Online business investing

Invest Passively in Online Business Portfolios Through WebStreet

If you’ve been looking for a way to invest passively in online businesses, this is worth a closer look.

WebStreet has just launched a new fund, and while most of the allocation has already gone to returning investors, there are still a limited number of spots left for new participants.

WebStreet is an investment platform that lets accredited investors get exposure to online businesses without having to buy or operate them directly.

Instead of operating a business yourself, your capital is pooled into funds managed by experienced operators who acquire, grow, and eventually exit cash-flowing digital assets like e-commerce stores and SaaS businesses.

In simple terms: you provide the capital, and a professional team handles acquisitions, operations, and exits. You then benefit from the performance of the portfolio over time. Investors receive quarterly updates and distributions, with investment horizons usually around 3-5 years.

WebStreet’s funds have delivered strong results, with recent investments producing 30%+ IRR alongside ongoing cash yield distributions.

The investment is only available to accredited investors, with a minimum investment of $100k. Limited spots are available for new investors.

If you want to learn more, you can book a call here to speak to their team.

Traffic

Image Source: Axios

Small Publishers Lose 60% of Search Traffic as AI Changes How People Search

Small publishers are getting hit hard by a shift in how people use search.

New data from Chartbeat shows that over the past two years, small publishers have lost around 60% of their search traffic. Mid-sized publishers are down about 47%, while large publishers have seen a smaller but still significant drop of 22%.

The smaller the publisher, the bigger the hit. That’s mainly because smaller sites depend heavily on Google search to bring in readers, while larger publishers have more diversified traffic sources.

Interestingly, overall internet usage hasn’t dropped. People are still searching and reading online. The difference is how they’re getting answers.

Search engines are no longer just sending people to websites. AI-generated summaries and answers are increasingly giving users what they need directly in the search results. That means fewer clicks through to original articles.

AI tools are starting to send some traffic back to publishers, but it’s still very small. Even with fast growth, AI referrals make up less than 1% of total traffic. So it’s not filling the gap left by declining search visits.

Google’s ranking algorithms aren’t to blame either. Google Search and Discover traffic are both down, while AI summaries and chatbot-style answers are increasingly sitting between users and the original content.

The end result is that traffic isn’t disappearing, it’s concentrating. More of it is staying inside platforms or going to publishers with direct audience relationships, while smaller SEO-driven sites lose ground.

For anyone building a content business, depending heavily on search traffic is becoming a riskier strategy. Building a cushion of newsletters, email subscribers, subscriptions etc, like bigger publishers do, seems to be the key to survival.

Read All About It!

The entrepreneur’s guide to non-dilutive funding: capital with control

250+ ways to make money with AI in 2026: revenue playbooks

ChatGPT traffic analysis: insights from 17 months of clickstream data

How this entrepreneur sold 5,000 books in four weeks: as a first-time author

The Opportunity podcast

Neuromarketing Secrets: The Mental Shortcuts That Drive Purchases

Many business owners assume consumers carefully weigh their options before making a purchase. They don’t.

In reality, people rely on mental shortcuts to make decisions. Instead of analyzing every detail, we act on instinct, often without even realizing it.

And that has a huge impact on how and why people buy.

In this episode of the Opportunity Podcast, Nancy Harhut breaks down how these subconscious decision-making patterns shape customer behavior and how you can use them to your advantage.

AI is changing how content is created, but human psychology still determines what sells.

When your messaging aligns with how people naturally make decisions, everything becomes easier: your content lands, your offers resonate, and your conversions improve.

Check out the full episode to learn more.

Apps

The App Market Is Growing Fast as AI Lowers the Barrier to Build

The mobile app market is growing at a rapid rate.

New data from Appfigures shows global app releases jumped 60% year over year in Q1 2026. On iOS, launches were up 80%. That momentum carried into April, where total releases more than doubled compared to the same time last year.

A big reason for this surge is AI-powered development tools. They are making it faster and easier to build apps, even for small teams or solo developers. As a result, more people are entering the market and actually monetizing their apps.

There is also a change in the types of apps being built. Many new apps are simpler and focused on a single use case. AI makes it easy to test ideas quickly, but it also means more apps that feel similar. This has started to raise concerns around quality and saturation, with some developers and users noticing an increase in repetitive or low-effort apps.

For platforms like Apple and Google, more apps is generally a good thing. It drives engagement and transactions. At the same time, it puts pressure on discovery, ranking, and moderation as the volume grows.

For developers, building an app is no longer the challenge. The real test is retention. The advantage is shifting toward developers who can move fast, iterate based on feedback, and build products that hold attention over time.

Money Nomad

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Try Money Nomad, our sister marketplace built specifically for profitable side hustles and micro-businesses that are too small for Empire Flippers.

Check out this recent listing available on the Money Nomad Marketplace:

Listing #10083 – $28,000.00

Youtube | Entertainment & Media

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This Week in M&A Issue #233

Lauren Buchanan — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 08:11:38 +0000

Happy Friday!

We’re building a new AI buying match system that connects buyer criteria with live marketplace data to surface the right acquisition faster than ever.

If your criteria has changed or isn’t listed on our platform, reply to this email with as much detail as possible on the type of business you want to buy.

Our team will update your profile and help you directly, and this will also improve how the AI matches you to new listings each week.

The more details you share, the faster we can connect you to the right deal.

Today’s trend of the week is “soccer”.

Move over baseball, soccer is now the third most popular sport in the U.S.

According to The Economist, 10% of Americans now say soccer is their favorite sport, making it the third most popular in the country behind American football and basketball.

A major driver of this growth is Major League Soccer, which has scaled rapidly from 10 teams in 1993 to 30 clubs across the U.S. and Canada.

Now, soccer mania is about to hit fever pitch. The 2026 FIFA World Cup begins on June 11 and will be hosted across venues in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. It is expected to be one of the largest sporting events in history, with around 6 billion viewers worldwide and roughly 6.5 million fans attending in person.

This whirlwind of attention creates a massive opportunity for businesses. Ecommerce brands can tap into demand with fan gear, themed merchandise, and country-specific products. Newsletter operators can build daily World Cup updates or player insights. App developers can launch match trackers, prediction games, or fan communities. Content creators can publish match previews, player breakdowns, and beginner guides for new fans entering the sport.

Soccer is kicking into a new gear, and businesses that move early have a chance to score while attention is still building.

Today we have for you:

Amazon sellers stage boycott over rising fees
OpenAI launches self-serve ads manager for ChatGPT

And:

Google has banned back button hijacking
Why major news sites are blocking the Wayback Machine
Google ‘Skills’ turns Gemini Prompts into reusable workflows

Alright, let’s dive in.

Amazon

Image Source: Giphy

Hundreds of Top Amazon Sellers Boycotted Ads for 24 Hours

Amazon is facing a new kind of pushback from its own sellers. On April 15, hundreds of high-revenue third-party sellers coordinated a 24-hour boycott of Amazon’s advertising platform to protest a series of recent policy changes that they say are putting pressure on cash flow and long-term business value.

The boycott was organized by Million Dollar Sellers, a private community of entrepreneurs generating significant revenue on the platform.

At the center of the issue are three changes. First, Amazon shifted payout timing so sellers now receive funds seven days after delivery instead of after shipment. For many sellers, that extends the cash conversion cycle by up to two weeks.

Second, Amazon began deducting ad spend directly from seller proceeds rather than allowing payment by credit card. Sellers say this removes access to credit and eliminates rewards they relied on.

Third, a new 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge adds another layer of cost on top of already rising fulfillment fees.

Each change on its own may be manageable. Together, sellers say they reduce liquidity at a time when advertising has become essential for visibility. Many report ad spend now accounts for 15% to 30% of revenue, making profitability more sensitive to small fee increases.

Amazon says the changes apply only to a subset of sellers and are consistent with broader industry practices. It also points to rising logistics costs as justification for the surcharge and has already delayed one advertising payment change after feedback.

The boycott itself is short-term, and Amazon’s scale makes sustained disruption unlikely. Still, tension is growing as sellers feel platform costs are rising faster than the value they receive.

OpenAI

OpenAI Lowers Ad Spend Barrier as ChatGPT Ads Expand

OpenAI is starting to open up its advertising business.

The company has launched a self-serve ads manager for ChatGPT, now available to a small group of advertisers in its pilot program. At the same time, it has lowered the minimum spend from as high as $200,000, down to $50,000. The pilot has already crossed $100 million in annualized revenue.

Until now, running ads in ChatGPT was not very flexible. Advertisers had to work through OpenAI directly or rely on agencies, with limited visibility into performance. The new dashboard changes that. Approved advertisers can now track impressions and clicks in real time and adjust campaigns on their own.

The interface will feel familiar to anyone who has used Google Ads. Campaigns are structured into Campaigns, Ad Groups, and Ads. Current ad formats are simple, with a headline, short description, and an optional square image. Video and other formats are not available yet.

Targeting is still basic. Advertisers use “context hints” to define when ads appear, with country-level geography as the only additional option.

There are three campaign objectives listed: reach, clicks, and conversions. For now, only reach is live and priced on a CPM basis at $60. Features like click optimization, conversion tracking, and daily budgets are expected to roll out later.

The pilot began on February 9 in the United States and has since expanded to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Google

Google Adds “Back Button Hijacking” to Its List of Malicious SEO Practices

Ever hit the browser back button and ended up somewhere you never chose? Google is moving to penalize that behavior in search.

On April 13, Google’s Search Quality team announced an update to its spam policies that explicitly bans “back button hijacking.” Enforcement begins June 15, giving site owners about two months to remove the behavior before it can affect rankings.

Google defines back button hijacking as interfering with browser navigation by manipulating history or other functions so users can’t immediately return to the page they came from. In practice, users may be redirected to pages they never visited, shown unsolicited recommendations or ads, or blocked from going back. Google says the issue creates a mismatch between user expectations and outcomes, leaving people feeling manipulated and less willing to visit unfamiliar sites.

The tactic is now listed under Google’s “malicious practices” spam category, alongside issues like malware and unwanted software. Google says it can take action through manual spam actions or automated demotions. Manual actions are visible in Google Search Console and can be addressed via a reconsideration request after fixes. Automated demotions are applied by algorithmic systems and lift over time as compliance is re-evaluated.

The change also has advertising implications. Google previously linked manual search penalties to Google Ads eligibility in December 2024, so a manual action tied to back button hijacking could also restrict advertising.

Google noted that violations may come from third-party libraries or advertising platforms, placing responsibility on site owners to audit and remove or disable offending code, including scripts that manipulate the browser’s history stack.

Read All About It!

The dropshipping method that creates million-dollar founders: here’s how

This 18-year-old made $50 million from an app: from rejection to success

5 ways to increase your website authority in 2026: build site trust

The systems behind a $1m YouTube channel: from viewers to high-ticket clients

AI

The Wayback Machine Is Losing Access to Major News Sites Over AI Concerns

Big news organizations are starting to block the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

The Wayback Machine is one of the internet’s most important public archives. It saves snapshots of web pages over time, letting anyone see how stories, data, or pages looked in the past. It is widely used by journalists, researchers, and lawyers when original pages are changed or deleted.

Now, that access is being restricted.

At least 23 major news organizations, including outlets like USA Today and The New York Times, have started blocking the Wayback Machine from saving their pages. In total, hundreds of sites have added similar restrictions.

The main reason is not the archive itself. Publishers are worried that AI companies might scrape archived pages at scale and use them to train models. In their view, that could bypass licensing deals and copyright rules, since the content would still be publicly accessible in archived form.

This has created a three-way tension:

Keeping a public record of what was published online
Protecting media business models
Controlling how content gets used in AI training

The Internet Archive says it already has protections in place to stop large-scale scraping and abuse. It also argues that blocking access weakens accountability. If articles change after publication, the archive is often the only way to see what was originally said.

Not all journalists are on board with the restrictions. More than 100 media professionals have signed a letter supporting continued access, saying that blocking archives makes it harder to track changes, corrections, and edits over time.

One side wants a permanent, searchable record of what gets published. The other is trying to limit how that information can be reused in the age of AI.

Which side are you on? Should the internet stay fully archivable, or should parts of it stop being recorded to protect licensing deals and copyright rules?

Google

Chrome’s New Gemini Skills Let You Save and Reuse AI Workflows

Google is turning one of the biggest pain points with AI into something more practical. Instead of rewriting the same prompt over and over, Chrome’s “Skills” for Gemini now lets you save it and reuse it as a workflow.

After you run a prompt in Gemini’s Chrome side panel, you can save it as a Skill from your chat history. When you need it again, you can trigger it by typing a forward slash or clicking the plus sign, selecting the Skill, and running it on the page you’re viewing.

Google is also launching a library of prebuilt Skills aimed at common tasks. Examples include breaking down product ingredients, comparing specs across tabs, and cross-referencing a gift budget with a recipient’s interests. Users can add these to their own collection and edit the underlying prompt to customize the workflow.

An exciting feature is that Skills can run across multiple open tabs. Users can select additional tabs when running a Skill, allowing one saved prompt to pull information from several pages at once.

For SEO and marketing teams, the multi-tab approach could support repeatable checks such as comparing competitor pages, extracting structured data from product pages, or reviewing title tags, meta descriptions, and headings across sites.

In practice, this moves AI from a one-off interaction to something closer to lightweight automation. A saved prompt can read a page, compare it with others, and output a formatted result without starting from scratch each time.

Skills rolled out on April 14 on desktop Chrome with English (US) settings and syncs across devices when users are signed in.

Money Nomad

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Try Money Nomad, our sister marketplace built specifically for profitable side hustles and micro-businesses that are too small for Empire Flippers.

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display ads, newsletter, digital product | design & creative

InDesignSkills is a long-established online blog and template resource for Adobe InDesign tutorials, design articles, free InDesign templates and premium InDesign templates. Set up by a duo of British graphic designers in 2017, the business originally started as a hobbyist blog, before developing into a top-ranking resource for creatives and marketers. Learn More

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This Week in M&A Issue #232

Lauren Buchanan — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 08:26:47 +0000

Hello there!

Today’s trend of the week is “golf”.

In 2025, U.S. on-course participation passed 29 million players, continuing a record-breaking run. Globally, both on-course and off-course engagement are at all-time highs, with millions of new golfers entering the sport.

Now, with the weather warming up, people are eager to get back on the course. According to data shared with Retail Brew, Shopify orders for golf club sets jumped 75% last month, with golf tees and bags up 51% and 48%. Even golf carts saw a 43% increase.

That creates opportunities across ecommerce, content, and digital products. Beyond offering accessories and upgrades for new and existing golfers, the influx of new players also means a growing audience looking for guidance, recommendations, and community.

For entrepreneurs looking to enter a new market or expand their offering, now’s a good time to take a swing at the golf market. It could be a hole-in-one opportunity.

Today we have for you:

Amazon adds new fuel surcharge for sellers
ChatGPT crawler now outpaces Googlebot by 3.6x

And:

Google March 2026 Core Update complete
Finding purpose beyond profit
Amazon changes discount rules for sellers

Alright, let’s dive in.

Amazon

Image Source: Giphy (FoxADHD)

Another Cost Increase for Amazon Sellers Hits in April

Amazon is raising costs for sellers again, this time with a new fee tied to fuel prices.

Starting April 17, 2026, third-party sellers using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) in the US and Canada will pay a 3.5% “fuel and logistics” surcharge. From May 2, it will also apply to Buy with Prime and Multi-Channel Fulfillment, so it affects not just marketplace sales but also orders from sellers’ own websites.

This fee is added to fulfillment costs, not product prices. On average, it works out to about $0.17 more per unit in the US, though that depends on the size and shipping needs of each product.

Amazon says rising fuel and logistics costs are the reason. Until now, it had been absorbing those increases. With energy prices still high, Amazon is now passing some of that cost onto sellers.

To be fair, this isn’t happening in isolation. Carriers like UPS and USPS have also raised prices and added surcharges, in some cases by more than Amazon. Still, for sellers, it’s another hit to margins.

And that’s the real issue. This comes after earlier FBA fee increases in 2026, plus ongoing pressure from tariffs. Each change on its own might be manageable, but together they add up quickly.

There’s also no clear end date. Amazon calls the surcharge temporary, but hasn’t said when it might be removed. That makes planning harder and increases the chances that sellers will raise prices to protect margins.

This fee currently only applies in the US and Canada. Other regions aren’t affected, at least for now.

Websites

Image Source: Search Engine Journal

ChatGPT‑User Surges Past Googlebot in Web Crawling Activity

Recent data from Alli AI of over 78,000 web pages shows that ChatGPT’s crawler is now outpacing Googlebot by a huge margin.

During a 55-day period in early 2026, the ChatGPT‑User crawler made more than 3.6x the number of requests that Googlebot did.

OpenAI runs two main crawlers. ChatGPT‑User fetches pages on demand when people ask ChatGPT questions. GPTBot collects pages to help train AI models. Right now, many websites treat them the same, which can lead to mistakes in crawl settings.

When all AI crawlers are counted together, including ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and Amazonbot, they made more than 3.6x the requests of traditional crawlers. AI crawlers are also faster and more efficient. Their success rate in fetching pages is nearly 100%, while Googlebot still runs into errors or blocked pages fairly often.

Industry reports show explosive growth in AI crawling activity throughout 2025. One analysis from Cloudflare showed that ChatGPT‑User requests surged thousands of percent year‑over‑year, while others confirmed OpenAI as a leading operator of bot traffic.

For website owners, this is important for two reasons. First, even small requests from AI crawlers can add up and put extra strain on your servers. Second, if your site blocks or handles these crawlers incorrectly, your content might not show up in AI-generated answers from ChatGPT and similar tools.

In short, AI crawlers are dominating crawling activity, are faster and more reliable, and sites need to treat them as a key part of web infrastructure and visibility strategy.

Google

Google’s First Broad Core Update of 2026 is Complete

Google has finished rolling out its March 2026 core update. It started on March 27 and wrapped up globally on April 8. This is the first broad core update of the year, coming after a quick spam update in late March and a Discover feed update in February.

Unlike the spam update, which only targeted low-quality or policy-violating content and finished in a single day, this core update looks at the bigger picture. It focuses on overall content quality and relevance across search results.

Early reports from the SEO community suggest the changes were noticeable but not extreme. Some websites gained visibility, others lost, but overall it wasn’t as dramatic as the December 2025 core update.

Google confirmed the rollout is done but didn’t give details on what exactly changed. That is typical for broad core updates, which adjust Google’s overall ranking systems rather than targeting narrow issues.

Early reports suggest that sites with thin, generic, or mass-produced content often lost rankings, while content that demonstrates real expertise, clear structure, and trustworthiness performed better. The update reinforces the importance of creating content that genuinely meets user needs rather than trying to game search algorithms.

With the update fully deployed, site owners and content teams can now review the impact. Look at which pages gained or lost visibility, find patterns, and tweak your content strategy based on what you see.

Read All About It!

20 practical ways to use AI in SEO: practical, tested use cases

Top trending topics April 2026: hottest 100 searches in the US right now

Basic iPhone apps are making people rich again: here’s how

How Surfer SEO made $15M ARR, then sold: in just 8 years

The Opportunity podcast

Turning Frustration Into a 100+ Person Company

Many great businesses weren’t started because the founder was inspired.
They were started because they were frustrated.

That’s exactly what happened when Terry Kyle built WPX.

In this episode of The Opportunity podcast, we break down how Terry went from dealing with terrible hosting providers to building a 100+ person company known for speed and customer support.

But the most interesting part? What he did after building a successful business.

Through Every Dog Matters, Terry now runs a large-scale dog rescue operation caring for hundreds of animals daily. And according to him, it’s far harder than building the business.

It’s a good reminder that success isn’t just about revenue. It’s about what you choose to do with it.

If you’re an online business owner, there’s a lot to take away from this one.

Amazon

Amazon Updates How Discounts Are Shown

Amazon is updating how sellers display discounts, which could affect pricing strategies across the platform. The changes focus on the List Price and the Typical Price, two key numbers used to show buyers how much they are saving.

Starting April 23, 2026, the List Price must either be a price another retailer recently sold the item for, or a price Amazon itself offered as the Featured Offer. If it doesn’t meet these conditions, sellers can’t use it as a reference for a discount.

On May 18, 2026, Amazon will adjust how it calculates Typical Price, which is the median price over the past 90 days. If more than half of those days had sales below the normal price, promotional sales will be included in the calculation. Discounts that aren’t explicitly highlighted still count toward this median.

Sellers can still set whatever price they want, but not every price drop can be presented as a discount.

Some sellers worry this could affect how discounts look after big sales events like Prime Day, though Amazon says peak event prices will be excluded from Typical Price calculations.

The changes could also influence customer behavior. Without clear “you save X%” messaging, buyers might react differently, even if the final price hasn’t changed.

The update comes after lawsuits over inflated list prices used to exaggerate discounts.

Money Nomad

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Listing #10069 – Open to Offers

eCommerce | pets & animals

Le ChouChou Paris is a Paris-inspired premium dog lifestyle brand developed around elegant design, strong visual identity and high-quality pet accessories. The brand currently includes a fully built e-commerce website, product designs, existing inventory, supplier relationships and professional visual marketing assets. Learn More

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This Week in M&A Issue #231

Lauren Buchanan — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 09:12:11 +0000

Howdy partner!

Today’s trend of the week is “survival guide books”.

From climate change and financial uncertainty to global conflict and viral outbreaks, many people are feeling less certain about what comes next. That growing unease is quietly fueling the rise of survival guide books.

People are buying these books not just to learn practical skills, but to feel more prepared and in control. Because Googling ‘how to survive the apocalypse’ won’t work if the internet is down.

The audience is wider than you might think. Travelers, hikers, campers, and preppers are all looking for advice on everything from outdoor survival to handling unexpected emergencies.

These books are performing strongly on Amazon, with average revenue of $78,596.91 according to Exploding Topics. Interest is rising too, with searches for “survival guide book” up 110% over the past year.

Survival content is perfect for social media, whether you’re sharing quick tips, crisis scenarios, or gear recommendations. You can also create more compelling offers by bundling a survival guide book with an emergency or camping kit.

Today we have for you:

ChatGPT hit $100M in ad revenue just weeks after launch
Google expands Merchant Center loyalty features to 14 countries

And:

Meta adds eBay to its affiliate program
YouTube opens Shopping Affiliate program to small creators
Shopify Tinker turns eCommerce ideas into prototypes in minutes

Alright, let’s dive in.

AI

Image Source: Giphy (Andrey Smirny)

OpenAI’s Ad Experiment Is Scaling Faster Than Expected

In just six weeks, ChatGPT’s ad pilot has crossed $100 million in annualized revenue. That’s happening while the product is still in a limited rollout, which makes the growth more interesting than the number itself.

What stands out is how lightly monetized things still are. About 85% of users could see ads, but on any given day, fewer than 20% actually do. OpenAI is keeping ad exposure low while it tests what works, which means there’s a lot of room to grow revenue without needing more users.

On the advertiser side, demand showed up quickly. Over 600 brands are already involved, including a strong mix of small and mid-sized businesses. For something that only launched in February 2026, that’s unusually fast adoption.

User response hasn’t been a problem so far either. Fewer than 7% of ads are rated as low relevance, which is an early sign that the targeting is working, at least at this scale.

Two upcoming changes could accelerate things.

First, international rollout. The pilot is expanding into markets like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, with more regions likely to follow.

Second, a self-serve ad platform is expected in April. Instead of OpenAI controlling access, advertisers will be able to launch campaigns directly. This transforms ChatGPT ads from a controlled pilot into an open marketplace, which typically accelerates both adoption and pricing.

There are still some unknowns. Pricing isn’t fully established, advertisers are early in testing, and long-term performance isn’t clear yet. There’s also the challenge of adding ads without hurting user trust.

ChatGPT ads are still in their infancy, but with self-serve access launching and inventory set to expand, this is likely the start of a much larger advertising channel rather than a short-term experiment.

Google

Google Makes Loyalty Programs More Visible for eCommerce Brands

Google is rolling out its Merchant Center loyalty features to 14 countries, including the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Australia, India, Japan, Spain, and more. This is one of the widest rollouts yet, covering most major eCommerce markets.

Merchants can now show member-only pricing and exclusive shipping perks directly in product listings. These benefits no longer live hidden in separate loyalty pages or apps; they appear right when a shopper is deciding what to buy.

Google is also expanding where these perks show up. Loyalty annotations now work across standard Shopping ads, local inventory ads, and regional campaigns. This means sellers can highlight online and in-store benefits depending on the shopper’s context.

A bigger change is how this data is being surfaced. Loyalty programs are now part of AI-powered product discovery, not just traditional search results. This includes AI Mode and Gemini.

There is already some early performance data. Google says some retailers have seen up to a 20% increase in click-through rates when showing personalized offers to loyalty members. It is not a guaranteed result, but it signals how much visibility matters when offers are tied to known users.

To use these features, merchants need to set up their loyalty program in Merchant Center, define tiers and benefits, and connect Customer Match data in Google Ads. This last step is needed to show personalized pricing and shipping perks to existing customers.

For eCommerce brands, this turns loyalty data into something that directly impacts traffic, not just repeat purchases.

Affiliate

eBay Sellers Just Got a New Way to Drive Sales Through Meta

Meta is adding eBay to its affiliate program as it tries to turn social content into a more direct sales channel.

The update is part of Meta’s “Facebook Affiliate Partnerships” initiative, which already includes Amazon in the U.S. and Shopee in international markets.

Creators will be able to tag eBay listings inside posts, photos, and Reels. When users click those listings and complete a purchase, creators earn a commission.

For eBay sellers, this means your listings are no longer limited to marketplace search traffic. They can now show up inside content people are already engaging with. This includes product demos, reviews, or niche creator pages where trust is already built. That means your products can reach buyers earlier in the discovery phase, not just when they are actively searching.

It also adds a new demand channel without requiring you to change your listings or run ads. Creators effectively become a distributed sales force, bringing traffic to your products in exchange for a cut.

For creators, this removes a lot of friction. No more sending users to link-in-bio pages or juggling external affiliate links. Everything happens natively, with tracking and attribution handled inside Meta’s system.

This builds on the existing relationship between Meta and eBay. Since early 2025, eBay listings have been appearing on Facebook Marketplace. Now, those listings are moving directly into content, where engagement is higher and conversion potential is stronger.

The rollout is still in progress, with eBay expected to be fully integrated in the U.S. in the coming months.

Read All About It!

This entrepreneur makes $15K/month from one gaming site: traffic strategy

Step-by-step guide to apply for a business loan: make an informed decision

U.S. users can now change their Gmail address: Google explains how

Occupations ranked by projected AI job loss risk: 9.3 million U.S. jobs at risk

YouTube

YouTube Lets More Creators Tag Products and Earn Commissions

YouTube is opening up its Shopping affiliate program to a lot more creators. Now, channels with just 500 subscribers can start earning money by tagging products in their videos, Shorts, and live streams.

Before, only bigger channels, usually with 10,000+ subscribers, could join. With this change, smaller creators can link products from partner brands directly in their content. When viewers click those product tags and make a purchase, creators earn a commission set by the brand. YouTube even shows commission rates for each product, so creators can see what’s worth tagging. This works across devices from mobile to living room screens.

For creators, this is a chance to start earning earlier in your growth journey. For brands, it opens up more opportunities to reach niche communities where smaller creators often have highly engaged audiences.

To join, you need to be based in one of the supported countries, including the United States, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, India, Singapore, Brazil, Taiwan, and Japan. Some channel types are excluded, like music channels, official artist channels, and channels with lots of Made for Kids content.

Enrollment is simple. In YouTube Studio, go to the Earn tab, find the affiliate program section, and activate it by agreeing to the terms. Once activated, product tagging tools appear across all content formats.

Commissions are paid through AdSense, usually 60–120 days after purchase to account for returns. YouTube Analytics gives you a clear view of clicks, sales, and earnings from their tagged products.

This change makes affiliate revenue accessible to more creators and lets brands tap into smaller, engaged communities they might have missed before.

Shopify

Shopify Introduces Tinker, an AI App for Building Store Concepts Faster

Shopify launched Tinker, a new AI-powered mobile app designed to simplify how you create and test eCommerce store ideas.

Instead of juggling multiple tools for design, copy, and prototyping, Tinker brings these capabilities into a single, streamlined workspace. It gives you access to a range of built-in tools for generating images, writing product copy, and experimenting with store concepts without needing technical skills or external software.

The goal is to remove the friction that typically slows down early-stage ideas. You’re no longer staring at a blank theme or hiring help just to get a concept off the ground. You can generate product visuals, spin up creative assets, and map out a store idea in minutes, even if you have no design background.

It is not meant to replace your live store setup. Think of it as a testing environment. You can explore and validate ideas before committing resources to full development. This reduces the need for developers or expensive tooling early on, making it easier to experiment and iterate.

Tinker packages multiple AI capabilities into one affordable app, replacing a fragmented stack of tools that many founders currently rely on. The result is lower costs, faster workflows, and fewer integration challenges.

For established store owners, this opens up a different way to operate. You can validate new product lines, landing page concepts, or brand directions without disrupting your existing store. It becomes easier to test and iterate quickly, which is often the difference between a good idea and a profitable one.

For newer sellers, the barrier to entry drops significantly. You don’t need a stack of paid tools or a team to get started. The gap between having an idea and building something real is getting smaller.

Money Nomad

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Try Money Nomad, our sister marketplace built specifically for profitable side hustles and micro-businesses that are too small for Empire Flippers.

Check out this recent listing available on the Money Nomad Marketplace:

Listing #10067 – Open to Offers

eCommerce | fashion & apparel

Trademarks for an equestrian-focused brand. The equestrian community is one of the most affluent and loyal customer bases in the world. Globally, logo and graphic brands have a large market share in the fashion industry. We trademarked a beloved coined phrase for the style-conscious equestrian. We complimented our graphic pieces to include trademarked, signature pieces that created a loyal following. Learn More

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This Week in M&A Issue #230

Lauren Buchanan — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 08:03:16 +0000

Ahoy mateys!

Today’s trend of the week is “foldable water bottles”.

It feels like everyone, especially Gen Z, is carrying a water bottle these days.

But let’s be honest, traditional bottles can be bulky and annoying to lug around, especially if you’re constantly on the move.

That’s why foldable water bottles are getting so much attention. They collapse to less than half their size when empty, so they’re easy to pack away after a flight, a gym session, or a hike. It’s a simple idea, but incredibly practical.

Social media is pouring fuel on the trend. Searches on TikTok are growing, averaging around 6.6K per month. On Google, “foldable water bottle” hit 18,000 searches worldwide last month, marking an all-time high.

For online business owners, this is the kind of product that sells itself with the right content. It solves a clear problem, and it’s easy to show off in short videos.

Today we have for you:

Google-Agent brings user-driven AI agents to the web
Amazon ends shared inventory model for FBA sellers

And:

Beehiiv’s MCP turns AI into a newsletter operator
The top eCommerce marketplaces of 2026
Walmart’s ChatGPT checkout flops

Alright, let’s dive in.

Google

Image Source: Giphy

Google-Agent Brings AI Agents That Can Act for Users To The Web

Google has quietly introduced a new user agent called Google-Agent.

This is not just another crawler. It opens up a new layer of the web: AI agents that can act on behalf of users, not just answer questions.

Traditionally, Google’s web activity has been easy to categorize. Crawlers like Googlebot automatically scan and index pages. Fetchers act on behalf of specific tools.

Google-Agent sits in a different category. It is a user-triggered agent, meaning it only acts when a user initiates a task, such as asking an AI to complete actions online.

In practical terms, this means Google is preparing for a web where users delegate tasks to AI. These agents can browse sites, click through pages, fill out forms, and complete actions like bookings or purchases.

There are a few important technical changes that come with this:

Separate infrastructure: Google-Agent uses its own IP ranges, different from traditional crawlers
Clear identification: Websites will now be able to distinguish AI agent traffic from human users and bots
New verification model: Google is testing Web Bot Auth, a cryptographic system to confirm an agent is legitimate

This gives publishers more visibility into how AI systems access their sites and how that differs from both search crawlers and AI training bots like Google-Extended.

One important implication is control. Because these agents act on user intent, they may not always follow robots.txt rules. For website owners, this creates both opportunity and risk.

On one hand, AI agents could drive high-intent actions. Instead of casual browsing, visits may come from agents ready to complete purchases or bookings. This increases the importance of structured data, pricing, and availability.

On the other hand, aggressive bot protection systems could block these agents and break user workflows.

For now, adoption is gradual. The feature is rolling out over several weeks and is currently tied to experimental products.

Amazon

Amazon Is Ending Commingled Inventory on March 31

The time has come. Starting March 31, Amazon will end commingling for its FBA program, a system where identical products from different sellers were stored and shipped interchangeably.

Commingling was built for speed. By pooling inventory, Amazon could ship the closest available unit to the customer, regardless of which seller originally owned it. This reduced delivery times and simplified logistics.

But the tradeoff was control. Sellers often had no visibility into which specific unit reached the customer. That created issues, especially when counterfeit or low-quality products entered the shared pool.

The new system removes that risk. Every unit will be tied to the specific seller who supplied it. Inventory will no longer be pooled across sellers, even if products share the same barcode.

The change was originally announced by Amazon in December 2025. While sellers have had time to prepare for the change, the operational impact depends on the seller type.

Brand owners enrolled in Brand Registry will gain flexibility. If their products already have manufacturer barcodes like UPCs or ISBNs, they can continue using them without applying Amazon labels. Their inventory will remain separate, giving them more control without adding operational overhead.

Resellers face a stricter change. They will now be required to use Amazon barcode labels on all units, even if manufacturer barcodes exist. This increases prep work and cost, but it also creates clear ownership tracking for every item sold.

For products without manufacturer barcodes, all sellers must use Amazon labels. Shipments that do not comply after the deadline risk being marked defective at receiving.

The end result is that brand protection improves, counterfeit risk drops, and inventory ownership becomes clearer. At the same time, some sellers will see higher costs and more prep requirements.

Newsletters

Beehiiv Lets You Run Your Newsletter Straight from ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini

Beehiiv just made newsletters easier to run. Instead of juggling dashboards, Beehiiv publishers can now run their entire newsletter directly from AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini.

The feature is called Model Context Protocol, or MCP. It’s an open standard that lets AI tools connect directly to platforms like Beehiiv.

Until now, using AI with newsletters was clunky. You had to copy and paste data into a chatbot, which limited what AI could do. MCP removes that step. AI can now access live account data, analyze it, and act on it automatically.

This turns AI from a simple writing assistant into something closer to an operator. Publishers can ask who their most engaged subscribers are, spot churn patterns, or get SEO recommendations based on their content. It also handles operational tasks that usually slow creators down. Subscriber management, automation flows, and performance analysis can all be done with a few prompts instead of manual clicks.

The current version is read-only, but it already supports useful workflows. You can generate revenue reports, track high-value subscribers, or get insights for outreach. Future updates are expected to go further, letting AI draft posts or send targeted offers directly.

This changes how software competes. The value shifts from having the best UI to having the best underlying systems that AI can interact with. It also lowers the barrier to building more advanced workflows. Instead of stitching together APIs or automation tools, users can rely on AI to coordinate actions across their newsletter, data, and integrations in real time.

For independent creators and small teams, this could mean less time spent managing tools and more time focused on strategy and content.

Read All About It!

150+ AI prompts to automate & grow your business: scale without hiring a team

This entrepreneur makes $1M/year from 20 plugins: multi-product playbook

Google’s March 2026 Spam Update already complete: done in less than a day

How foreign brands test the U.S. market: launch and scale in the U.S.

eCommerce

Sellers Have More Marketplace Options in 2026

The eCommerce marketplace landscape is still dominated by a few big players, but there’s plenty of variety behind them. Let’s take a closer look at the top 10 eCommerce marketplaces in the U.S.

According to Marketplace Pulse, Amazon continues to lead the pack by a huge margin, pulling in around $300 billion in third-party sales. That’s more than seven times what eBay makes and about twenty times what most other competitors do.

eBay sits in second place with roughly $39 billion in sales. The platform has shifted away from competing directly with Amazon for new products and focuses more on niche categories like collectibles, pre-loved fashion, and hobby gear.

Right behind eBay, a few marketplaces are clustering in the $15–$22 billion range. Temu is doing well at around $22 billion, moving from direct-from-China operations to a more traditional marketplace model while balancing pricing and fulfillment.

TikTok Shop and Walmart Marketplace are both around $15 billion. TikTok continues to push commerce hard despite regulatory challenges, and Walmart has expanded its marketplace, now hosting over 200,000 sellers.

Beyond the top five, several specialized marketplaces are hitting billion-dollar marks. Wayfair pulls in about $10 billion in home goods. SHEIN, Etsy, and Whatnot each do around $6 billion, serving audiences from fast fashion to handmade items to live auctions. Target Plus remains smaller, at about $1 billion, but is growing in curated marketplace transactions.

Platforms like Shopify aren’t centralized marketplaces, but their collective merchant ecosystem is huge, big enough that it competes with Amazon’s U.S. share.

For eCommerce sellers, this is good news. With so many marketplaces growing and specializing, sellers have more options to reach customers without relying on a single platform.

eCommerce

Walmart Abandons OpenAI Checkout After Low Conversions

Walmart ran a large test of OpenAI’s Instant Checkout inside Walmart’s ChatGPT integration, allowing customers to browse and buy directly from about 200,000 products without leaving the chatbot. The idea was to simplify ecommerce by letting AI handle the end‑to‑end experience.

Did the ChatGPT integration increase conversions? No. In fact, the test was a massive flop.

Purchases completed through the ChatGPT checkout converted three times lower than the equivalent experience that sends users from ChatGPT to Walmart’s own website.

While conceptually appealing, the single‑item, in‑chat purchase flow clashed with typical shopping behavior and buying patterns, weakening performance.

As a result, Walmart is stepping back from relying on OpenAI’s Instant Checkout as the transaction layer. Instead, it will embed its own AI shopping assistant, Sparky, inside ChatGPT.

Beginning late March 2026, this version will let users log in with their Walmart credentials, sync their carts, and complete orders through Walmart’s systems. A similar integration is planned for Google’s Gemini platform.

This test shows that despite the hype, AI‑led commerce still has limits when it comes to driving real sales.

Money Nomad

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Listing #10064 – $100,000.00

display ads | lifestyle, home & garden

This is an established digital publishing website that is already approved and monetized through an exclusive publishing program, currently generating an average of $7,000 per month in revenue, with $6,700 in monthly average profit. The only expense is for a VA who edits and schedules the content. The site earns from platform-based distribution rather than traditional SEO, meaning you don’t need to rely on Google rankings or backlinks. Traffic is driven through a premium content ecosystem, and revenue is tied directly to views and engagement on the platform. The operation is simple and highly systemized. This is a turnkey, cash-flowing digital asset that is easy to operate and has clear room to scale for a buyer willing to expand content production. Learn More

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This Week in M&A Issue #229

Lauren Buchanan — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 08:19:45 +0000

Hey, hot stuff!

Today’s trend of the week is “spices and condiments”.

A growing number of Americans, about 12% of the population, are now using GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. One unexpected side effect is how these drugs change taste, causing people to crave stronger, more intense flavors.

The result is a surge in demand for bold, flavorful condiments and spices, giving a whole new meaning to having a tasteful product portfolio.

We are already seeing this play out in the market, with brands like Bachan’s and Tapatío being acquired at premium valuations.

This opens the door for niche condiment brands, private label products, and ecommerce stores built around flavor, convenience, and better-for-you cooking. You can also pair your products with simple recipes, meal ideas, or even DIY guides that show customers how to create their own flavor-packed sauces at home.

Today we have for you:

JD.com takes on Amazon with major European launch
Amazon plans to move Prime Day to June

And:

WordPress launches plugin checker to audit AI-generated plugins
How to replace your 9-5 with an online income
Doba launches verified Walmart integration for dropshippers

Alright, let’s dive in.

ecommerce

Image Source: Giphy (Reuben Armstrong)

JD.com Enters Europe and Challenges Amazon on Delivery Speed

Chinese eCommerce giant JD.com has launched its Joybuy platform across six European markets, marking its most serious push yet to compete with Amazon. And it is going directly after Amazon’s core advantage: fast, reliable delivery.

Joybuy is now live in the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. At launch, the platform offers more than 100,000 products across categories like electronics, home goods, beauty, and groceries, with major global brands already onboard.

JD is exporting the operational model that made it successful in China, with a focus on logistics control and delivery speed. JD has built more than 60 warehouses and delivery hubs across Europe and operates its own last-mile network.

Speed is the key differentiator. Customers in major cities can receive same-day delivery for orders placed before late morning, and next-day delivery for orders placed later in the day. At launch, this covers more than 15 million households.

This model is closer to a first-party retailer than a typical marketplace. JD owns much of its inventory, which gives it tighter control over quality and fulfillment. That is a clear contrast to platforms like Temu or AliExpress, and it puts Joybuy in more direct competition with Amazon’s core model.

Pricing is also designed to compete directly with Amazon. Delivery is free above a minimum order threshold, and a low-cost subscription called JoyPlus offers unlimited free shipping, positioning it as an alternative to Prime.

JD has tried to enter Europe before with limited impact. However, this time, its €2.2 billion acquisition of Ceconomy, the parent company of MediaMarkt and Saturn, gives it an existing customer base and retail footprint to build on.

For Amazon, this is not a new type of competitor. But it is a serious one. JD is not competing on branding or marketplace scale alone. It is competing on infrastructure, delivery speed, and price. Only time will tell if this will lead to a meaningful shift in market share.

Amazon

Amazon Adjusts Prime Day Timing to Boost Second Quarter Sales

Amazon is preparing to move its annual Prime Day shopping event from its usual mid‑July slot to late June this year, according to multiple industry reports.

Prime Day has been held in July since its debut in 2015, except for temporary timing changes during the pandemic. The event has grown into a key driver of online sales for Amazon and third‑party sellers.

Data from Adobe Analytics shows the expanded 2025 Prime Day, which ran for four days instead of the traditional two, generated $24.1 billion in U.S. online spending, up about 30% from the year before.

Moving Prime Day into June would push the spike in sales into Amazon’s second fiscal quarter instead of the third. That could affect how the company reports quarterly revenue, particularly as Prime Day has become a key performance indicator for eCommerce growth.

For sellers who rely on Prime Day traffic and promotional momentum, the timing adjustment could require strategy changes. For years, July has been a predictable anchor in retail calendars, aligning with summer promotions and back‑to‑school shopping. Many brands plan inventory and marketing calendars around the established July date, using the event to clear stock and capture heightened consumer demand. A June event would compress planning cycles for marketing campaigns and inventory decisions.

Other retailers could feel the impact too. Companies like Walmart and Target often run promotions alongside Prime Day to capture shopper interest. A shift to June could realign those competitive strategies and disrupt the mid-year sales rhythm.

Analysts note that consumer spending habits are evolving, with more frequent sales events throughout the year. Moving Prime Day earlier could be Amazon’s way of adapting to competition and changing shopper behavior.

Amazon has not yet officially confirmed the date change. It usually announces the official dates closer to the event, so brands and customers will be watching closely for the final word.

WordPress

WordPress Launches Official Tool to Validate AI-Generated Plugins

The rise of AI-generated “vibe coding” is making it easier than ever to build WordPress plugins, but it is also introducing new risks around quality, security, and compliance.

That’s why WordPress.org has launched its official Plugin Check tool. The tool gives developers an automated way to review their plugins against the same standards used in the WordPress plugin directory, covering everything from security and performance to accessibility and coding best practices.

This matters because vibe coding shifts how software gets built. Instead of writing every line manually, developers increasingly prompt AI tools to generate code and iterate quickly. While this speeds up development, it also increases the likelihood of overlooked issues. AI-generated code can work in simple cases but still contain vulnerabilities, poor structure, or compatibility problems when deployed at scale.

The Plugin Check tool is designed to catch these issues early. It flags problems such as improper use of WordPress functions, missing security practices, performance concerns, and even naming conflicts or trademark risks. It also helps developers align with repository requirements, which can speed up approval for distribution.

The latest version adds support for WordPress’s new AI infrastructure, including compatibility with AI connectors in WordPress 7.0.

You can download the official WordPress Plugin Checker Tool here.

Read All About It!

How to revive inactive email lists without hurting deliverability: 7 steps

5 frameworks that made these newsletters $100M+: print money

Shopify adds USDC stablecoin to core payments stack: accept digital dollars

Top trending topics for March 2026: hottest search topics in the US

youtube

What It Actually Takes to Replace Your 9–5 with Online Business Income

Thinking about quitting your 9–5 and replacing it with passive online income?

Here’s the truth. The “set it and forget it” passive income dream you see online often isn’t real.

But that doesn’t mean replacing your salary is out of reach. It just requires a more practical approach.

In this week’s video, Greg breaks down what it actually takes to make the transition. He covers how much income you really need to replace your job, the key differences between building a business vs buying one, and which types of online businesses are best suited for consistent, reliable cash flow.

He also shares the fastest path to getting there, plus a simple “worst case scenario” framework to help you evaluate risk before making any big moves.

If you’re serious about leaving your 9–5, this video will give you a clear, realistic starting point.

Dropshipping

Dropshippers Can Now Connect Directly to Walmart Marketplace with Doba

Doba just rolled out a verified integration with Walmart Marketplace, giving dropshipping sellers a direct, reliable connection to one of the biggest online retail platforms in the US.

This update makes linking your Doba store to Walmart Marketplace simple. There’s no manual API setup needed. Instead, the integration uses a modern OAuth 2.0 connection that’s stable and secure. Sellers can sync millions of products, keep inventory updated in real time, and automate order processing, all from Doba’s platform.

Walmart Marketplace attracts more than 120 million unique visitors each month. For dropshippers, that means access to a massive audience.

This integration is officially part of Walmart’s solution provider program. That means it meets Walmart’s technical and performance standards. Sellers can feel confident that inventory updates, fulfillment speed, and order tracking are all handled correctly. Avoiding errors not only saves time but also protects your account from penalties or suspension.

For anyone scaling a dropshipping business, this makes a big difference. Automation that’s directly connected to a major marketplace reduces manual work, keeps operations smooth, and helps you stay on top of Walmart’s requirements.

Money Nomad

Looking for a side hustle?

Try Money Nomad, our sister marketplace built specifically for profitable side hustles and micro-businesses that are too small for Empire Flippers.

Check out this recent listing available on the Money Nomad Marketplace:

Listing #10058 – $27,000.00

YouTube | lifestyle

The channel produces in-depth, educational, and entertainment-focused content centered on a specific luxury market. The content is evergreen and serves an excellent audience demographic (primarily male ages 35+) who have strong purchasing power, making the traffic valuable to potential advertisers and partners. Currently, the only revenue source is YouTube ads, which provides easy growth levers for a new owner. Learn More

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