AI shopping agents are no longer science fiction. Numerous engines like Google, ChatGPT, and Perplexity are now designed to provide personalized shopping advice, product comparisons, and recommendations.
That’s great for buyers, but not so great for Amazon. Why? Because Amazon is losing control of the shopper experience.
As Marketplace Pulse founder Juozas Kaziukėnas puts it:
“Shopify and Amazon aren’t afraid of AI shopping in principle. They’re afraid of AI shopping they don’t control. They’re betting they can block the competition’s tools long enough to build their own and make them the standard.”
Welcome to the AI Shopping Wars.
Amazon vs. Google: From Partners to Rivals
For years, Amazon and Google worked together. Amazon spent heavily on Google Shopping ads, and Google benefited from Amazon’s retail dominance. But that partnership has fractured.
In May 2025, Google announced significant advancements in AI-powered shopping, including automated purchases for users. If shoppers rely on AI-shopping agents instead of browsing Amazon, it’s a direct hit to Amazon’s ad revenue and customer loyalty.
Amazon’s response has been swift and aggressive:
- Blocking AI crawlers. Amazon cut off Google from crawling its product listings. Earlier in the year, it did the same with ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, making Amazon listings invisible in many AI-driven shopping tools.
- Pulling out of Google Shopping ads. Amazon discontinued all of its Google Shopping ads, causing Google to lose one of its biggest retail advertisers.
- Launching its own AI agent. Amazon introduced “Buy for Me”, an AI shopping assistant that keeps the shopper fully inside Amazon’s ecosystem.
Amazon isn’t just protecting its ad spend, it’s reclaiming total control over the customer journey.
The Challenge for Digital Marketing Agencies
When Amazon changes the rules, your clients feel it immediately:
- CPC swings wreck campaign efficiency. Cost-per-click (CPC) rates have dropped by 1–4% on average, with some categories seeing declines as steep as 40%. Others report drops of 7–12% across verticals.
- Visibility disappears overnight. If Amazon isn’t bidding, the entire ad landscape shifts in unpredictable ways.
- Competitor pricing volatility. Stockouts, coupon launches, and delivery slowdowns can flip the script with no warning.
For PPC and digital marketing agencies, relying on guesswork isn’t an option.
The Opportunity: Data-Driven Agencies Win
Agencies that can see the shifts in real time will not only protect their clients, they’ll gain trust, renew contracts, and upsell services.
Take the example from Elizabeth Greene’s team at Junglr: they tested a bidding hack in the supplements category (surfaced by Brandon Young) and unlocked impressions without raising bids. That’s not just a clever hack, it’s proof that when you have the right data inputs, you can turn volatility into opportunity.
That’s where Traject Data’s SERP and ecommerce APIs come in.
The Ecommerce Web Scraping API Advantage
Two APIs in the Traject Data suite, SERPWOW and Rainforest, give agencies the visibility they need:
- SERPWOW: Track who is winning or losing placements for any keyword in real time. Capture both ad slots and organic rankings.
- Rainforest: Enrich those ASINs with pricing, stock, delivery speed, and coupon data.
Together, they give you the competitive intelligence Amazon doesn’t want you to see.
Workflow for PPC Agencies
Here’s how digital marketing agencies can put Traject Data’s ecommerce APIs to work:
Step 1: See who’s on the page (SERPWOW)
- Run keyword SERPs and capture ad placements.
- Show clients exactly how visibility shifts when Amazon pulls out of auctions.
Step 2: Pull competitive product details (Rainforest)
- Feed ASINs from SERPWOW into Rainforest’s Product Details endpoint.
- Track pricing moves, coupon launches, and stock levels.
Step 3: Compare over time
- Run API calls hourly, daily, or in sync with campaigns.
- Spot volatility like stockouts, delivery delays, or aggressive price cuts.
Step 4: Trigger smarter bidding
- Ramp bids when rivals run out of stock.
- Shift spend when delivery slows.
- Decide when to defend against price cuts, and when to let competitors bleed margin.
Example API Calls
- SERPWOW Search Endpoint → Capture ASINs and placements for a keyword in real time.
- Rainforest Product Details Endpoint → Enrich those ASINs with pricing, stock, and delivery data.
Combine the two data sets for insights you can turn into action for clients immediately.
Putting It All Together
The AI Shopping Wars are here, and Amazon pulling out of Google Shopping ads is just the beginning. Who knows what will be next. The only way agencies can stay ahead is with real-time ecommerce data.
With Traject Data’s APIs, you can:
- Retention → Answer tough client questions with hard evidence.
- Upsell → Turn sharper insights into premium services.
- Scale → Apply one proven workflow across your entire client portfolio.
In a market where Amazon is rewriting the rules daily, ecommerce APIs give PPC agencies the edge they need to keep clients confident and campaigns profitable.
