Sellers test hidden image text as Amazon ends FBA prep service
Amazon sellers are testing whether near-invisible text embedded in product images gets read by the marketplace's AI assistant. The technique, embedding keywords in main images using text just slightly off-color from the background, echoes tricks that once worked on Google and TikTok before those platforms closed them. Sellers can verify what Amazon's systems detect using image-checking tools before uploading. It remains unproven, but experimenters say it feels like old-school SEO arriving on Amazon.
The bigger AI story is content licensing: Amazon secured deals with major publishers, including the companies behind Vogue, GQ, Good Housekeeping and Cosmopolitan, to feed editorial content into its Rufus shopping assistant, following an earlier deal with a leading US newspaper. When shoppers ask Rufus for the best moisturizer or what to wear to a summer wedding, answers will draw on years of expert editorial, not just listings and reviews. For sellers, that marks the arrival of answer engine optimization: brands now need to appear in trusted editorial around the web, not merely be tuned within Amazon's own ecosystem.
In operations news, Amazon is ending its US FBA prep and item labeling services on January 1, 2026, citing improved seller packaging capabilities. Sellers must prep themselves, use third-party providers, or enroll eligible products in the Ships in Product Packaging program. Shipments created after the deadline must arrive fully prepped, and improperly prepped inventory loses reimbursement eligibility for damage or loss.
A feedback policy change effective August 4 has sellers protesting: buyers can now leave star-only seller ratings with no written comment, and Amazon is disabling the appeal feature for those ratings. Sellers argue they lose the context needed to fix problems, and the ability to appeal ratings that actually describe fulfillment issues outside their control, all while feedback still drives performance metrics and Buy Box eligibility.
On the brighter side of AI search: a 50-site study found AI-generated answers drove homepage traffic gains of as much as 10.7 percent, and appearing in a knowledge panel raised brand trust from 38 to 61 percent. And in trivia, 43 percent of the record 157 billion dollars Americans will spend on pets this year goes to food, treats and supplements.
