Helium 10 Buzz 2/20/25: Amazon Eliminates Inspire | New TikTok Shop Changes | What’s Happening with Shein/Temu?

We’re back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10’s Senior Brand Evangelist, Shivali Patel. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, TikTok Shop, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10’s newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level.

Amazon kills ‘Inspire,’ its TikTok-style feed for discovering products
https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/18/amazon-kills-inspire-its-tiktok-style-feed-for-discovering-products/

TikTok Shop expands to Europe, Japan, Brazil
https://www.techinasia.com/news/tiktok-shop-expands-to-europe-japan-brazil

TikTok Shop surpasses Shein, Temu in US sales growth
https://www.techinasia.com/news/tiktok-shop-surpasses-shein-temu-in-us-sales-growth

BillingPlatform Teams With Quickbase to Automate Revenue Management
https://www.pymnts.com/partnerships/2025/billingplatform-teams-with-quickbase-to-automate-revenue-management/

TikTok Looks To Promote Livestream Shopping in More Regions
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktok-live-stream-shopping-push-brazil-japan/740389/

In our final segment, we unlock the secrets of keyword research to supercharge sales spikes. By analyzing seasonal and year-round product trends, we reveal strategies using Helium 10’s powerful features, such as historical trend analysis and reverse ASIN searches. Learn how to harness these insights for a competitive edge, ensuring your products thrive in both peak and lull sales periods. As we conclude, we highlight the latest updates to Helium 10’s Magnet tool, designed to elevate your Amazon business strategy as an essential step forward in the ever-evolving e-commerce world.

In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Bradley covers:

• 00:46 – Amazon Kills Inspire
• 03:28 – TikTok Shop Expands
• 05:07 – TikTok Beats Temu
• 06:52 – Shein, Temu Shift
• 08:41 – TikTok Live Surges
• 09:39 – Follow Helium 10 On TikTok
• 10:38 – Helium 10 New Feature Alerts
• 14:56 – Training Tip: How to Check an Amazon Product’s Organic and Sponsored Rank History

Transcript

Shivali Patel:

Amazon shutting down its TikTok-like shopping feed, TikTok shop beginning its global expansion, and what is going on with Shein and Temu? This and more on this week’s episode of the Weekly Buzz.

Bradley Sutton:

How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I am your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show. That is our Helium 10 Weekly buzz, where we give you a rundown of all the new stories that are going on in the Amazon, Walmart and e-commerce world. We highlight the latest new feature alerts from Helium 10, and we review a training tip of the week that’ll give you serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Today, our host is going to be Shivali Patel, and so, Shivali, take it away and let us know what’s buzzing.

Shivali Patel:

First up, we have this news article from TechCrunch reporting Amazon is officially pulling the plug on Inspire. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m referring to the TikTok-like short form video and photo feed that allowed users to discover and shop for products through influencer and brand content. A company spokesperson confirmed the shutdown to TechCrunch, stating that Amazon continually evaluates features based on customer feedback and, as a result, inspire is no longer available. This move comes at a really interesting time. I agree with this article, especially as TikTok faces regulatory uncertainty in the US. One might assume that Amazon would want to position itself as an alternative for shoppers who rely on TikTok for product recommendations, but instead, what the company is doing is shifting their focus to other social commerce strategies altogether, rather than maintain its own short form content platform. Instead, what Amazon has chosen to do is double down on external social media partnerships. In November of 2023, it teamed up with Instagram to allow seamless in-app shopping, and also partnered with Snapchat to enable purchases directly from social ads.

Shivali Patel:

These integrations in some way suggest that Amazon sees more value in leveraging existing social networks rather than building out its own. So why did Inspire not work Well? For starters, it struggled to attract creators. Amazon’s 2023 incentive program, which offered select influencers with about $12,500 or 500 videos at $25 per video, faced a lot of backlash for low payouts. Many content creators found it was more profitable to just post on TikTok or Instagram or YouTube, where monetization opportunities were far better. Other considerations could really be Amazon’s associates program, their influencer program and even without Inspire, the company has plenty of ways to source and reward new content. Not to mention they also have been shifting towards AI-driven shopping experiences. Last year, the company introduced Rufus, an AI shopping assistant to enhance product discovery in a way that doesn’t rely on short-form video content. Additionally, amazon is currently also testing out a feature that directs shoppers to other brand websites when a product is not available on Amazon, signaling that there’s a shift in its overall marketplace strategy. So what exactly is the big takeaway for Amazon and Walmart sellers who leverage influencer marketing? This shutdown means Amazon will not be investing further into its own social feed. Instead, brands should consider expanding their reach onto other platforms to then drive external traffic back on to Amazon. And, by the way, amazon’s influencer program. If you didn’t know, helium 10 just launched the influencer bootcamp, so I highly recommend that you go check it out inside of our learning hub.

Shivali Patel:

Then we have some exciting news about TikTok shop making some international moves. I remember last January I was chatting with a friend in Germany who’s an Amazon seller and we were talking about how he needed to start learning about TikTok shop so when it did venture over to his country he’d be ready. Well, that time is here. The platform is now expanding into Italy, Germany and France, with upcoming launches in Japan and Brazil later this year. According to Tech in Asia, this aggressive expansion follows TikTok shop’s explosive 153% sales growth in January 2025, surpassing Shein and Temu in US sales momentum. You guys, the rollout begins in Italy this February, as you can see from this article, and TikTok is already working with Chinese merchants to establish storefronts by late March or early April. Tiktok’s signature yellow shopping cart feature, which enables direct in-video and live stream purchases, could go live in these new European markets. While Japan’s launch is set for June, Brazil’s timeline remains unconfirmed.

Shivali Patel:

So I would say this expansion really signals TikTok’s global ambitions and conveys that, if you are an Amazon or Walmart seller looking to expand, TikTok Shop is absolutely worth looking into, as it’s exhibiting all the signs for rapid sales growth. If you missed it on our previous Weekly Buzz episodes. Helium 10 now has a TikTok shop profitability calculator as well as a listing converter that is presently available in beta for elites, and it’s going to roll out to our diamond plan users soon. So, if you have access to either, now’s the time to start tapping in. The growth is expected. The only question is will your brand capitalize on live stream shopping and video commerce that seems to be dominating consumer behavior?

Shivali Patel:

Speaking of growth, TikTok shop has officially outpaced Shein and Temu. I know I just mentioned that, but let’s talk a little bit about it, because, according to the same news site, with a whopping 153% increase in January, Shein and Temu actually only reported modest gains of about 26% and 28% respectively. The platform’s in-app shopping features which launched in 2023, has proven particularly effective for transactions over $25. This is an area where Shein previously dominated, and TikTok shop’s year-over-year growth in high ticket transactions climbed by about 16 percentage points Okay Whereas Temu that focused on the items under $25, saw a seven percentage increase instead. This signals a shift in consumer behavior, with TikTok’s video driven commerce proving highly effective in driving higher value purchases, and a major shift from the impulse, by nature, of low cost platforms.

Shivali Patel:

However, TikTok Shop’s success in the US is not without challenges, and it’s only fair that I’m honest with you. The looming threat of a potential ban if ByteDance fails its US operations could create uncertainty for sellers relying on TikTok as a sales channel. Additionally, the proposed 10% tariff on Chinese exports could further impact pricing and supply chain dynamics. Meanwhile, Shein is feeling the pressure, losing market share to TikTok shop. Shein is reportedly considering a reduced valuation of $30 billion ahead of the potential London IPO. We have our opinions at Helium 10, but what are yours? With TikTok shop dominating growth charts, should sellers be doubling down on the platform despite its uncertainties, and will Amazon ramp up its influencer-driven features to compete? Drop your thoughts below.

Shivali Patel:

Switching fully into Shein and Temu world. As reported by Payments.com, Shein and Temu are racing to relocate production outside of China in an effort to potentially sidestep US tariffs and the potential end of de minimis exemption. The move comes as the Trump administration considers the future and initially announced the elimination of the $800 tariff-free rule for Chinese imports, only to pause the decision while new processing system is developed. I talked to you guys about this a few weeks ago. For US-based sellers, this could be game-changing shift, because the price advantage that Shein and Temu have long enjoyed may soon disappear, giving domestic brands a better chance to compete without being undercut by ultra low cost imports. In response to this uncertainty, Shein has also been actively diversifying its supply chain, sourcing products from warehouses outside of China to mitigate the impact of potential tariffs. Meanwhile, Temu has already reduced its prices and is pressuring suppliers to store inventory in the US, with over a third of its products now fulfilled domestically. The company is also ramping up expansion into other international markets, trying to reduce reliance on US sales. The financial impact on these fast fashion giants is already being felt. Shein is now considering slashing its IPO valuation by nearly 25%, bringing its valuation down to about $50 billion from its previous $66 billion valuation. Meanwhile, Temu’s shift away from centralized price setting and logistics could drive up prices on the platform, further leveling out the playing field for other online sellers. How the policy changes and the effects that are coming could shape what becomes our recent normal, well, only time will tell. So let’s keep it moving.

Shivali Patel:

Finally, our last news piece of today according to social media today, TikTok is ramping up its push for live stream shopping, mirroring the massive success of its Chinese counterpart, Douyin, which is now generating a staggering $500 billion in annual sales. While TikTok shop has yet reached that level of adoption in other markets, interest is growing fast, especially with live stream sales tripling on Black Friday last year. In response, TikTok is now working to expand live shopping broadcasts into more regions, encouraging brands, sellers to leverage live commerce as a powerful sales channel. The numbers speak for themselves. In 2024, over 100 million creators went live on the app, with 46 million creators launching their first ever stream. Viewers were highly engaged, generating 269 billion chats and live sessions, and 250,000 creators doubling their income from live streaming alone.

Shivali Patel:

In fact, I just went live for the very first time yesterday as well, on our Helium 10 software TikTok channel. While we are not trying to sell you products, we do go live to educate and answer questions. So make sure you guys are subscribed to not miss out, and when I say subscribed, I do mean follow. You can tell I’m a YouTube or LinkedIn girly. Anyways, why does this matter? Great question. Well, live commerce is built on impulse buying and TikTok’s algorithm favors engagement, heavy content, meaning that sellers who effectively incorporate live streams into their strategy could see a boost in visibility and conversions. We’ve already seen that with Amazon sellers who have transitioned over into the platform at Helium 10. Now, with live streams already dominating sales in China, TikTok is now offering best practices and training to encourage sellers worldwide to jump in before the space becomes saturated.

Shivali Patel:

So this brings me to a question that I’ve been wondering myself how many of you guys have already started live streaming, and what tips do you have for the brands who are just getting started? Help a friend out in the comments, right. All right, then. So that does conclude our news pieces for this week. It’s time for the new feature alerts. Let’s turn things over to Bradley. Bradley, tell the people what they have to look forward to.

Bradley Sutton:

All it’s in a tool that you guys all know and love Magnet and the core engine. I guess that runs Magnet, and some of what you see in the UI has changed. And also now there is now a historical trend feature in Magnet. So let’s go ahead and hop into what this is. So if you go into Magnet and let’s say you search collagen powder, all right, so what happens now? When you search that, you’re going to see a little bit more breakdown of where these keywords are coming from. Before we just had a whole list of keywords. You’re going to be able to see, all right, how many is based off of organic keywords, that products that are getting sales from the word collagen powder are also ranking highly for how many keywords are coming from where some of these products are running.

Bradley Sutton:

Sponsored ads and sponsored brand video ads and sponsored brand header ads Smart Complete you guys know what Smart Complete is. It’s basically any keyword that has the root words in it in any form. So like, for example, you could see that there’s 2,700 versions of this keyword that has collagen and powder in it. So if I were to go ahead and filter for that smart complete, I can see what’s going to come up with like a phrase form, a match for PPC. Like, for example, I can see one collagen powder, vital proteins, a branded keyword, but then also there’s besha collagen powder. It’s it’s with collagen powder at the end of it. It also shows where the collagen and powder are in different parts of the world. Like here is vegan collagen boost powder, and then you know, like if I were to go through all these 2000, I would be able to see even keywords where you know it’ll be like collagen powder, collagen powder, something or other. But that’s smart, complete. It’s a cool thing that Magnet has always had. Now I see here the total search volume of the keywords at this time, of everything that’s showing up here. And, by the way, the other thing I forgot that Magnet now has it shows where the top products performing for collagen powder. It shows other keywords that Amazon recommends for those products. All right, using the Amazon relevancy algorithm.

Bradley Sutton:

Now what we have also new is the historical trend feature. All right, historical trend is very similar to the one that we have in Cerebro right, where I can go back in time and see what was the magnet search around that time and this allows you to kind of see, hey, the overall search volume for a niche of keywords, if you will. How does it improve or go less over time? So here in August of 2024, I can see that there was actually 3,000 organic keywords that the other products were ranking for, which had a total search volume of 8,000. For whatever I entered the seed keyword collagen powder I can see hey, it was 56,000. I can see what the conversion share in brand analytics was in August of 2024 for this keyword. I can see how that changes over time. And then I can also see it right here. I can graph all of this that changes over time. And then I can also see it right here, I can graph all of this. I can say, hey, just show me how the keyword search volume of collagen powder has increased or decreased in search volume over time. What about the total keyword sales of the keywords that the magnet search for this keyword generates?

Bradley Sutton:

I can see that there’s a little dip in the summer but there’s a peak in January. It makes sense People thinking more about supplements at the beginning of the year. And then I can actually go in and say, hey, let me see all of the keywords that were ranking here during this amount of time. The other thing is I can actually click on one of these months and say, hey, let me click on July of 2024, apply the filters, click on July of 2024, apply the filters, and now I’ll see all of the keywords that were coming up in a search for that time period. I can see what their search volume was and you know where people were advertising, et cetera, et cetera. So again, you know, still obviously the number one keyword research tool you should be using in Helium 10 is Cerebro, but this you know for those of you who use Maggot to kind of like round out your keyword research. Well, now you’re going to have a few more data points and things that you’re going to be able to look into.

Shivali Patel:

Thank you very much, Bradley. And of course, last but not least, our strategy of the week. Keywords are the bread and butter of how our products become discovered, meaning I’m sure that you want to ensure you’re getting those highly searched for in-demand search terms with appropriate amounts of competition into your listing somewhere, or at least paying attention to them for ads. For that, let me pass the baton over to Carrie so she can tell you exactly how to check an Amazon product’s organic and sponsored rank history.

Carrie Miller:

How do you identify what a product was ranking for and when and now? Why is this important and how can it help make you money? Well, let’s use the example of the beach ball that I used in a previous video. If I plan to launch a beach ball next July, or perhaps even in the spring, my primary focus would be on the summer months June, July and August. Now, conducting keyword research in December won’t reveal the best keywords, because only a few people are going to be searching for beach balls at that time, so instead, I should identify a top-selling beach ball from the peak months of June, July or August of the previous year and then analyze its performance. This approach is going to allow me to see the keywords that drove sales during that time, and this method is not only useful for seasonal products, but also for year-round items like power banks, for instance. If I notice a sales spike for a power bank in a particular month, I can compare the keywords it ranked for before and during that spike. By identifying which keywords, whether organic or sponsored, contributed to the sales increase, I can better focus on the keywords that could drive sales for my product. So understanding these keyword trends helps target the right terms to potentially boost sales.

Carrie Miller:

So how do you conduct this analysis? Let me go ahead and show you so. As you can see here, we’ve got a competitor here and we’ve done a reverse ASIN search in our Cerebro tool and a lot of keywords have come up as a result. But what we want to do is actually click on this show historical trend button and this is going to allow us to go back in time to see the rank history of this product. So when we take a look here, we can look at some of these these months. Maybe some months were better than others. Maybe it looks like they had a lot of keyword coverage in October of 2022. So if I click on that and hit apply filters, I can go ahead and take a look where this product was ranked in the organic and the sponsored sections so that I can potentially target those. Now, if you see, for example, if I go back to the historical trend like maybe one month they’re not, they’re down, and then the next month they do a spike you can actually compare the two months and see where the spike was and you know what keyword coverage has helped to increase the sales.

Carrie Miller:

But I’m going to go ahead and just look at this particular one here. So this is our historical trend for October of 2022. And what I’m looking at is the organic and sponsoring here, and you also can see the search volume for that particular month. Now what I’m going to do is I’m going to go in here and use these filters. I’m going to say I want to see where this product ranked between one and 20. And the search volume was a minimum of 300. Now you can also do this for the sponsored rank as well, and the sponsored rank is here. But I’m going to go ahead and search for the organic rank filters and, as you can see, we’ve got a great list of very targeted keywords that are probably going to be very relevant and we can take a look at those keywords to potentially target in our own advertising and then also focus on ranking for those specific keywords.

Carrie Miller:

To understand a spike in sales, I compare a month with low sales to one with high sales. Examining keyword performance, I analyze which keywords saw a significant increase in rank or reach the top of the page one, and this reveals the reasons behind the sales search. Competitors who aren’t using tools like Helium 10 might not even realize why their sales spiked, but I can use this data and gain an edge. This feature is incredibly valuable and it helps identify not only spikes but also drops in sales. So, for example, if I see a competitor had a poor sales month despite being in stock, I can look at the previous month and you know successful month anyway and identify which keywords lost rank or where they reduced their ad spend, and this insight shows me which keywords I need to focus on, you know, to avoid basically a similar sales dip Again. This is one of the most powerful features in Helium 10, and it can give you so much insight and a competitive advantage, so make sure to leverage it.

Shivali Patel:

Thank you, Carrie. That was fantastic. Go try this on your own ASINs folks. That is it for this week. I hope you enjoyed this week’s Weekly Buzz. We’ll see you next week to talk about what’s buzzing.

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