How was your Valentine’s weekend?
If you ask retail, it would rather not talk about it. 🫣
- Smarter paid creator marketing 🧠
- Waiting on your own sales 😤
- Your wallet took the hit 💸
- Roses aren't selling anymore 🌹
AMAZON NEWS
If you were hoping Amazon would walk back DD+7, that door just closed. Sellers were reminded that the platform is officially shifting to a standard reserve period of 7 days after delivery (DD+7) starting March 5, 2026.
💰 What DD+7 actually means
Here’s how it works:
- Funds are held until 7 days after confirmed delivery
- For untracked shipments, the clock starts at the estimated delivery date
- Payments only move to your available balance after that reserve window
- Amazon frames this as a “one-time cash flow” adjustment
For example: Sold (Jan 1) → Delivered (Jan 3) → Paid (Jan 11)
Clean in theory. Less clean when real-world shipping delays get involved.
🚨 The friction isn’t subtle
Sellers are pushing back for these reasons:
- The additional seven-day wait before getting paid creates a longer cash cycle.
- Carrier delays now directly delay payouts.
- Lost packages mean funds are frozen until the issue is resolved.
- FBM sellers feel it the hardest, since longer transit times mean a longer reserve window.
- Some argue that it quietly nudges sellers toward FBA, where delivery confirmation happens more quickly.
For high-volume FBM sellers, that gap can stretch into 3–4 weeks before revenue actually hits. 💸
🧠 What sellers should be doing now
Amazon suggests reviewing reserves and using Disburse on Demand for funds not under reserve. But let’s be clear: anything inside that reserve window stays locked.
So practically speaking:
- Pressure-test your working capital
- Recalculate reorder timing
- Audit shipping speeds and carrier performance
- Tighten month-end forecasting
Because this isn’t just about when you get paid. It’s about how fast your sales convert into usable cash.
TOGETHER WITH LEVANTA
Paid creator marketing built for Amazon performance
You found an Amazon creator. You paid them. The post went live.
Screenshots roll in. Impressions, maybe a comment or two.
Weeks go by. Then the question hits: was that actually worth it?
For most Amazon sellers, creator spend ends there – with no clear way to connect creator content to clicks, conversions, or revenue.
NEW from Levanta: Paid creator placements with built-in Amazon attribution.
With Levanta, sellers can run paid creator placements with:
- Upfront pricing through creator rate cards
- Guaranteed posting and clear deliverables
- In-platform proposals, approvals, and secure escrowed payments
And every placement is paired with affiliate-powered Amazon tracking – so sellers can see which creator partnerships actually drive clicks, conversions, and revenue downstream.
No guesswork.
No DM negotiations.
No vanity metrics.
Just paid creator marketing built for Amazon performance, and a smarter way to see what’s worth scaling.
See how it works with a live walkthrough
BITES OF THE WEEK
- Rose Resilience: Red roses stay Valentine’s Day top seller, despite higher costs and tariffs, selling thousands locally.
- Advertising with ChatGPT: Albertsons, Target, and Williams-Sonoma pilot ads in ChatGPT, exploring AI-driven retail media opportunities.
- OTDR Rules Updated: Amazon now deactivates only low-performing listings if OTDR falls below 90%, not all listings.
- eBay Live Hits Canada: eBay launches Live in Canada, racing TikTok and Whatnot to expand livestream shopping globally.
TRENDING TOPIC
Tariffs meant for foreigners hit US wallets instead
If you source internationally, 2025’s tariffs probably pinched your wallet more than the headlines suggested.
According to USA Today, it wasn’t a foreign tax dodge. American companies, consumers, and sellers like you ended up paying most of the bill.
📊 Letting the numbers speak
A Federal Reserve Bank of New York study confirms that Trump’s 2025 tariffs largely hit U.S. wallets:
- 94% of tariff costs hit U.S. firms and consumers through August 2025 (86% by November).
- Roughly $1,000 per household in 2025, around $1,300 projected for 2026.
- Raised inflation by approximately 0.7 percentage points.
- Exporters kept prices high, leaving importers and consumers to absorb the cost.
The takeaway: tariffs burdened domestic, not foreign, pockets.
🛒 Impact on importers and sellers
For sellers, this isn’t political; it’s operational. International sourcing and tariff changes create a ripple effect across your business:
- Higher landed costs: Imported inventory became more expensive
- Margin compression: Tariffs cut into profits without price hikes
- Price sensitivity: Inflation can lower conversion rates
- Category impact: Home goods, furniture, and household items saw significant price increases
When import costs rise, someone has to pay. The real question for sellers is simple: is it you or your customer? 💸
SOCIAL PULSE
Is love losing its marketing mojo?
If your February numbers looked softer than expected, you weren’t imagining it. Cupid’s arrows seemed to miss the mark this year.
Retail Brew reported that Valentine's Day marketing activity dropped 52% YoY.
👛 Wallets over heartstrings
It seems Cupid’s arrows missed the mark: 1 in 4 shoppers skipped gifting altogether.
- Valentine’s emails dropped from 6,395 to 3,072
- Overall email volume rose 133% YoY, but not for V-Day
- 23% of shoppers cut or skipped holiday gift spending
- December retail sales were flat despite peak-season traffic
🛍️ Hearts aren't buying
The new-normal consumer behavior is shaped by:
- Inflation and higher everyday prices
- Tariff-driven cost increases
- Rising shipping expenses
- Greater reliance on Buy Now, Pay Later, which hit $1.03B on Cyber Monday 2025
📖 Cupid needs a new playbook
If Valentine’s Day lost its shine, sellers must rethink “nice-to-have” holidays: consumers buy differently, cut discretionary spending first, and respond better to targeted, value-focused promotions.
