Send a text

This week on Selling on Giants, Mr. Will breaks down several major shifts shaping eCommerce, Amazon selling, and retail strategy. From AI entering Seller Central to retail media becoming a billion-dollar business, the rules of marketplace growth are evolving fast.

The common thread across this episode is simple.
Platforms are becoming smarter, more automated, and more data-driven.

Key topics in this episode include:

Amazon Adds AI to Seller Central Analytics
Amazon is embedding generative AI directly into Seller Central to help sellers analyze sales trends, advertising performance, and inventory movement via natural-language questions. For smaller brands, this could function like having a built-in analyst. For experienced operators it speeds up pattern detection across complex data sets.

Agentic Commerce and the Rise of AI Shopping Agents
New research from McKinsey highlights the next phase of online commerce. AI systems will not only recommend products but may soon execute purchases on behalf of consumers. That means product discovery could shift from human browsing to machine-driven decision making.

Target’s Advertising Business Keeps Growing
Target generated $915 million in advertising revenue in 2025 through its Roundel media network even while retail sales remained soft. This reinforces a massive industry shift where retailers are evolving into media companies and brands increasingly pay for visibility inside retail ecosystems.

Amazon Expands Product Opportunity Explorer
A new “Saved Opportunities” feature allows sellers to track niches and product ideas directly inside Seller Central. This signals Amazon’s continued push to keep product research and demand validation inside its own platform rather than relying on third-party tools.

Tariffs, Supply Chains, and Retail Cost Pressure
Costco is proactively adjusting sourcing strategies as tariffs begin influencing global supply chains again. Brands should expect renewed pressure on margins as retailers negotiate pricing with suppliers.

Returns Continue to Drain Retail Profitability
Retailers processed roughly $706 billion in product returns in 2025. Operational gaps and omnichannel returns like buy online return in store are becoming major margin challenges across retail.

Celebrity Backed Brands Continue to Reshape CPG
Kim Kardashian has joined energy drink startup Update as a co founder as the brand launches into Walmart with a paraxanthine based formula targeting wellness focused consumers.

The Bigger Theme

The future of commerce is becoming increasingly automated and data driven.

Retailers are building media businesses.
Platforms are embedding AI into operations.
And shopping behavior itself may soon be influenced by autonomous AI agents.

For brands and marketplace operators, the companies that adapt fastest to these structural changes will have the strongest advantage.

If you sell on Amazon, operate across marketplaces, or care about the future of retail, this episode provides the operator-level perspective behind the headlines.

Subscribe to Selling on Giants for weekly operator-level insights built for serious marketplace brands navigating complexity with discipline.

Send a text

Amazon Tightens Capital. Ads Demand Discipline. AI Compresses Competition.

This week’s Selling on Giants episode breaks down the structural tightening happening across Amazon, retail media, AI search, and global retail infrastructure. None of these shifts are cosmetic. Each one affects capital flow, attribution control, data visibility, and long-term margin durability.

Here’s what serious operators need to understand right now:

Amazon DD+7: A Working Capital Shift, Not a Fee Increase

• Funds now release seven days after confirmed delivery
• The reserve clock starts at delivery confirmation, not shipment
• No manual overrides if Disburse on Demand is not enabled
• Cash conversion cycles quietly extend

This is not emotional. It is arithmetic. If you front inventory, freight, ads, and payroll, payout timing matters. Extended float increases working capital needs and magnifies debt cost exposure. Strong brands model this. Weak capital structure gets exposed.

Sponsored Products: Is Your Account Maintained or Just Running?

• Do you know your break-even ACOS?
• Are bids tied to Revenue Per Click math?
• Are budgets open on winners and capped on waste?
• Can your team diagnose which lever moved when ACOS shifts?

Most accounts do not fail because Amazon is “rigged.” They fail because margin math, search term hygiene, and structural clarity are missing. Discipline, not emotion, separates scalable ad accounts from expensive ones.

Meta Targets Retail Media Budgets

• Closed-loop measurement improvements
• Retail data integrations
• Direct competition for Amazon and Walmart ad dollars

This is budget warfare, not branding. Attribution is becoming the battleground. Platforms that prove incremental sales impact win allocation. Habit-based budget placement is losing power.

AI Shopping Behavior Is Changing Product Discovery

• Consumers use AI tools upstream to compare products
• Listings are being summarized before shoppers land on Amazon
• Clarity and differentiation matter more than keyword stuffing

AI compresses competition. If your PDP cannot be summarized clearly in one paragraph, positioning is weak. Structured, benefit-driven content wins.

Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol

• Standardized product data requirements
• Structured, machine-readable commerce feeds
• Data integrity over keyword tricks

SEO is shifting from content optimization to data architecture discipline. Messy feeds and incomplete attributes quietly erode visibility over time.

McKinsey Grocery Report: Growth Paradox in MENA

• Consumer confidence rising
• Premium willingness increasing
• Formal grocery growth lagging

The issue is not demand. It is execution and format relevance. Retail expansion alone does not guarantee velocity. Brands must align assortment, positioning, and innovation to how shoppers actually buy.

The Big Pattern

Capital discipline is tightening.
Ad discipline is tightening.
Data standards are tightening.
Execution tolerance is shrinking.

This is not a panic cycle. It is a precision cycle.

Strong operators model cash, margin, attribution, and velocity. Undisciplined brands feel friction first.

Subscribe to Selling on Giants for weekly operator-level insights built for serious marketplace brands navigating complexity with discipline.

Send a text

The Supreme Court just struck down the administration’s sweeping Liberation Day tariffs — and the impact on Amazon sellers is bigger than the headline suggests.

In this February 2026 edition of Selling on Giants, Mr. Will breaks down what the ruling actually means for importers, marketplace operators, and brand owners navigating volatile cost structures.

This is not political commentary. It is operational analysis.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

What Changed

• The Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that tariffs issued under IEEPA were unlawful
• The 10% baseline tariff and country-specific tariffs up to 50% lose their legal foundation
• Over $100 billion collected now sits in legal limbo

What Has NOT Changed

• Section 301 (China tariffs) remain intact
• Section 232 (national security tariffs) remain intact
• A new 10% tariff was quickly introduced under Section 122
• Trade policy volatility is still very much alive

Why This Matters for Amazon Sellers

Tariffs directly affect landed cost, and landed cost determines:

• Contribution margin
• Break-even ACOS
• Allowable TACoS
• Advertising aggression
• Inventory planning

Even a 10% shift in cost can reduce contribution margin by 20% or more.

That changes everything.

Refund Opportunities — And Complications

If you paid IEEPA-based tariffs:

• You may have exposure to potential refunds
• There is no clear federal refund framework yet
• Trade attorneys expect administrative claims and possible litigation
• Timeline uncertainty remains

Strategic question: If capital is returned months from now, do you reinvest, hedge, or stabilize?

Second-Order Effects

If tariffs normalize toward pre-tariff levels:

• Gross margins improve
• Ad auctions heat up
• Promotional intensity increases
• Price competition accelerates

Cost relief often leads to competitive aggression.

Sourcing Reality

Many brands diversified manufacturing during tariff pressure:

• Vietnam
• India
• Mexico
• Domestic options

Those shifts required new tooling, freight lanes, and working capital cycles. Even if tariffs decline, most brands will not fully reverse course.

Trade policy is now a structural operating variable.

Reverse Logistics & Margin Discipline

Returns are a growing margin leak across eCommerce.

AI is now being used to:

• Predict high-return orders
• Automate SKU-level disposition decisions
• Improve recovery rates
• Reduce idle inventory velocity

When tariffs compress margin on the front end and returns erode margin on the back end, disciplined operators win.

Strategic Takeaways

• Separate cost assumptions from strategy
• Audit IEEPA exposure cleanly
• Stress test break-even ACOS quarterly
• Maintain supplier optionality
• Assume volatility as the baseline

The headline says tariffs were struck down.

The operator takeaway: uncertainty remains.

If you sell on Amazon, Walmart, or Target, trade policy is no longer background noise. It is a core P&L driver.

Subscribe to Selling on Giants for weekly operator-level insights built for serious marketplace brands navigating complexity with discipline.