This Issue's TLDR...

• We're all playing the wrong game
• A workaround to Amazon's recent changes to review sharing?
• Dirty little secrets about removal orders

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I spoke at Ecom Mastery AI a couple weeks ago.

The core message of my talk was:

We're all playing the wrong game.

More specifically, I waxed philosophic about how 3P selling on Amazon isn't the "easy mode" game that it used to be.

And, how success on Amazon in 2026 and beyond probably looks different quite different than it did in 2016.

Many speakers at the event actually hit on the same theme, but through the lenses of AI/automation and marketing (specifically, demand generation on TikTok).

Unsurprisingly, I approached this same theme looking through a financial lens.

In particular, I talked about:

1. How I've flipped my working capital needs and cash conversion cycle from large positive numbers, to negative numbers (i.e., I collect from my customers *before* I need to pay my suppliers;
2. How I've leveraged an asset-based revolving line of credit to ensure that I never have difficulty navigating a cash crunch or placing larger POs; and
3. How I've converted my largest Amazon business from 3P to 1P.

Following my talk, I got the most "hallway questions" about #2 above, so here's the TLDR on that:

• For the past year, I've been working with a massive speciality lender called eCapital on an asset-based debt product specifically designed for Amazon sellers. It's called Liquid Inventory.
• In this journey, we started with, frankly, all of the things that sucked about existing debt offerings for Amazon sellers, and said: "How can we do the opposite of that?"
• The end result, I truly believe, is a debt product that is worthy of Amazon sellers. Something that facilitates growth and doesn't lock you into an inescapable debt death spiral (say that 3x fast).

Maybe this resonates with you. Maybe it doesn't.

If I doesn't, I'd challenge you to ponder two things:

• When Amazon raises fees again (and you know they will), will your business have enough margin left to continue to invest in growth and pay expenses?
• "The time to repair the roof is before it rains" -- You may not need credit now, but the beautiful thing about the Liquid Inventory product is that it costs you basically nothing to open it, and it will grow dynamically with your Amazon business. You can literally have it sit dormant for, e.g., 4 months, and then, when you're placing a big Q4 PO and you need it, you draw from it.

If you want to go down this path, and make sure you have access to cheap capital, when you need it, here's the deal:

1. Go to the Liquid Inventory application form​
2. Fill it out and put "Jon Derkits" in the How Did You Hear About Us field (NOTE: I'm an advisor, not an affiliate. I don't make extra money from you doing this; this is simply for triaging and getting you VIP treatment.)
3. Do this before April 30, and you'll receive a special gift from the eCapital team

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BEST from the Group Chats

Earlier this week, this question came up in one of the communities that I belong to:

This is actually a great question. And, I've seen a lot of this over the past 45-60 days.

Some smart commenters hypothesized that this issue was related to Amazon's recent changes to review sharing across product variations.

But, the OP clarified: This happened on a single ASIN that wasn't part of an ASIN family.

So, the group collectively took to the task of diagnosing what was going on.

One particularly enterprising commenter put the situation into Claude which was...as I'll explain, good enough for an 80% answer.

So, Claude got one thing right here...

The removed reviews were likely tied to reviewers with "Buyer account flags".

To expand on that...

Every Amazon customer has a Reviewer Trust Score that is dynamically calculated and updated.

This influences, among other things, how much "weight" their review has, where their review shows up (i.e., is it one of the top reviews), and whether their review gets posted at all.

But, Claude was wrong about Amazon's "review purge algorithm" (that doesn't exist) and, more importantly, Claude was wrong (arguably) about **What To Do**.

Claude's recommendation was to:

To which I'd say...

That's bad advice.

This isn't fixable.

You will waste countless hours trying to fight this.

I share all this because, like I said, Claude was "generally right, but precisely wrong" here.

And, if you were to follow Claude's advice and try to escalate this and reverse it, you would waste dozens of hours of your life.

BEST from LinkedIn

In advance of Prime Day, I've been fielding a lot of questions about removal orders, and decisions as to whether remove vs. dispose vs. liquidate vs. something else.

Maybe I'll write a longer post on that, with actual math (you guys like when I talk finance, right??), but, for now, here are some great "dirty little secrets" of removal orders, from my friend, Lesley Hensell.

Thanks, Lesley!

BEST from X

ICYMI, the California AG office has launched a full-on PR campaign in its price-fixing case against Amazon.

I've seen a lot of "hot takes" on this on X, some of which seem like pure clickbait. But, that's the nature of social media, right?

Personally, I think:

1. Amazon will settle this out of court and agree to a fine;
2. Amazon will end up paring back its Standards for Brands Selling on Amazon policy (i.e., the operant policy here that gives Amazon the legal cover to remove the Buy Box on non price-competitive offers); and
3. Prices for consumers on Amazon won't materially change.

Maybe I'm wrong in those predictions.

But, regardless, it will be entertaining to watch this play out.

Rob Bonta @AGRobBonta We’re sharing new evidence in our case against Amazon clearly showing the megacorporation is involved in price fixing. It’s clear as day: Amazon is colluding with vendors and other retailers to make your life more unaffordable. We’ll see them in court. 5:20 PM • Apr 20, 2026 1154 Retweets 2957 Likes Read 108 replies

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