The Top Three

🏆 THE INDUSTRY’S MOST IMPORTANT STORIES TODAY

🥇 MERCHANTS HIKE PRICES

🛒 Add to Cart… Plus 104%: As potential tariffs on Chinese imports approach, online sellers are quickly adjusting. Many are hiking prices on Amazon $AMZN ( ▼ 5.17% ) and DTC sites, with some even adding cheeky “Trump liberation tariff” fees at checkout. Others are pausing inventory orders and planning more price increases in the coming weeks as trade policy uncertainty grows. The $1.2 trillion U.S. e-commerce industry is bracing for wider disruption across digital ads, logistics, and beyond. more

BREAKING: At our deadline, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on all the “reciprocal” tariffs, with the exception of China, which will see tariffs increased to 125%.

• More than 20% of Amazon merchants using commerce software provider Helium 10 have already raised prices, and another 50% plan to follow.

• Adding pressure: the de minimis exemption, which currently allows duty-free shipping from countries like China, ends May 2. Tariffs on those shipments could jump from 0% to 100%+.

• Air freight rates jumped 9% over the past month as sellers rush shipments ahead of the deadline, shifting freight from sea to air despite rising costs.

• Amazon is adapting by expanding its Temu-like bargain site, Haul, to include domestic name-brand products, reducing reliance on China-based inventory.

🥈 SATURATED SHADES SWAY CONSUMERS

🤔 Hue knew?: A new study in the Journal of Marketing has found that bold, saturated colours — like vivid reds and deep blues — can make consumers believe a product is more effective, even when it's not. Consumers tend to associate bright colours with potency, often resulting in overuse or waste. This perception extends to product packaging and advertising. more

• According to the researchers, to promote product efficacy, consider using highly saturated colours.

• But if sustainability’s your goal, reserve those colours for products prone to overuse.

• However, avoid highly saturated colours for products where underuse could be harmful, and provide additional information about potency, like “same powerful formula without added dyes.”

🥉 META ADDS UTM PARAMETERS TO ALL ADS

🤷‍♂️ No UTM? No problem: Meta is now automatically adding UTM parameters to all ads, even if you don’t manually provide them. This is useful because it’s often difficult to track website results back to specific campaigns and ads if UTM parameters are forgotten. These parameters let you track results in external analytics tools like Google Analytics, linking them back to your Meta ads account. more

• You can test this by publishing a new ad without UTM parameters, then clicking to preview in the feed and clicking on your ad to see the parameters added to the URL.

• That said, it's still recommended to manually set up a UTM parameter template to make it easier to analyze your results.

Today’s Other News

📰 EVERYTHING ELSE THAT MATTERS

Advertising 📣

• Snap $SNAP ( ▼ 11.22% ) launched sponsored AI lenses yesterday, a new generative AI ad format that lets users integrate themselves into branded AI-generated visuals using the front-facing camera on their phone. Brands collaborate with Snap’s production team to create prompts, themes, and poses, with up to 10 different transformations per lens. more

  • Currently, these lenses are available as a premium managed service, not through Snap’s self-serve ad platform. They are featured as a "first lens unlimited" takeover, making them the first camera ad experience users see in their lens carousel for a 24-hour period.

GMC & GBP 🔍

• Google $GOOG ( ▼ 3.53% ) has updated its Shopping tab listings report, now called the Merchant Opportunities report and added new details about payment methods and store ratings. The report offers recommendations for improving how your online store appears on Google, specifically for eligible sites selling physical goods. If you've connected your Merchant Center account to Search Console, you'll see suggestions such as adding shipping info, setting up store ratings, and updating payment methods. more

• Google has made several updates to its Merchant Center product data specifications, with changes effective as of yesterday (April 8) and more coming on July 1. These changes include new rules for down payment price attributes, energy efficiency class attributes, added shopping attributes, guidance for member pricing, and adjustments to sales tax attributes. more

• Google appears to be bringing back the "messaging clicks" metric in the Business Profiles performance report. The metric tracks how many people clicked on the text message feature in a business's Google profile. more

Social Media 📱

• 💼 What's working on LinkedIn: A new report has found the professional network is driving more engagement for brands, with video impressions up by nearly 75% and poll posts driving a 206% boost in reach. Across the board, company pages — both large and small — are seeing a rise in overall impression counts on the platform. more

• LinkedIn is testing a new TikTok-like video trends feature in the U.S., which organizes content by trending topics. Users will see these trends in their main feed and on the Video tab, with header tags marking popular topics. Users can tap on these topics to see more videos, and an “Add to this trend” button will let them record their own videos related to the trend. more

• Instagram is working to step up its search game to compete with TikTok, with head Adam Mosseri admitting that content search on the platform needs improvement. The company aims to make it easier for users to find content and for creators to maintain visibility beyond the initial post. Instagram will also improve recommended searches by pulling context from comments, a feature that will roll out "soon." more

• Instagram may finally release an official iPad app. For more than a decade, iPad users have been stuck with a scaled-up version of the iPhone app, so an official IG app would be a welcome change. Why the change of heart? According to The Information, the ongoing uncertainty around TikTok’s legal status and Trump’s tariffs could be the push Meta needed. more

• 🎶 Hit me with your best prompt: YouTube is expanding access to its AI music creation tool within “Creator Music," letting brands and users generate custom songs in-stream. For those with access, creators can describe the type of music they want, and the AI tool will generate a track based on that description. YouTube says music can be downloaded and used in videos without copyright concerns. more

  • Creator Music is still being gradually rolled out, so not all users have access yet.

• YouTube is also testing a new beat-matching feature for Shorts, syncing videos with music. Creators can now select multiple photos and video clips, choose a song, and YouTube will automatically arrange the clips to match the beat. The feature is currently being tested with a small group of creators.

Commerce 🛒 

• Tariffs are hitting major brands like Apple $AAPL ( ▼ 4.24% ) , Nvidia $NVDA ( ▼ 5.91% ) , and $META ( ▼ 6.74% ) , but eMarketer reports smaller players could find a silver lining. While smaller retailers dependent on overseas goods might struggle, local artisans and companies using local or secondhand inventory could thrive. eMarketer suggests brands optimize local supply chains and explore service models to stay profitable, while consumers can shop platforms offering U.S.-based inventory to cope with price hikes.

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