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TODAY’S MAZE
Happy Friday! Amazon is taking on Nvidia with its own custom AI hardware. The giant aims to own the computing stack and slash long-term infrastructure costs.
Can internal chips finally decouple Amazon from high silicon prices? The shift suggests AWS is becoming a hardware titan alongside its retail roots.
In today’s MarketMaze focus:
Amazon chips challenge Nvidia
Vinted hits record volume
Sellers boycott Amazon ads
Search click-through rates drop
European ecommerce keeps growing
+Handpicked recent news you need to know
LET’S ENTER THE MAZE!
- Artur Stańczuk, MarketMaze Founder
P.S. Getting married tomorrow! 🙂
MAZE STORY
The Maze: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s annual shareholder letter signals a massive shift toward building internal AI hardware. The company aims to break Nvidia’s grip on the market and reduce long-term infrastructure costs.
Amazon claims its new Trainium3 chip offers 30-40% better price-performance compared to previous generations as it aims to lure customers away from Nvidia hardware.
The internal chip business now generates an annual revenue run rate exceeding $20 billion while powering major partners like OpenAI and Anthropic.
Amazon pivots toward AI despite a recent market selloff that erased $450 billion in value, signaling that the company prioritizes long-term infrastructure over retail.
Why it matters: Shifting from third-party silicon to custom chips allows Amazon to control its vertical stack and improve operating margins. Brand leaders should expect a platform that views computing as its primary growth engine.
Does Amazon controlling its own AI chips, cloud (AWS), and models give it a lasting advantage over Nvidia-dependent competitors?
- 🏗️ Strong advantage (global hyperscalers with full stack win long-term)
- ⚙️ Cost edge only (US/EU enterprises benefit but competition stays open)
- 🔄 Temporary lead (others like Google and Microsoft catch up quickly)
- 🤝 Ecosystem wins (multi-vendor setups remain preferred by enterprises)
- 📉 No major impact (AI value shifts to applications, not infrastructure)
☝️ Vote to see results!
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MAZE STORY
The Maze: Vinted reached 10.8 billion euros in GMV during 2025 as the resale giant prioritizes scaling logistics over short-term profit margins. This aggressive strategy makes choosing second-hand items easy for price-conscious shoppers worldwide.
The platform now serves as the leading clothing retailer in France, outpacing giants like Amazon by focusing specifically on consumer-to-consumer transactions and member safety.
Investing heavily into the Vinted Go logistics arm enables scaling 500,000 drop-off points across Europe and testing delivery services for external clients.
Net profits dipped 19% to 62 million euros as the group expanded categories like collectibles and introduced wallet solutions to lower payment-related costs.
Why it matters: Vinted is evolving from a simple marketplace into a vertically integrated infrastructure provider. This shift creates a massive hurdle for competitors trying to match its low-cost logistics and payment networks.
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MAZE STORY
The Maze: High-volume merchants are organizing a coordinated advertising boycott next week to protest Amazon's shifting fee structures and new payment policies that strain seller cash flow and margins.
Amazon plans to begin deducting advertising costs from seller earnings on April 15, as reported in the Marketplace Briefing, which eliminates a financial cushion for brands.
The Million Dollar Sellers group leads this initiative, as some members report the policy change could suddenly tie up as much as $800,000 in essential working capital for their brands.
Consultancy Black Label Advisors warns that pausing ad spend might cause sellers to lose search rankings and market share to competitors who maintain their current visibility.
Why it matters: Tension continues to mount as Amazon sellers fight rising costs and unpredictable changes. Successful protests previously forced Amazon to pause controversial fees, establishing a clear blueprint for this collective action.
DATA TREASURE
The Maze: Search engines are sending fewer users to websites. AI answers and instant results increasingly satisfy queries directly inside search interfaces, shrinking the portion of searches that generate website visits.
Only about 36% of searches now result in website clicks, while roughly 64% end without the user leaving the search results page.
AI generated responses already represent around 5–6% of searches, a small share but one that has doubled rapidly as conversational interfaces expand.
Zero click behavior surged across the 2020s as search engines embedded answers, product comparisons, and summaries directly into results pages.
Why it matters: Traffic is no longer guaranteed even when users search for your product. Brands must optimize for visibility inside AI answers and platform ecosystems rather than relying solely on classic search rankings.
DATA TREASURE
The Maze: Online shopping has become a mainstream habit across Europe. Nearly four out of five internet users now purchase goods online, but adoption still varies widely across countries and economic conditions.
The share of EU internet users buying online rose from 62% in 2015 to about 78% in 2025, confirming that ecommerce has shifted from growth channel to everyday behavior.
Nordic and Benelux markets lead with adoption rates near 90%, while several Eastern and Southern European markets still show significant headroom for growth.
Cross border ecommerce continues to expand rapidly as consumers buy from international marketplaces when local assortment or pricing falls short.
Why it matters: Europe is not one ecommerce market. Mature countries compete on service and logistics while emerging ones still unlock growth through trust, payments, and delivery improvements.
BRIEFING
🏬 Everything else in Ecommerce & Big Tech
🇬🇧 Rezolve Ai appealed directly to Commerce.com shareholders to force a merger after the ecommerce platform's board previously rejected the hostile bid.
🇪🇺 BNPL usage reached a 50% milestone among European shoppers, marking the entrenchment of installment payments in the regional retail landscape.
🇬🇧 Tesco began trialing an AI meal planning and basket-building tool with 280,000 staff members ahead of a planned nationwide customer rollout.
🇯🇵 Fast Retailing hiked its annual profit outlook to $4.4 billion following record international demand for Uniqlo, specifically in North American and European markets.
🇺🇸 Target is scaling its next-day delivery capabilities via Shipt, utilizing direct-from-store shipping to reduce fulfillment costs and compete with Amazon Prime speeds.
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