630: OpenAI Pulls Back. TikTok Reverses Course. Ecommerce Just Got Messy

Summary

Podcast Summary: The My Wife Quit Her Job Podcast With Steve Chou

Episode 630: OpenAI Pulls Back. TikTok Reverses Course. Ecommerce Just Got Messy
Release Date: March 17, 2026
Guests: Sarah Chrisp (host), Tony Herfak, Meg

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Overview

This episode dives deep into a tumultuous week for ecommerce sellers, marked by sudden platform reversals, regulatory changes, and new AI-related trends. Sarah, Tony, and Meg discuss shakeups at OpenAI, TikTok's pivot on fulfillment requirements, trust challenges in reviews and influencer marketing, Amazon listing crackdowns, and ongoing tariff confusion. The theme is clear: the ecommerce landscape is messy and changes rapidly, demanding agility from sellers.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. State of Ecommerce in 2026

• Online Shopping Trends

  • Ecommerce now accounts for 16.6% of all retail sales—an all-time high, but still has room for growth ([01:32]).
  • Convenience is a major driver: “They make it so easy to shop, whereas I don't… want that [in-store] experience anymore...” — Meg ([04:44]).

• Amazon Checkout Frustrations

  • Amazon's confusing button placement—Buy Now above Add to Cart—can lead to accidental purchases and return headaches ([02:12]-[03:06]).
  • Anecdotes about buying directly from smart TVs illustrate how seamless—and potentially dangerous—checkout experiences have become ([03:20]-[04:20]).

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2. OpenAI Backs Down on Direct Checkout

• Agentic Product Buying Rolled Back

  • OpenAI has cancelled its “agentic integration for purchasing,” derailing plans to let users buy directly from search/chat interface ([05:42]-[06:04]).
    • Resulted in limited adoption: “I heard only double digits worth of stores actually signed up for it.” — Tony ([07:03]).
  • Technical complexity and seller resistance cited as reasons: “Just the intricacies of product feeds, options and all that stuff, major pain in the butt…” — Tony ([06:15]).

• Comparison to Facebook/Meta Checkout Attempts

  • Facebook and Instagram previously tried on-platform checkout; real-world execution for personalized products and variable shipping still a “major pain.”
  • “That whole Facebook shop…kind of died.” — Tony ([06:41]).

• Looking Forward: New Protocols & AI Shopping

  • Google is working on a protocol allowing AI agents to shop programmatically on online stores ([08:45]).
  • Importance of showing up in AI search is increasing: “That’s the most important part.” — Tony ([09:54]).
  • Upcoming Seller Summit talks will address AI search ranking ([10:04], [10:13]).

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3. AI for Content Creation & Automation

• Content Creation at Scale Using Claude Code

  • Tony discusses using Claude (Anthropic) to automate content: researching topics, drafting YouTube scripts, auto-generating TikToks and Reels, and posting, all personalized to mimic his writing style ([12:14]-[13:15]).
    • Quote: “I have this like set of agents and sub agents…drastically sped up everything.” — Tony ([12:57])
  • Importance of training AI with lots of personal content for better output and brand voice.
  • Pushback: Many don’t maximize AI’s value due to insufficient training and integration ([14:28]).

• AI Scraping and Call Analysis

  • New ad agencies using AI to scrape all client content (social, blogs, calls) to tune content and branding ([15:33]).
    • “It quoted me in the response…very interesting because we're getting really good results from it because it has all of that information.” — Meg ([15:33])

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4. New Legal and Platform Restrictions Around AI

• AI Avatars Banned for Testimonials

  • New York and California ban use of AI avatars in testimonial ads, stemming from trust and authenticity concerns ([18:03]-[18:12]).
    • "I think that's a good thing too." — Tony ([18:14])
    • “It still feels a little sleazy.” — Meg ([18:03]-[19:03])
  • Rise in “distrust factor for brands…at an all-time high” due to AI and paid creator marketing ([19:15]).

• Rise of Founder Content

  • Authentic founder-led content is now highly sought after to combat distrust in influencer/AI-driven marketing:
    • “Founder content…is what's really hitting because it's a way to combat the ‘this is fake, these reviews are paid’…” — Meg ([22:32]-[22:39])
    • Platforms promote founder content as it’s seen as more real and trustworthy ([23:08]).

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5. Amazon’s Crackdown on Product Listings

• Tighter Standards for Claims

  • Amazon now aggressively removes listings with any unsubstantiated or “best” claims, even retroactively ([23:27]-[24:15]).
    • "You have to be really careful now what you say…they're taking things down for like best whatever or even relief…" — Tony ([23:27])
    • Sellers advised to preemptively audit old listings for risky language.

• Implications for Sellers & Marketplace Dynamics

  • Copycat listings and rampant competition highlight the importance of true brand-building over just selling on marketplaces ([25:00]-[25:21]).
    • “Being a brand just gets so much more valuable every day.” — Meg ([25:15])

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6. Physical Products vs. Content as a Business Model

• Shifting Security

  • Tony argues physical product sales—especially via your own store—are more defensible today than pure content, as you can’t be easily replaced by AI ([25:21]).
  • Marketplace-only dependence (e.g., Amazon) is still risky ([25:45]).

• Side Hustles and Economic Context

  • With a gloomy jobs report, side hustles remain critical ([25:56]-[29:31]).
  • Observations about continued busy restaurants despite economic malaise and surge in secondhand market activity ([26:26]-[28:40]).

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7. TikTok Reverses Fulfillment Policy

• "Fulfilled by TikTok" Requirement Dropped

  • TikTok no longer mandates its fulfillment service for sellers, following strong backlash ([29:31]-[29:56]).
    • “Thank God I got that YouTube video out in time because literally the week later, they…rescinded it.” — Tony ([29:39])
  • However, the platform still strictly monitors fulfillment quality—self-fulfillment sellers have little leeway and risk bans ([30:11]).

• Viral Demand and Fulfillment Risk

  • Scale risk: “You have a video that goes viral…all of a sudden it’s like a thousand units, and all of a sudden you can't do it.” — Tony ([30:47])
  • FBTikTok still incentivized through perks and badges—likely to push more sellers toward the program over time ([31:38]).

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8. Trade Tariffs: Ongoing Confusion and Strategy

• Recent Tariff Developments

  • Emergency IEEPA tariffs struck down, but Section 301 China tariffs remain.
    • “Almost all the 301 tariffs China pays—it’s on China, not those other countries.” — Tony ([36:06])
  • Short-lived tariff reductions replaced by new surcharges; refund process unclear ([32:27]-[34:59]).
    • “I don't think the little guys are going to get their refunds.” — Tony ([34:28])

• Shifting Sourcing: Vietnam & India

  • With China tariffs in place, Vietnam and India are increasingly attractive alternatives. Vietnamese factories often owned by Chinese suppliers—sellers can get almost the same product for less ([36:06]-[37:32]).
    • “Vietnam is so close to China…almost like getting the same product for less and avoiding the tariffs.” — Tony ([37:19])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The distrust factor for brands is at an all time high…Every creator under the sun is saying like whatever product is like the best thing…” — Tony ([19:15])
• “Founder content…is what's really hitting because it's a way to combat the ‘this is fake, these reviews are paid.’” — Meg ([22:39])
• “Being a brand just gets so much more valuable every day.” — Meg ([25:15])
• “Physical products is a more secure position today…You're not going to get knocked off by a flood of AI.” — Tony ([25:21])
• “If you’re not on TikTok shop, your leash is super short…if you don’t fulfill on time…you’re going to get banned.” — Tony ([30:11])
• “Vietnam is so close to China…almost like getting the same product for less and avoiding the tariffs.” — Tony ([37:19])
• "Chili's has a great deal." — Sarah ([27:43]) (comic relief amid economic discussion)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Ecommerce Trends & Amazon Checkout — [01:32] to [05:30]
• OpenAI Pulls Back on AI Shopping Integration — [05:42] to [09:54]
• AI Content Creation Strategies — [12:14] to [15:33]
• AI Avatars & Testimonial Regulation — [18:03] to [22:39]
• Amazon Listing Crackdown — [23:27] to [25:21]
• Physical vs. Content Business Models — [25:21] to [29:31]
• TikTok Fulfillment Policy Reversal — [29:31] to [31:38]
• Tariff Updates & Alternative Sourcing — [32:18] to [37:32]

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Conclusion & Takeaways

The episode is a whirlwind tour through the current chaos of ecommerce—platforms are shifting strategies with little notice, regulatory and AI-driven changes are rewriting best practices, and sellers are forced to adapt rapidly to survive. The panel agrees that brands with authentic content, strong fulfillment, and supply chain flexibility stand the best chance of long-term success. Looking ahead, the Seller Summit and ongoing education are positioned as critical to keeping up.

Resources Mentioned:

• Seller Summit 2026
• Quiet Light Brokerage
• Free Ecommerce Mini Course by Sarah

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For further details and show resources, visit:
mywifequitterjob.com/episode-630

Transcript

[Sarah Chrisp]

Welcome back to the podcast, the show where I cover all the latest strategies and current events related to E commerce and online business. In this episode, Tony and I break down a series of sudden moves that caught a lot of sellers off guard. This past week, several major platforms quietly changed direction and the ripple effects could impact how products are discovered, sold and fulfilled going forward. Enjoy the episode, but before we begin, I want to let you know that tickets for Seller Summit 2026 are now on sale [e-mail] and if you sell physical products online, this is the event

[Tony Herfak]

that you should be at.

[Sarah Chrisp]

Unlike most events that are filled with high level fluff and inspirational stories, Seller Summit is all about tactical, step by step strategies you can actually use in your business right away. Every speaker I invite is in the trenches. People who are running their own e commerce stores, managing inventory, dealing with suppliers and scaling real businesses. No corporate execs and no consultants. Also, I hate large events, so I intentionally keep it small and intimate. We cap attendance at around 200 people so you can actually have real conversations and connect with everyone in the room. We've sold out every single year for the past nine years and I expect this year to be no different. It's happening April 21st to 23rd in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And if you're doing over 250k or $1 million in revenue, we also offer a private mastermind for high level sellers. Right now, tickets are the cheapest they're ever going to be, so if you want in, go over to sellersummit.com and grab your ticket.

[Tony Herfak]

Now onto the show.

[Sarah Chrisp]

Welcome to the My Wife Quitter Job podc.

[Tony Herfak]

Today we're going to be covering like all the latest news in E commerce and online business. And as of right now, today it came out that E Commerce just hit 16.6% of all sales, which sounds low, but it's actually like at an all time high right now. More people, more and more people are shopping online.

[Meg]

Well, I don't know about you, but the Amazon truck in my neighborhood is a staple. Um, I hear, I don't know if you have the. I'm sure you guys do have the electric delivery.

[Tony Herfak]

Oh yeah, of course.

[Meg]

And I'll be walking the dogs or whatever and it's just like I hear them, you know, all through the. I mean, it's just, I feel like, I mean, I'm surprised. That seems low to me actually.

[Tony Herfak]

Let me tell you a story about Amazon. This just happened to my wife. I don't know if you've shot. You've probably shopped on Amazon lately. I've noticed that they've started placing the add to cart button right above the Buy now button on certain products.

[Meg]

Oh.

[Tony Herfak]

So Jen accidentally ordered three of the same thing because she accidentally clicked the Buy now button.

[Meg]

Oh. Instead of add to cart, which is

[Tony Herfak]

literally underneath the add to cart button. And so she adds to cart and she buys now. Like she buys now a couple times by accident.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

And then she, she notices that it's not in her cart at checkout, so she adds it again. But the Buy now is like a one click checkout.

[Meg]

Yes, yes.

[Tony Herfak]

So she ends up placing two separate orders, individual orders, adding to cart, going to checkout, and then placing that third order because she didn't think the other ones went through.

[Meg]

So now you have three grand pianos.

[Tony Herfak]

And so now we have this three.

[Sarah Chrisp]

Three things.

[Tony Herfak]

And they're not eligible for returns for some reason. Yeah, they're small items. And so you actually have to go through live chat to get the refund and then you don't have to return it. Anyways, this whole hassle.

[Meg]

Well, I think we talked about this a couple weeks ago, but I have prime tv. I guess everybody who has prime has prime tv.

[Tony Herfak]

Yep.

[Meg]

But I don't know if you've noticed this, but it seems like every time I watch something on prime tv, the, the buy the Amazon ad in the corner of your screen where you can literally take your remote control and Buy now is, is on there. Like I feel like 6 months ago I saw it occasionally. Now it's every single commercial break or ad. It's not really commercial, I guess, ads. It has one of those add to cards.

[Tony Herfak]

Have you ever bought anything?

[Meg]

No, I haven't, but I'm tempted to just because I want to see the process. Like can you completely check out on your television? Do you have to add it to the cart and then you have to go to your phone? I'm assuming you probably do everything on your tv. You don't have to do anything else.

[Tony Herfak]

I mean, if you can click on one button by accident and buy a whole bunch of things, then yes, you can check out from your TV for sure.

[Sarah Chrisp]

Which is scary because that means your

[Tony Herfak]

kids can just check out on your tv.

[Meg]

That is concerning. Right. I mean, my kids are all older, so that wouldn't happen, but. Or they would and they would know they were doing it. But yeah, I could see one of my grandkids just all of a sudden getting 50k pop demon hunter dolls.

[Tony Herfak]

Exactly. Anyway, I just thought of that because when I heard that E Commerce was at its all time high. It's like tactics like these, this, you know.

[Meg]

Well and here's the other thing, they make it so easy to shop, whereas I don't see, I don't shop in stores. So I'm not the best person to talk about this. But when I do go to a store, it's often very frustrating. Like you can't find, I mean the one store I do go to is Home Depot. Right. It's rare that you can find someone that can help you. You know, it's always, you know, someone's on their lunch break or this person, you have to wait for them to page somebody else. The lines are long, right. If you have to return. I don't know if you've ever tried to return anything anywhere in a store. But like the lines are long, the parking lots are crowded to get to me, it's like it's not even worth. I'll have Home Depot. If I know what I need, I'll have Home Depot deliver it. It's like I don't even want that experience anymore because I feel like the in person shopping experience, unless you're shopping really high end is not fantastic.

[Tony Herfak]

Doesn't Brian go there every day? Isn't he know Home Depot better than

[Meg]

he's there right now?

[Tony Herfak]

Okay, right. I was about to say yes, but

[Meg]

sometimes I, I tag along on the weekends, so.

[Tony Herfak]

So here's a big shock to me. Well, maybe it wasn't that huge of a shock, but OpenAI basically just canceled their agentic integration for purchasing. So the idea was that you know, you do a search on OpenAI or a query and the products come up and then you buy right there on the platform without having to go to the website.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

They decide to back down on that, back off from that. And I understand why actually because I was reading about it like a long time ago, Facebook tried to do this.

[Meg]

Yes.

[Tony Herfak]

And I actually signed up for it. I was kind of excited about it where you can just check out right there. But the, for me we sell personalized items and Facebook did like a horrible job with personalized items or any little add ons that you could make on a product. And I think just the intricacies of product feeds, options and all that stuff, major pain in the butt for people. Plus it's like this other interface they have to worry about too.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

Right. Where orders are coming from. And that's what I found with the Facebook Instagram experience. Because back in the day like you could, you could click off to the website, they Discontinued that and forced you to use Facebook. Facebook checkout. And we got a couple orders and ended up being a major pain in the butt. So I just turned it off entirely. And like that whole Facebook shop on there, it kind of died.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

Right. As a result, I heard that OpenAI released this thing and I heard only double digits worth of stores actually signed up for it.

[Meg]

Interesting.

[Tony Herfak]

In all of Shopify. Right. It was available to all the Shopify people. And the fact that people weren't signing up to it, I think that's part of the reason why they decided to just shelve it.

[Meg]

Interesting. I feel like that might come back.

[Sarah Chrisp]

It's supposed.

[Tony Herfak]

I mean, they didn't shelve it for good.

[Meg]

Right.

[Tony Herfak]

They've just backed off from it because, you know, they got other things to worry about, I guess, like a fight with Anthropic and Google and, and all this other stuff that's going on. But I was a little shocked that more people like I signed up for the beta since I'm not on Shopify and I never got any notifications. And then Etsy was already live with it too, and I guess that didn't get very good adoption either.

[Meg]

Hmm. Well, we'll. We'll see what happens with that. I feel like that might make another. Another round.

[Tony Herfak]

But it is such a major pain.

[Meg]

Yeah. But I mean, it's. At some point I think they're gonna work out the kinks. Right. Like.

[Tony Herfak]

Well, I mean, Facebook didn't work out the kinks. Like just think of all the different shipping options.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

That you might offer or. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know if it's. If it's more of a pain than it's worth. Like to. To click on a website too, then you get like all the other information, I believe as well.

[Meg]

Right.

[Tony Herfak]

I don't know.

[Meg]

I don't know. I feel like if an app like Comment Sold can figure it out and how to integrate with Shopify, then I don't know. Maybe it's a totally different concept, but I feel like there's other things that are able to figure the integrations out.

[Tony Herfak]

I think where this is all going is Google put out this new protocol which I'm going to integrate with my site, which essentially allows like an AI agent to go and shop at your store not from a browser, but, you know, program programmatically. And so maybe what'll happen is all the AIs will adopt that.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

And not have to browse like on a browser to actually buy your products.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

I don't know.

[Meg]

Maybe.

[Tony Herfak]

Did you know, like right now, when an AI, like if you have an AI fill out a form, the way it works is it takes a photo of the form, fills it out each time takes another snapshot to make sure it. It's correct. And so that's why it just takes forever for.

[Meg]

Oh, I didn't know that.

[Tony Herfak]

Yeah.

[Meg]

Okay.

[Tony Herfak]

Maybe that's changed as of now, but that's what I read somewhere. Yeah. Okay. So that was something that was just kind of shocking to me.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

That that happened so early.

[Meg]

We've been talking about this, like, internally with one of my clients for like the past month about, oh, we need to be, you know, this is on the radar. Like, let's be ready this, that and the other. And now. Now I guess it's off the radar for right now.

[Tony Herfak]

I mean, I think what's more important is showing up in AI Search. Right.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

I mean, that's the most important part.

[Meg]

I hope we have a talk about that at Seller Summit.

[Tony Herfak]

I hope we do, too.

[Meg]

Do we?

[Tony Herfak]

We do. Of course. Jeff Oxford. I'm actually going to touch upon it too. I'm just going to talk like Jeff is going to do, obviously, most of the heavy lifting, but I'm going to talk about it in my talk and then I'm going to code a Shopify app that allows you to do what I did, essentially.

[Meg]

Nice.

[Tony Herfak]

Nice that. I think I haven't written the talk yet, but that's, that's, that's part of my talk. That's part of my talk. So two kind of semi talks on. On ranking an AI search, which is very important today.

[Meg]

Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

[Tony Herfak]

Have you ever wondered how much your business is actually worth now?

[Sarah Chrisp]

I sold one of my businesses through Quiet Light and honestly, just getting that initial valuation changed everything for me. Not because of that number itself, but because of what came with it.

[Tony Herfak]

My advisor walked me through exactly what

[Sarah Chrisp]

buyers would be looking for, how I needed to restructure my accounting, what documentation I was missing, the gaps in my financials that might kill a deal before it even starts and stuff that I really had no idea that mattered when

[Tony Herfak]

it came to selling a business.

[Sarah Chrisp]

And here's the thing. I wasn't even ready to sell yet. But knowing what I needed to fix meant that I could actually start preparing.

[Tony Herfak]

And I now had a roadmap.

[Sarah Chrisp]

Everyone at Quiet Light has built or sold businesses themselves. So my advisor told me what needed to change. It was actually coming from real experience, sitting across from buyers. And by the time I was Ready. Everything was positioned right and we attracted serious buyers. So if you've been thinking about selling someday, even if that day feels way far off, just getting a free valuation from Quiet Light will make a huge difference. You'll learn what you need to fix right now so you're not scrambling later. And if you're interested, go over to

[Meg]

quietlight.com it's funny, I think I was talking to somebody yesterday in one of my communities and she was saying that she got super. She's. She is a, like a program. I think she's a programmer. I'm not quite sure what her day job is, but she watched some stuff on Vibe coding and over the weekend Vibe coded a bunch of stuff for her website. She's like, oh, it was so easy. I just sat down and, you know, in a half an hour, you know, half an afternoon and got it done. I was like, yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

I mean, okay, so, Tony, I have to. I'm going to talk about it here. And I wish, like, I had the bandwidth to give multiple talks at seller Summit this year.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

But I have been using Claude code for content, and so now I have this like, set of agents and sub agents where I have it research the topic for me and then draft out, like, the scripts for my YouTube channel and then automatically generate the TikToks and the Instagram Reels and the LinkedIn posts and then auto posts, the social part. And I have this like really long file that reflects how the content is in my personality and the way I write by training it with like, I have probably like hundreds and hundreds of pages of scripts, YouTube scripts that I fed in.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

So. So it understood my voice and now it is drastically sped up. Everything.

[Meg]

Interesting.

[Tony Herfak]

And it's actually not that hard to set up. I'm going to try to give a lesson in the class, but it might be kind of like a long lesson. But once you get this set up, it saves a tremendous amount of time for content creation.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

Yeah. You know, it's funny, I came up with this because, like, I've been using cloud code to code. Right, Right. But the fact that there's code in the name, I think scares people into thinking like, oh my God, I got a code. Right.

[Meg]

Right.

[Tony Herfak]

But it's not really like that. It's. It's. It's kind of like you tell it what you want and it does it.

[Meg]

It's like the, the spouse we wish we all had. Right. For.

[Tony Herfak]

For anything. And I'm not even joking.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

And most people that I've encountered even in the Silicon Valley, they're just using cloud or chatbots based on the interface, right? Yeah, like, you know, the web. And that's the most inefficient way to do it because it doesn't really remember all the little details of what you need. So by setting all this stuff up in Claude code or Claude cowork, I chose to use cloud code and not cowork anything that you do. Like, anytime I make a script now, it gets better because it's trained on everything new that I'm working on. And so over time, like I'll have this, you know, incredible agent where I hopefully have to do very minimal work to get, to get stuff out.

[Meg]

Yeah, I think, I think this is where. And this is a whole nother podcast. But I think one of the things that I've noticed is that people that seem to hate AI or think it's terrible or don't like their results don't really understand how to work and really maximize the value. This new ad agency that we're working with, they have, they've built this internally, right? But it basically scrapes all of your content, social video, blog posts, products, you know, whatever, wherever you are on the web. It also records all your phone calls with them. And so it takes. Which I think is crazy because I was using it the other day and it quoted me in the response. I was like, Tony Herfak says this is weird because you just quoted Gary Vee above this. So I don't know if this should not be in the same paragraph, but it's very interesting because we're getting really good results from it because it has all of that information, right? It has conversations, it has videos, it has scripts, it has blog, you know, it has all the things in there.

[Sarah Chrisp]

I just wanted to take a moment to tell you about a free resource that I offer on my website that you may not be aware of. If you are interested in starting your own online store. I put together a comprehensive six day mini course on how to get started in E commerce that you should all check out. It contains both video and text based tutorials that go over the entire process of finding products to sell, all the way to getting your first sales online. Now this course is free and can be [e-mail] free. Just sign up right there on the front page via email and I'll send

[Tony Herfak]

you the course right away.

[Sarah Chrisp]

Once again, that's mywifequitterjob.com free. Now back to the show.

[Tony Herfak]

That means you got to be more careful about what you say. Right.

[Meg]

Don't you. I don't curse on work calls.

[Tony Herfak]

Tony gives F bombs.

[Meg]

Yeah, but, but no, but it does make. Because there was one time where. Yeah, there was one time it quoted me and I was like, I don't know if I want that to be forever in AI, but. But yeah, I think, I think the fact that they record the calls is like the most interesting because a lot of people can feed in all their information. Right. It also scrapes comments on social media and that kind of stuff, which I think is fantastic. But the recording of the calls, I think that's where it's done. Where then now the agent really gets the voice, especially of. Not of me, but from me and other people on the calls. It gets the like company idea, right? Of like all those things. But then when they talk to the founder, they're getting her voice, which I think is really important. And it's much better than anything we've used. You know, outside of that.

[Tony Herfak]

You know what? I'm going to talk to Chris Schaefer. So Chris Schaefer is giving a talk on the One Man Content machine. Yeah, the One. I wonder if he's going to be talking about cloud code. I'll talk to him right after this. But there's going to be a talk at seller summit about this.

[Meg]

Yeah. Okay. What else do we have?

[Tony Herfak]

So, okay, so one thing. So I got all excited about this like six months to a year ago, which was using AI avatars to give testimonials for ads. Remember that?

[Sarah Chrisp]

I think it was like last year.

[Tony Herfak]

Yeah, last year. Yeah, yeah. And so there was all these services that were popping up and what you would do is you would take real testimonials that you've gotten, choose an AI avatar that looks really realistic because it's not you training your own face. It's like their preset avatars that they've already trained to recite these testimonials and then you can use them on ads.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

Well, New York just passed a law that does not allow AI avatars, especially in testimonials and ads. And I think California had something similar too.

[Meg]

I think that's good.

[Tony Herfak]

I agree. I think that's a good thing too.

[Meg]

I mean, I think all this stuff is really cool, but I don't know, I feel like for testimonials it kind of. It reminds me of like to roll back when, you know, there were a lot of like bloggers and influencers that were just like reviewing every single product under the sun and just like like it was like testimonial, but it was like you're not really a user of this product. Right. And so it got to the point where you couldn't really rely on content creators to recommend products because it felt like, you know, if they were just a review machine, you know, it's like, well, how do I know that you actually really love this and not aren't getting, you know, I mean obviously you have to disclose if you get paid. But you know, I, I don't know, I feel like the AI is very similar. Although they are using real reviews, it still feels, I don't know, feels a little sleazy.

[Sarah Chrisp]

It does.

[Tony Herfak]

But if you think about it, what you just said, like half the, like I would say all the creators are who are paid like, I mean do most of them probably don't really like the product.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

To begin with. And I actually One of my YouTube upcoming YouTube videos is kind of about this. But the distrust factor for brands is at an all time high.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

Because of AI. Every creator under the sun is saying like whatever product is like the best thing that they've ever used and it's just getting tiring. Like I don't trust any of that stuff I see anymore.

[Meg]

Yeah. So actually this is not about AI, but like piggybacking on that is that is why founder content is such a hot commodity right now.

[Tony Herfak]

Yep.

[Meg]

And I don't know, I spent. I literally was up till 2am last week, which I could not afford to be up till 2am watching the fast food wars. Did you see any of this?

[Tony Herfak]

No, we have completely different feeds.

[Meg]

No, this, I mean, what. This made national news.

[Tony Herfak]

Oh, you're talking about the burger.

[Meg]

Yes.

[Tony Herfak]

Yeah, I did. Yeah.

[Meg]

That was in burger products.

[Tony Herfak]

They did it on purpose.

[Meg]

There's a lot of debate whether McDonald's did that on purpose or not. If you haven't seen this, Google McDonald's CEO eats a hamburger. Basically this was the kickoff video where you know, he introducing their new hamburger. And this man clearly does not eat at McDonald's ever. Right. And he takes, he talks about the product like the burger as if it's like a piece of fabric or like a commodity. Right. And, and he calls it a burger product. He doesn't just call it a burger. It's just, it was so bad. And then he takes this bite and it's like, I don't actually think he got any of the burger in his mouth. Right. It's like the smallest bite I've ever seen. It's like when you ask your kid to eat like a vegetable and they take like just a nibble of the top. So what was amazing about this is all the other CEOs made videos have you, like, and some of them are like the A and W root beer guy literally looks Nothing like the McDonald's guy, dressed up like him and literally did it word for word with his own products. And he's like, we don't really call it a burger product around here. We just call it a burger, you know, like, it was so fantastic. The Wendy's guy was awesome. He. He's like, we. We cook our burgers fresh. It shows them on the grill. And then he goes and he's like, we need to wash it down with a frosting. He's like, because our machines always work.

[Tony Herfak]

Yeah, yeah.

[Meg]

Like, the amount of shade thrown, but also like, the amount of like. Like there were restaurants I didn't know existed, right? Because it's like I founded this fried chicken place that doesn't exist in the south, right? So I don't know about it. It's probably out by you. But I think that founder content, like, that's. I think that's really a big way to combat some of the AI problems, right? Where, like, right, People are like, platforms are moving away from, like, accepting. I was just telling you earlier, my son's TikTok got demonetized because he's making AI videos, but they're like, animated, right? So it's not. He's not pretending to be a real person, he's making animation, but he can't monetize it because it's AI. So I think this founder content, if you do sell something, anything digital, physical, you know, everyone wants to know how they can make faceless content. But, like, the founder content is what's really hitting because it's. It's a way to come combat the. This is fake. These reviews are paid. It's like, well, of course, you know, except for the McDonald's founder, everyone should love their products and should at least be able to talk about them. I think it's why our friend Meg, who sells the hermit crab stuff, is her videos are doing really well on TikTok, right? Like, they're getting engagement even for, like, not a huge account because she's literally packing snail poop or whatever it is. I don't know, like, it's gross. But I think that's what resonates with people right now. And it also resonates with the platforms, right? So they are giving priority to that type of content and pushing it out to people because it is not AI Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

I mean just the whole distrust factor with influencers.

[Sarah Chrisp]

I mean influencers still work, obviously.

[Tony Herfak]

I mean it's the foundation of TikTok shop. But I think there's a growing fatigue for some of these. Unless the product in itself is the reason to buy it. Like when you demonstrate it online.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

Yeah. Okay. The other thing that's going on is Amazon has just been cracking down like crazy on listings with, I don't want to say false claims, but any claim at all that is unsubstantiated. So you have to be really careful now what you say. Like they're, they're taking things down for like best whatever or even relief of a certain symptom.

[Meg]

Interesting.

[Tony Herfak]

Right? And so yeah, if you have a listing and it could be like a year old or two years old and it's been running fine, all of a sudden get suspended.

[Meg]

Wow.

[Tony Herfak]

And just be on the lookout for that. And if it's already happened to you, obviously you're already on the lookout. But I might preemptively go back to my listings and take a look just to make sure.

[Meg]

I wonder, do you think this will help like legit third party sellers versus some of these, like, you know, I don't want to, I don't want to say Chinese suppliers, but that's really what it is, you know, putting. I, I, we talked a long time ago with someone from Seller Summit that was like, yeah, they, they make like 10 different brands. They put all this stuff up. Do you think that'll help? Maybe not. I don't know.

[Tony Herfak]

I think it'll be neutral. Cuz. Yeah, I mean they, maybe they won't get away with some of the stuff.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

But the way it is now, people are just copying, listing, copy. Like if they look at the number one of the top five people and they'll just kind of copy, you know, the guts of their listing.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

You know, that's what I don't like about any marketplace actually. There's just like rampant copying and. And what? One upsmanship and. Yeah, because that's really all you can do to differentiate yourself. Right. And your photos, which are now easily copyable too. Yeah, right. Yeah.

[Meg]

Which I think is why being a brand just gets so much more valuable every day.

[Tony Herfak]

I 100 agree. You know what's funny, Someone asked me about E Commerce versus content the other day and I almost feel like selling physical products is a more secure position today. Right. Because you're not going to get knocked off by a flood of AI it's actually something physical and that's something that I probably wouldn't have said last year even.

[Meg]

I think it's true. If you have your own store. I don't think it's true. I mean, we know a lot of people that only sell on Amazon and that's where I think. I don't. To me, that's not safe at all.

[Tony Herfak]

And I don't know if you follow like, like the jobs report, but like we lost nine. It's not good. And again, it doesn't have to be E Commerce, obviously, but just any side hustle at all. Yeah, like I'd get on that.

[Meg]

Oh yeah. I was just telling you I was helping my son with his side hustle yesterday. Yeah, it's. You know what's interesting to me, and I'm not debating the jobs report. It's not, it's gloomy. But why, why are all the restaurants packed? Like, have you noticed?

[Tony Herfak]

That's a good question.

[Meg]

Yeah, like, and I, I have a theory, but usually like, and I'm old enough to remember like 2009, right, where it was like massive downturn in the economy and restaurants were not packed. Right. Restaurants were closing and there's still restaurants closing for sure. But like when I'm out and about and last week I was traveling, so I was out almost every meal, like every dinner I was in a different restaurant, a city I don't live in. And you know, every restaurant, every table was full, people waiting outside on, you know, a Tuesday. Right. Which is, you know, probably not a normal restaurant. I don't know. I really think this is still a lingering post pandemic thing.

[Tony Herfak]

Well, I, I had read somewhere that like the top 5% spent almost all the money in the US of the top 5% already.

[Meg]

Nichipot or.

[Tony Herfak]

Well, no, I mean, they do, but yeah, yeah, maybe it was like top 10% spend.

[Meg]

Like, I'm not at fancy restaurants. I was in like Chili's, you know.

[Tony Herfak]

Yeah, I know, I know. But I know a lot of the restaurant industry is hurting because there's only so many times that like the wealthy can, can go out to eat. Right.

[Meg]

Three times a day. But.

[Tony Herfak]

But maybe that's not the case for like where you was it like a

[Sarah Chrisp]

Chili's has a great deal.

[Tony Herfak]

It's actually pretty inexpensive Chili's.

[Meg]

Chili's is great. I told my daughter she's got some jobs to keep security, but. But even my other kid works at like, like, it's not Chipotle, but it's like a Chipotle and they're busy all the time, especially in. So anyway, I don't know. That's one thing where I always feel like that's one thing you can cut really quickly and really decrease your spending. Right. Is you just make your food at home. Because it's. So even with the grocery prices being high, it's still significantly cheaper. Maybe not with the Chili's deal, but outside of that, like, you can make dinner for much less than you can eat out with.

[Tony Herfak]

Oh, yeah, for sure.

[Meg]

Especially, like, I don't know if you've been through Chick Fil a lately. It's like, I. I had to buy Chick Fil A ever for everybody when we were stuck traveling. It was four people and it was like 55. And it wasn't like, extravagant.

[Tony Herfak]

Chick Fil A is. Is expensive. Yeah.

[Meg]

But even McDonald's is expensive these days, you know? But yeah, that's one thing that I thought was interesting is that restaurants still seem crowded. But.

[Tony Herfak]

Well, I mean, just There's a stat. 44% more people are buying secondhand than a year ago. I mean, the economy is. Is hurting. I mean. Yeah, I don't know. I. I don't see it that much in the news, but, like, I can just tell by, for example, like, the employees that we have, you know, things are getting tighter and whatnot.

[Meg]

So I've. And I've heard that from a couple people where their spouse works in an industry where, you know, it's. It's not like a guaranteed 40 hours a week and their. Their time is being cut. Right. Well, I misses the time to start the furniture flipping business. Right.

[Sarah Chrisp]

That's your thing.

[Tony Herfak]

I would never do that. But.

[Meg]

Yeah, no, but like. Like to your point about side hustles, like, this is the time to really be, I think digging into something like that and seeing what you can come up with.

[Tony Herfak]

Yeah. In other news, TikTok rescinded their requirement to use. Fulfilled by TikTok.

[Meg]

Thank goodness.

[Tony Herfak]

Thank God I got that YouTube video out in time because literally the week later, they. That's because in that video, I was like, this is a bold move, but they might be able to pull it off. Right? Forcing everyone. Well, I guess it turns out that they.

[Meg]

They could not pull it off. It's funny.

[Tony Herfak]

Tons of backlash.

[Meg]

Yes. I just. Before they rescinded it, I just told somebody, this is probably not the best time to get on TikTok to sell. Let's. Let's, you know, not. If it's fulfilled by TikTok like that. We don't want to mess with that. Um, so, yeah, we'll see.

[Tony Herfak]

But on the flip side, and this is coming straight from Ian Page's mouth, the bullseye sellers. He's in, he's an agency that specialize in TikTok. If you're not on TikTok, shop, like your leash is super short. Like if you're fulfilling yourself and you make a mistake, you're going to get banned.

[Meg]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

Right. Or if you don't fulfill on time, like, yeah, your seller score is very important and that was the reason that they wanted people on fulfilled by TikTok. So think about it this way. You have a video that goes viral and all of a sudden you're used to selling maybe like a hundred units a day and all of a sudden it's like a thousand units.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

And all of a sudden you can't do it. And that actually makes TikTok look bad. Makes you look bad. So.

[Meg]

Well, and especially if you think about how people buy on TikTok. Right. It's usually an impulse purchase.

[Tony Herfak]

Yeah.

[Meg]

And so there's, I mean, I think it was Ritu that talked about this last year in her talk at seller summit, how she saw the suitcase and she was like, this is amazing. And she bought it and it never showed up. Right. And so like she didn't know anything about the brand, she didn't know anything about the company. But you know, now she'll probably, she probably will hesitate before she buys on TikTok again. Right. Because the order that she, you know, legitimate order, paid money, didn't get the product. So I can see why they are strict. It's kind of like with, you know, when was it seller fulfilled prime. Right. Same stringent rules. Because Amazon has a reputation. So.

[Tony Herfak]

Yeah, I mean, Ian's going to be talking about this, but I suspect because if you do fulfilled by tick tock, it's a lot of perks, like they'll make you more visible. There's a badge that you get also. Yeah. So essentially I think even though they're not technically forcing everyone on there. Yeah. They're kind of forcing people on there. It's like going non prime versus prime. Right. Huge difference. Yeah. So, and then for our final topic for today, let's talk about the tariffs. I hate talking about the tariffs. Remember there was one episode we recorded where it was literally the day that it was announced that it got struck down.

[Meg]

Yes.

[Tony Herfak]

And we, we, we did like a 2 minute bid on how it was great and everything. I don't know if you remember that part.

[Meg]

I do I do, but I feel like I don't want to talk about the tariffs because every in five minutes, this will be outdated.

[Tony Herfak]

Yes, actually, that's true. Because literally after we started cheering, it was literally seven hours later, like, Trump did something else. I just wanted to just kind of explain what's going on, especially with the refunds and whatnot, in case you guys are curious. So what got struck down specifically were the IEEPA tariffs. These were like the emergency ones that he issued. Like the crazy one where he held the board, like every country, those all got struck down. And what most people didn't realize was that for China in particular, that was just like a part of the tariffs. Like, China already had these 301 tariffs that have been around since Trump's first administration.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

Those did not get struck down at all.

[Sarah Chrisp]

Right.

[Tony Herfak]

And I did a YouTube video on this, which I think became obsolete like, a week later also because of this stupid terror.

[Meg]

Crank those things out as fast as possible.

[Tony Herfak]

Well, because this was like, before he instituted that additional 15 tariff or whatnot. So what ended up happening is those got struck down, and then he used, like, a different loophole or a different rule to issue another 15%. And so what got struck down specifically was about 20% worth of tariffs on China, and then he added an extra 15 on for some other rule, which will probably get struck down, too. Yeah. But what he's trying to do is he's trying to add on to those Section 301 tariffs, which have been around for, I don't know, over four years now.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

Right. Getting it onto there requires research. And I think this intermediate tariff is just buying time for him to get that going.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

Now, in terms of the refunds, like, I mean, this is probably going to go again. I don't think anyone's going to get any refunds. I really. Or if someone gets refunds, it'll be like the large companies, maybe.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

I don't think the little guys are going to get their refunds. So what often happens, or what. What a whole bunch of people did during the tariff period is they use ddp, which stands for delivery duty paid. And that's exactly. That's essentially when the supplier is the importer of record. Right. Not you, to save money on the tariffs, because there was some other stuff going on. Well, they would get the refund, not you, in that case.

[Meg]

Gotcha.

[Tony Herfak]

Right. Because they're the importer of record.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

And I guess the question is, and this is what makes this whole thing weird, is like, do we want to like refund, like the suppliers in China. Right. With a lot of this tariff money and the large corporations, there's like 2,000 of them that have filed huge lawsuits which will get tied up.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

But then like recently, last week, some court ruling ordered that the tariffs be refunded, but there's no provision. Like the Supreme Court didn't give any provisions for the refund. So I just think it's a big mess.

[Meg]

Yeah, it's just going to get messier.

[Tony Herfak]

Yeah. But I mean, if you want even a chance of getting refunds, you need to fill out, you need to get an account. Maybe I'll link it beneath this podcast. But you need to create an account with the Customs and Border Control, and that's how they would refund you should a refund ever to occur. But as of this recording, I don't know anyone who's gotten anything yet.

[Meg]

Yeah, well, I mean, I was gonna say good news, bad news, but it's just news.

[Tony Herfak]

Yeah, I guess so. I mean, I'll be. Here's the good news, actually. The good news is that since those tariffs got struck down, India and Vietnam are like the best places to source from now. The China 301 tariffs are still there. Almost all the 301 tariffs China pays. It's. It's on China, not, not those other countries. And it was a crapshoot, actually, when I invited, like people to talk about sourcing at seller summit. But yes, as long as this holds through for like another month.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

Jim Kemen is going to be talking about sourcing from Vietnam at seller summit. I am using him right now, actually.

[Meg]

Good.

[Tony Herfak]

And I think he's. I don't know if he's going to be talking about like a case study that, that we're kind of doing together right now, but the prices are actually a little lower than China. And you don't have to pay like the, you still have to pay the 15 thing that Trump just issued, but it's cheaper than China and you pay less tariffs than China. The communication and the speed of sourcing is a little slower, but it's probably worth a look if you're sourcing from China right now. Because Vietnam is so close to China.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

Literally, China just ships all the raw materials and they actually, the, the Chinese vendors, they actually own factories in Vietnam, a lot of them. And so it's almost like getting the same product for less and avoiding the tariffs.

[Meg]

Well, that'll be an interesting talk. I know the tariffs are always a hot topic at seller summit because at least for the Past couple years.

[Tony Herfak]

Well, just one year. I. Last year was the most miserable

[Sarah Chrisp]

time

[Tony Herfak]

for E Commerce, I want to say. Right.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

Especially around the seller summit time.

[Meg]

It was.

[Sarah Chrisp]

The seller summit last year was in May.

[Tony Herfak]

Right. And that's when like the tariffs got to 120% or something.

[Meg]

We had people that couldn't get their stuff.

[Tony Herfak]

Right.

[Meg]

So yeah, this year, this year at least people might be happier.

[Tony Herfak]

Actually, I think one of my slides on like the keynote last year was I had a friend who paid those 120% tariffs because he sells bobbleheads to the warriors and a whole bunch of teams.

[Meg]

Yeah. You don't have a choice.

[Tony Herfak]

And you don't have a choice. You have to deliver or you ruin that.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

Right. So this year will be a lot better because the tariffs are way more under control, I think.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

And well, at least for now.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

Crossing my fingers that nothing will change in like the next month for sure. But yeah, yeah. Oh, and yeah, free Amazon PPC Seller summit.

[Meg]

Oh yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

Free managed Amazon PPC for three months if you guys decide to come.

[Meg]

The amount of emails I've received about that.

[Sarah Chrisp]

Oh, is that right?

[Meg]

Yes, people are. Well, I mean we sold out one of the masterminds right after we announced that. So yeah, I think people are very excited because that's what, I don't know what you said it was worth because

[Tony Herfak]

I've never paid for worth around ten grand. It was my estimate.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

I don't know how much they charge but like I have used managed services in the past. Yeah, yeah. And that's how much. It's about three grand a month.

[Meg]

Yeah.

[Tony Herfak]

Yeah.

[Meg]

So good deal. Pays for your ticket. Yep. So all right. Yeah, we'll, we'll see you in Fort Lauderdale. We'll just end with that.

[Tony Herfak]

We will.

[Sarah Chrisp]

Hope you enjoyed this episode. Things are moving so quickly, it's almost like you need to just pause and wait for the dust to settle first before committing to anything. For more information and resources, go over to mywifequitterjob.com Episode 630 and once again, tickets to Seller Summit 2026 are now on sale [e-mail] if you want to hang out in person in a small intimate setting, develop real relationships with like minded entrepreneurs and learn a ton, then come to my event. Go to sellersummit.com.