Ecommerce is shifting—fast.
The old playbook of “launch a product, run ads, build a store” isn’t working the way it used to.
Platforms are getting more competitive. Costs are rising. And the gap between beginners and real operators is getting wider.
This week’s stories break down what’s actually changing:
- Here’s your smartest investments this year ✨
- New sellers are disappearing on Amazon 🪄
- Why brands are abandoning their own stores 🛒
- The Amazon trap no one talks about ⛑️
Let’s get into it 👇
AMAZON NEWS
AAmazon might be losing its next generation of sellers.
Quietly.
According to Brandon Fishman, fewer new sellers are entering the platform—and it’s starting to show.
📉 What’s happening:
- The flow of new Amazon sellers is slowing down
- Growth is being driven by existing operators, not beginners
- The barrier to entry is higher than ever
⚠️ Why?
Because Amazon got harder. A lot harder. Sellers today are dealing with:
- Rising ad costs
- Lower margins from fees + competition
- Algorithms (like the Buy Box) controlling visibility
And that last one matters most.
Nearly 98% of purchases happen through the Buy Box—meaning if you lose it, your sales can collapse overnight.
🧱 Translation:
The “launch and win” era is over.
Now it’s: operate or lose.
📊 What replaced new sellers:
- Brands scaling multi-product portfolios
- Aggregators consolidating listings
- Experienced teams running Amazon like a system—not a side hustle
💡 What this really means:
Amazon didn’t stop growing. It just stopped being beginner-friendly. This means the marketplace is maturing. And when markets mature…
They stop rewarding entry and start rewarding execution.
AI can speed up coding—but Amazon’s recent outages show the risks
TOGETHER WITH WALMART MARKETPLACE
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BITES OF THE WEEK
- Meta Buys Viral AI Network: Meta acquired Moltbook, the Reddit-style social platform for AI agents that recently went viral—though many of its most shocking posts were later found to be written by humans pretending to be bots.
- AI Boosts Basket Size: Walmart says customers using its AI shopping assistant, Sparky, are building carts that are 35% larger than non-AI users.
- Tariff Evasion Hits Record Levels: A reported $112B trade gap between Chinese export data and U.S. import records suggests large-scale tariff avoidance, reshaping competitive pricing dynamics for U.S. sellers.
TRENDING TOPIC
This is why brands are abandoning their own stores
Selling on marketplaces isn’t just a growth channel anymore—it’s becoming the default way ecommerce works.
Across Europe, marketplaces now drive the majority of cross-border ecommerce revenue, forcing brands to rethink how they sell online.
Here’s what’s changing 👇
1️⃣ Marketplaces are dominating online sales
Platforms like Amazon, Zalando, and Bol are capturing a huge share of ecommerce growth. Instead of shopping on individual websites, customers are going straight to marketplaces to discover and buy products.
2️⃣ Cross-border selling is easier (and bigger)
Marketplaces make it simple for sellers to expand into new countries without building local infrastructure—handling logistics, payments, and even customer trust.
3️⃣ Retailers are becoming marketplaces too
More large retailers are opening their platforms to third-party sellers, turning from traditional stores into hybrid marketplace ecosystems to expand product selection and revenue.
4️⃣ Distribution beats brand-owned traffic
Instead of spending heavily to drive traffic to their own sites, brands are plugging into existing demand on marketplaces—where millions of customers already are.
5️⃣ Competition is intensifying inside platforms
As more sellers join, success depends on pricing, reviews, fulfillment speed, and algorithm visibility—not just having a good product.
Bottom line:
Marketplaces are no longer optional—they’re infrastructure. Brands that learn how to win inside these ecosystems will scale faster across borders, while those relying only on their own stores risk getting left behind.
BLACK MARKET
The Amazon trap no one talks about
A lot of new Amazon sellers are stuck in “research mode.” For years.
One Reddit post summed it up perfectly: “2 years researching… but still haven’t started.”
📉 What’s happening:
- Aspiring sellers spend months (or years) learning wholesale
- They watch tutorials, read guides, analyze products
- But never actually place their first order
⚠️ Why?
Because wholesale isn’t as simple as it looks online.
In reality, sellers run into:
- Suppliers that don’t respond
- Prices that don’t leave room for profit\Heavy competition on the same listings
Even experienced sellers admit most wholesale accounts are overpriced or too competitive to work.
🧠 The trap:
More research feels productive. But it delays the only thing that matters: execution.
📦 What actually works (according to sellers):
- Building relationships with smaller, lesser-known brands
- Testing products early instead of overanalyzing
- Accepting that most leads won’t be profitable
Because finding winning products is a grind—not a one-time discovery.
💡 What this really means:
Amazon wholesale isn’t “hard because you don’t know enough.”
It’s hard because you only learn by doing.
Bottom line:
Research doesn’t build an Amazon business. Orders do. And the longer you wait to start… the harder it gets to catch up.d launching it successfully?
That’s where most sellers struggle.
