Latest / Selling on Giants: The eCommerce Marketplace Podcast / Amazon’s Ad Tax, Seller Financing & Walmart Ad Controls

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Amazon’s Ad Tax, Seller Financing & Walmart Ad Controls · Selling on Giants: The eCommerce Marketplace Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Amazon sales grew 20% last quarter.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Amazon advertising grew 26%.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: That six-point gap may be the most important number in marketplace commerce this week because it tells us exactly where Amazon continues to find its growth.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sellers are moving more products, but paying for visibility is becoming an even larger part of the system.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that is only the beginning.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Amazon is also tightening language that may affect how sellers finance inventory or structure a business sale.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Two major apparel brands are facing lawsuits over allegedly fake discounts.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Walmart finally gave advertisers a tool Amazon sellers have used for years, and the Federal Reserve just sent a warning that Q4 money may stay expensive.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Selling on Giants, the podcast for marketplace operators trying to stay ahead of Amazon, Walmart, Target, and the forces changing e-commerce.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Will Hare, co-founder of Bellavics, and this is your weekly e-commerce news update for the week of August 4th, 2026.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into it.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Amazon reported$200.6 billion in second-quarter sales, up 20% year over year.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Third-party seller services reached roughly$46.8 billion, up 16%.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Advertising reached$19.8 billion, up 26%.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: That means advertising is growing 10% points faster than the seller services revenue it sits on top of.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is not a temporary holiday bidding spike that disappears when everyone calms down in January.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: It is part of the business model.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: If your 2027 plan assumes your tacos stays flat, while Amazon's advertising business keeps compounding faster than marketplace services, the spreadsheet is doing motivational speaking.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: It is not forecasting.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Amazon also showed us where that advertising growth may go next.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Shoppers who click a sponsored prompt convert 48% more often and spend 21% more than shoppers who do not.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Amazon's ads agent is producing an 8% lower cost per impression and a 6% lower cost per acquisition for advertisers using its targeting.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Then there is Alexa for shopping.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: More than 350 million customers used it during the last 12 months.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Active users nearly doubled in the second quarter, while interactions increased more than five times year over year.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: In the United States, these shoppers spend about 40% more per order.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: That matters because the shopping journey is changing from search, click, compare, and purchase into ask, recommend, and sometimes automatically purchase.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Price alerts and auto-buy can now complete parts of the decision without a shopper returning to your product detail page and carefully rereading every bullet.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: For operators, there are two immediate moves.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: First, model your future margin with advertising taking a larger share of sales.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Second, audit the top 20 ASINs in your catalog for complete attributes, clean variation data, competitive pricing, reliable inventory, and consistent price history.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: When software helps choose the product, structured data becomes part of your creative strategy.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: The next Amazon change moves from advertising expense to the way some sellers fund the business.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Amazon published changes to its Business Solutions Agreement on May 29th.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: They take effect August 24th, three weeks from now.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: The revised language broadens the restriction around transferring rights or obligations under the agreement.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: It also identifies pledging as prohibited.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Outside attorneys and marketplace operators read that language as potentially affecting arrangements that use future Amazon disbursements as collateral, along with transactions that assume a seller's central account can simply move to a new owner.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: This does not mean every loan connected to an Amazon business suddenly becomes invalid.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: It does mean sellers should stop guessing.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you use a merchant cash advance, revenue-based financing, or another facility tied to Amazon receivables, pull the security agreement and look for language covering Amazon disbursements.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Then get the lender and your attorney on the phone before the next Q4 draw.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: The same caution applies to anyone buying or selling an Amazon business.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: An asset sale, ownership change, and account transfer are not automatically the same thing.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: The operating entity, bank records, and seller central registration need to line up.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a letter of intent in progress, confirm the compliance process now.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: A funds hold is a terrible way to learn that the deal and the marketplace account tell different stories.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And if all of this sounds more complicated than selling a good product should be, that is because it is.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: At Bellovics, we have helped brands sell more than$500 million on Amazon, and we are an Amazon verified ad partner.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Our job is to turn advertising, operations, content, and marketplace policy into one hands-on operating plan.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: You can learn more at Bellovics.com.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now back to the show.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: That Amazon agreement is one reminder that platform language matters.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Two lawsuits filed within 10 days of each other are a reminder that pricing language matters too.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Nike and Lululemon are facing separate lawsuits alleging deceptive strike-through pricing.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: The complaints argue that products appeared to be discounted from reference prices that were not genuine recent selling prices.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: These are allegations, not court findings, but the theory behind them is very easy to understand.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: If the product never meaningfully sells at the WAS price, the sale may be fictional.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: California law makes this especially relevant because a former price generally needs to reflect a genuine price offered within the previous three months, unless the seller clearly states when that former price was in effect.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Public price history also makes these claims relatively easy for a plaintiff to investigate.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is not only an issue for national apparel brands, it applies to Amazon list prices, Walmart was pricing, direct-to-consumer sale badges, and the promotion that somehow celebrates its third consecutive birthday.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Pull the last 90 days of actual selling prices across your priority catalog.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Compare those transactions with every reference price customers currently see.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you can substantiate the higher price, keep the documentation.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you cannot, remove it.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Amazon already suppresses list price displays when its systems do not support the reference price.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: These lawsuits give every platform another reason to tighten enforcement.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: While Amazon and the courts are creating more homework, Walmart just handed advertisers a useful tool.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: On July 29th, Walmart Connect began rolling out negative keywords for sponsored products.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Advertisers can now block unwanted searches at the campaign or ad group level.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Negative exact blocks, the specific search.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Negative phrase blocks, searches containing the full phrase.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: The feature applies to manual campaigns and automatic campaigns using fixed bidding.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Amazon advertisers may hear this and wonder what year Walmart thinks it is.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Fair question, but the practical impact matters more than the late arrival.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Until now, Walmart advertisers had limited control when automatic campaigns spent against branded searches, weak adjacent categories, or queries that produce clicks without orders.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: The main levers were bids and budgets.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Negative keywords give operators a cleaner way to remove waste without cutting productive traffic.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Walmart sponsored product spending is already rising.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Second quarter benchmarks show average daily brand spending up 25% year over year, with click-through rate up 23%.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: As more dollars enter the auction, bad search terms become more expensive mistakes.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Pull your Walmart search term reports this week.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Start with high spend, zero order terms, then look for branded cannibalization and irrelevant phrase patterns.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Add negatives carefully.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Do not celebrate the new tool by blocking half the internet before lunch.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: The objective is to remove proven waste while preserving Discovery.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Walmart also released two operational updates worth moving on quickly.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: First, eligible United States sellers using the application programming interface can now create virtual packs.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: These are offers for two to six units of the same item without manufacturing a separate physical multi-pack.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Each pack receives its own item ID, bundle SQ, content and price, while inventory and lag time come from the component item.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: That lets brands test two packs and three packs, raise average order value, and create value options without another physical inventory pool.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: When the component restocks, every pack restocks.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Walmart also says sellers using WFS can receive fulfillment fee savings when a pack offers at least a 5% discount.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Second, Walmart's late shipment rate is now an accountable seller performance standard.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sellers need to remain at 5% or lower.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Walmart also changed how expected ship dates are calculated for seller-fulfilled orders with lag time above zero for orders placed after the cutoff that can move the ship date one day earlier.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you self-fulfill, review your lag time settings, first carrier scans, and actual handoff times now.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: A label created on time does not help if the package waits until tomorrow to meet the carrier.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Virtual packs create a merchandising opportunity.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: The shipment rule makes sure operations can support the demand.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: That brings us to the broader Q4 backdrop.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: The Federal Reserve held its target rate at 3.5% to 3.3 quarters percent.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: It was the fifth straight hold, but three policymakers voted to raise rates by a quarter point.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: That is the first time in nearly 10 years that three policymakers dissented in the same hawkish direction.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Inflation is cooling, but it is not cool.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: June headline PCE inflation came in at 3.7%, with core inflation at 3.3%.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Second quarter economic growth was only 1.5% below expectations, yet real consumer spending accelerated to 3.2%.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: That combination matters for marketplace brands.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Consumers are still buying, but borrowing costs and landed cost pressure may not ease before peak season.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is not a reason to slash the Q4 inventory plan.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: It is a reason to make the plan more precise.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Buy by SQ and price tier, not by one blanket growth assumption.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Watch value items, multi-packs, and replenishable products closely, because shoppers can keep spending while trading down.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Premium products need a clearer reason to earn the difference.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that connects the entire week.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Amazon is taking a larger share through advertising.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Its contract language may affect how some sellers fund inventory.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Courts are questioning whether displayed discounts are real.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Walmart is giving advertisers new ways to cut waste and new pack sizes to create value.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: The winners are not the brands that react to each headline separately.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: They are the operators who connect margin, pricing, advertising, inventory, and compliance before Q4 exposes the gaps.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to Selling on Giants.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Follow the show, subscribe, and leave a review if this helped.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Mr.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Will, and I'll see you next week.