🎙️Prime Day Data Breakdown With the Acadia Team

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Welcome to The Ecommerce Braintrust podcast, brought to you by Julie Spear, Head of Retail Marketplace Services, and Jordan Ripley, Director of Retail Operations.

Amazon has made it official: this year’s Prime Day was the biggest one yet. We’re recording this episode on the afternoon of Monday, July 14th, just 48 hours after the event wrapped, and we’re excited to dig into the early insights.

And just as Amazon has extended Prime Day into a four-day marathon, we’re expanding our post-event panel with four sharp minds to help us unpack what really happened last week.

Joining us today are:

• Covering the operations side of things, a familiar voice on this podcast and contributor to The Retail Roundup, Armin Alispahic.

• Bringing the account strategy perspective: Senior Account Manager, Gavin Farnan

• And rounding it out on the media side, we have not one but two experts: Senior Media Managers Damiano Ciarrocchi and Rhen McLeod.

The data is just starting to settle, but that’s not stopping us from diving into some early hot takes and insights. Tune in to find out more!

“I don’t think that the shopper demand necessarily weakened throughout the event, as the data shows, but the budget may have simply started to run out.”

Damiano Ciarrocchi

KEY TAKEAWAYS

In this episode, the team discusses:

• Prime Day Purchases & AI Features: The panel kicks off by sharing what they bought during Prime Day and their experiences with Amazon’s new AI shopping assistant, Rufus, highlighting its value for mood-based, “vibe shopping” and customer review summaries.

• Prime Day Performance Data: An in-depth look at sales distribution across the new four-day format, including how revenue lifts compared to past events.

• Operational Insights & Promo Strategies: Discussion on how the elongated event affected promotion pacing, ad budget allocation, and the shopper response to an extended sale window, along with the impact on category performance.

• Technical Performance & Glitches: A notably smooth Amazon ad and promo experience this year. No major outages or surprises, plus some minor issues with inventory caps and VC account eligibility.

• Advancement in Amazon Advertising Tools: The group explores cutting-edge ad features, especially the rollout of AMC (Amazon Marketing Cloud) audiences for sponsored product ads, offering more precise results tracking and targeting.

• Organic & Operational Adjustments: Implications for inventory capacity, stricter Amazon requirements, creative price strategies by brands, and shifting promo tactics to manage margin pressure and secure Prime Day badging.

• Post-Prime Day Lead-Out Strategies: Key recommendations for capturing post-event demand via retargeting, subscribe & save coupons, and utilizing new promo types to leverage traffic from Prime Day.

• Preparing for an AI-Driven Future: The episode wraps up with a forward-looking discussion on the rising role of agentic AI in online shopping, recommended optimizations for both paid and organic to better capture traffic from conversational and personalized shopping queries.

🎙️News Review with Armin Alispahic and Ross Walker

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Welcome to another edition of The Retail Round-Up: your monthly recap of the biggest headlines and developments in the retail world.

Prime Day may be breathing down our necks, but that’s not stopping Armin Alispahic and Ross Walker from jumping in to help us unpack a wave of industry news, from monumental partnerships to the biggest retailer developments you’ll want to keep an eye on.

Let’s get into it.

If you serve ads 10 times on one DSP and 20 times on another DSP, that’s already 30 exposures. It’s way too much. But now you can cap it all in one place, and that’s incredibly helpful.

Ross Walker

KEY TAKEAWAYS

In this episode, Jordan, Ross, and Armin discuss:

• Deprecation of Amazon Posts: Insights on Amazon dropping its social media-inspired Posts feature.

• Amazon’s Big Partnerships: Deep dive into Amazon’s new collaborations with Roku and Disney, what this means for DSP buyers, premium ad inventory, and holistic audience measurement.

• Operational Updates at Amazon:

• • Stricter Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) requirements: New limits, minimum order volumes, and tighter appeal windows.

  • Return rate badging tightening for vendors: Financial implications for frequently returned items and changes in how returns are processed.

  • Introduction of the “Final Sale” badge on apparel, and what that means for consumer experience and liquidation.

• Walmart Retail Media Upgrades:

• • Launch of negative keyword targeting for sponsored products and officially allowing competitor keyword conquesting.

  • Discussion on new measurement items and how these tools help brands get better data and incrementality on Walmart Connect.

• Walmart Marketplace Fulfillment Update:

• • Walmart now allows sellers to use Amazon’s Multichannel Fulfillment (MCF) to fulfill Walmart orders, a major change to how sellers can test and scale on both platforms.

🎙️Interview with Erica Groussman of TRUBAR

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This final Category Disruptors episode brings the series full circle in the best way. We hope you enjoyed it!

In this final episode of the series spotlighting powerhouse female CEOs and founders, we’re joined by Erica Groussman, co-founder and CEO of TRUBRANDS, the company behind the fan-favorite TRUBAR and its mission to bring “Indulgent Nutrition” to the masses.

It’s a high-energy, insightful conversation that captures exactly what this series is all about: bold ideas, fearless leadership, and brands rewriting the rules in their categories.

A fitting finale to an inspiring lineup. Don’t miss it!

It felt like a million challenges. From finances to ingredients, or packaging, we had issues along the way in every aspect. But we try to forget the hard parts. Because nothing worthwhile is ever easy.

Erica Groussman

KEY TAKEAWAYS

In this episode, Erica, Julie, and Jordan discuss:

• Erica’s entrepreneurial background and what inspired her to found TRUBAR, identifying a gap in the protein bar market.

• The importance of developing bars that don’t sacrifice taste or make you feel bad after eating—her “indulgent nutrition” philosophy.

• How Erica approaches product development, drawing inspiration from popular desserts and comfort foods, and turning them into healthy snacks.

• Real talk on challenges during development—including flavors that didn’t work out and the persistence needed to get them right.

• How TRUBAR prioritizes women in leadership, pay equity, and employs organizations that support mothers and women returning to work.

• Erica’s methods for celebrating every win—big and small—while overcoming countless challenges in supply chain, packaging, and scaling distribution.

• Lessons learned along the founder journey, such as the value of redundancy and preparedness, especially in the face of supply chain disruptions.

• The evolution of TRUBAR e-commerce strategy—from direct-to-consumer startup struggles to explosive Amazon growth—and the ongoing importance of controlling the brand experience online.

• Sneak peeks at what’s next: new flavors, the launch of a kids’ collection, and hints at future product innovations for Trubrands.