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Campaign ME
5 days ago
- Business
- Campaign ME
MENA industry reacts after Amazon abruptly exits Google Shopping Ads
Between July 21 and July 23, 2025, Amazon withdrew from virtually all Google Shopping auctions in major global markets, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. The dramatic move was first brought into sharp public focus by Mohammed Sajjad, Chief Marketing and Digital Officer at Azadea Group, who wrote, 'Amazon didn't reduce bids. Didn't trial a new format. They vanished from approximately 60 per cent of Google Shopping auctions. Overnight. Global. Coordinated.' This development follows a 50 per cent reduction in Amazon's Google Shopping ad spend in the United States in May 2025, suggesting that the July move was the culmination of a carefully orchestrated strategy rather than an impulsive decision. Market backdrop and competitive signals Amazon's withdrawal comes just as holiday shopping ramps up, with 71 per cent of consumers expected to begin before Thanksgiving, up 18 per cent year-over-year. The timing could significantly reshape traffic flows during the industry's most critical quarter, compelling competitors to adapt their campaigns earlier and more aggressively. This move also follows key shifts in Google's advertising ecosystem. In late 2024, Google removed Performance Max's priority over Standard Shopping campaigns, diminishing the dominance of automated ad placements. Simultaneously, Google Lens began serving shopping ads within its 20 billion monthly visual searches, and Perplexity AI entered the market with a one-click, AI-powered shopping assistant. In this context, Amazon's move is widely viewed as a deliberate shift away from paying for visibility on Google, and toward controlling the entire product discovery journey themselves. As Sajjad puts it, 'Amazon didn't tweak a line item — they redrew the map.' Industry leaders weigh in The advertising and e-commerce world responded with a wave of analysis and speculation. Executives and digital leaders interpreted the withdrawal as a calculated signal of Amazon's evolving position in the digital advertising ecosystem. Faheem Ahmad, Head of Growth at Chalhoub Group, framed the move as a data-driven optimisation play with broader implications for ad strategy, saying, 'They presumably spent $50m per year on shopping ads, given a 600 million inventory size. That's $230 per product per day, which is huge. Amazon may only continue advertising its private-label inventory, which represents just 2 per cent of its SKUs.' Asim Shaikh, eCommerce and Digital Leader at iHerb, framed the withdrawal as a structural shift rather than a tactical change. 'I believe this isn't about bid strategy, it's a pure platform power shift. Amazon recently blocked Google's 'Project Mariner' crawler. If Google's AI models train on your content, and you're paying them for traffic? That's a bad deal not only for Amazon but for most established retailers,' Shaikh said. Shaikh added that Amazon likely wants to be 'the first step in search, not the last click'. Strategic tension with Google Faisal Dean, CEO of Assembly's MENA region, contextualised Amazon's withdrawal as part of a broader trend in their relationship with Google. 'This is not the first time Amazon has pulled back spend. However, this seems to be the most drastic to date,' he noted. Dean also pointed to the growing contradiction in Amazon's continued funding of a competitor that is building directly competitive capabilities. 'The strategic contradiction of funding your competitor has become more apparent as Google's AI-powered contextual answers and zero-click queries could put Amazon at risk of over-reliance,' he said. Dean added that while the decision likely includes considerations around MMM (marketing mix modeling), LTV-driven incrementality testing, and seasonality-driven investments, there may also be a forward-looking element at play. He said, 'This could potentially be a future-facing strategy to stop part-funding, both with advertising dollars and data, Google's feature rollouts announced earlier this year, which aim to improve the personalised shopping experience and close the loop within Google itself i.e., stepping onto Amazon's turf, as well as free up millions in advertising spend to re-invest into their own growing retail media offering'. A data-driven power move According to current third-party estimates, Amazon Prime has approximately 220 to 260 million paying members globally, with around 180 million in the United States alone. This accounts for nearly 75–80 per cent of all US households. For many Prime subscribers, the purchase journey starts and ends on Amazon, making Google and other search platforms increasingly irrelevant. As Rasha Hamzeh, Managing Director at the Inhouse Agency, put it, 'Owning discovery, ditching dependency, not a test but a territory grab. Or maybe Amazon's betting that customers no longer need to be acquired. Not fighting for clicks but optimising for loyalty.' Darine Sabbagh, GM of E-commerce at Chalhoub Group, added, 'At their scale, there's enough critical mass in the zMOT journey to just 'Amazon it,' rather than 'Google it' first. Staying on Google may have simply been a way to crowd others out.' Chris Bishop, Ecommerce Director at SQUATWOLF, framed the withdrawal as a defining industry moment, saying, 'The king is dead, long live the king. Amazon stepping back from Google Shopping isn't just a gap in the auction – it may be a once-in-a-cycle shift in category dynamics.' Bishop adds, 'While Amazon tests how far it can pull back from funding Google's coffers without losing its grip on the customer, especially in territories where it has long commanded a disproportionate share of wallet, this could be an Ehrenberg-Bass moment: double down on penetration, win light buyers, and build mental availability while the giant is, perhaps arrogantly, asleep at the wheel.' What's next? With CPCs down 20–40 per cent, competitors are already capturing market share in Amazon's absence. Whether Amazon's self-sufficiency gamble pays off, or simply creates space for rivals to reclaim paid search real estate, remains to be seen. Bilal Adham, Group Vice President of Digital at DP World, sees this as a familiar pattern. Adham said, 'We've seen similar tactics from Shein, Temu, and Alibaba — flooding Google listing ads early on, then pulling back once they'd built a pool of users.' But in Amazon's case, the implications may run deeper. He added, 'If you take a step back, are Amazon telling us they've reached the holy grail of ecommerce? Scale acquisition, then shift to trust, experience, and habit. With app installs, repeat sessions, logged-in users, and CRM, it reduces the need for paid discovery altogether, playing on loyalty and advocacy.' Adham ended with a sharp reflection, saying, 'Back in 2014, Eric Schmidt called Amazon 'Google's biggest search competitor.' For Amazon, that moment may have quietly arrived.' For now, one thing is clear: Amazon has signaled it no longer intends to play by Google's rules. Whether others follow may define the next era of digital commerce. Authored by Nasser Oudjidane, Co-founder and CEO at
Zawya
15-04-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Middle East retailer Azadea delays IPO plans to focus on business operations
Azadea Group, the Middle East operator of retail stores Zara and Virgin Megastore, has delayed its IPO plans to focus on its business operations, according to a Bloomberg report. The decision to delay the listing is not a result of the market volatility that saw global markets lose trillions in the aftermath of the US-led tariffs, the news report stated, citing people familiar with the development. Sources told Bloomberg, the Beirut-headquartered company was considering expansion into new markets in the Middle East and further developing its existing operations before moving ahead with an IPO. Founded in 1978, the lifestyle retail company owns and operates more than 40 international franchise concepts across the Middle East and Africa, according to its website, with more than 700 stores spread across 14 countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Egypt and Lebanon. (Writing by Bindu Rai, editing by Seban Scaria)
