Hey Reader,
Welcome back to another weekly briefing packed with policy shifts, AI disruption, marketplace competition, and platform updates that could impact your strategy in 2026 and beyond. Let’s dive in.
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The News
Supreme Court Strikes Down Trump Global Tariffs, Opening Door to Refund Battles
The Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that the Trump administration lacked authority under IEEPA to impose sweeping global tariffs of 10% to 50%, potentially triggering legal disputes over more than $133 billion in collected duties.
Why This Matters: The ruling signals reduced tariff pressure on imported goods, which could ease cost volatility for operators and improve margin planning for U.S. based brands reliant on overseas manufacturing. It also raises the likelihood of supply chain recalibration and pricing adjustments as businesses reassess landed costs and potential refunds in a shifting trade environment.
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Trump Imposes Temporary 10% Global Tariff After Supreme Court Blocks Prior Duties
Following the Supreme Court’s rejection of earlier tariff authority, President Trump signed executive orders establishing a temporary 10% global import tariff under Section 122 for 150 days and launched new investigations that could support additional tariffs under other trade statutes.
Why This Matters: The administration is pivoting to alternative legal pathways to maintain tariff leverage, keeping cost uncertainty in play for import-reliant businesses. For U.S. based Amazon sellers and brands, this increases the likelihood of continued margin pressure, pricing recalibration, and supply chain adjustments as new investigations unfold and longer-term tariff structures take shape.
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AI Agents Are Reshaping How Products Get Found and Bought Online
New data shows surging AI driven retail traffic and rising AI assisted purchases as platforms like Google, Shopify, and Amazon build infrastructure that allows agents to search, evaluate, and complete transactions on behalf of consumers.
Why This Matters: Agentic commerce points to greater reliance on structured product data, transparent policies, and real time inventory rather than paid ads and promotional tactics to win visibility. For U.S. based Amazon operators and brands, this suggests continued investment in clean catalogs, reliable fulfillment, and API readiness so products are optimized not just for shoppers, but for the algorithms increasingly making buying decisions.
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Amazon Narrows OTDR Enforcement to Listing Level for FBM Sellers
Beginning February 28, 2026, Amazon will deactivate only the worst performing FBM listings that fall below the 90% On Time Delivery Rate threshold rather than suspending an entire seller’s FBM catalog.
Why This Matters: This adjustment suggests continued investment in more targeted, data driven enforcement that isolates underperforming SKUs instead of penalizing full catalogs. For operators and U.S. based brands running FBM or Seller Fulfilled Prime, this reduces account level risk but raises the likelihood of closer scrutiny at the listing level, making carrier performance, handling times, and Buy Shipping adoption increasingly important to protect revenue stability.
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Amazon Ends Shoppable Collections and Introduces A+ Content Quality Scoring
Amazon will remove the Shoppable Collections module on February 27 and replace it with Brand Story while launching a new weekly Content Quality Analysis beta that scores A+ Content across readability, completeness, visual presentation, and conversion effectiveness.
Why This Matters: Amazon is reducing experimental formats and adding automated quality scoring, which suggests continued investment in measurable content standards and conversion accountability at the product detail page level. For operators and U.S.-based brands, this raises the likelihood of greater reliance on structured Brand Story implementation and ongoing content optimization to protect Premium A+ eligibility, improve conversion rates, and remain competitive in a marketplace increasingly governed by performance signals rather than static approval.
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Amazon Updates Business Solutions Agreement to Govern AI Agents and Automation
Amazon’s March 4, 2026 Business Solutions Agreement update introduces a formal Agent Policy requiring automated software and AI agents to identify themselves, comply with new rules, and cease access upon request, while adding restrictions on AI development and reverse engineering.
Why This Matters: Amazon is tightening contractual control over automated access to its platform, which suggests increased focus on governance, data protection, and discretionary enforcement as agent usage accelerates. For operators and U.S. based brands, this raises the likelihood of greater reliance on compliant solution providers and documented automation workflows, while software driven growth strategies must align more closely with Amazon’s evolving access rules to avoid disruption.
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Amazon and Shopify Now Account for Half of U.S. E-Commerce Sales
Marketplace Pulse estimates Amazon holds 35.7% of U.S. e-commerce and Shopify 14%, bringing their combined share to nearly 50% of the $1.2 trillion U.S. online market in 2025.
Why This Matters: The growing concentration around Amazon’s centralized marketplace and Shopify’s decentralized infrastructure points to greater reliance on these two ecosystems for distribution, payments, and customer acquisition. For operators and U.S. based brands, this suggests continued investment in either marketplace dominance, owned DTC infrastructure, or a hybrid strategy, as the remaining share of e-commerce becomes increasingly competitive and fragmented.
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Bath & Body Works Begins Selling on Amazon in Strategic Channel Expansion
Bath and Body Works has started offering select products on Amazon, leveraging its fulfillment network to expand reach beyond its own stores and website.
Why This Matters: Established brands embracing Amazon as a logistics and distribution partner suggests continued investment in hybrid channel strategies that combine owned platforms with marketplace scale. For operators and U.S. based brands, this raises the likelihood of increased competition from recognizable retail names on Amazon while reinforcing the importance of disciplined pricing, brand control, and fulfillment strategy to protect margin and visibility in a more crowded environment.
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Amazon Launches Paid Seller Expert Pilot for Forum Contributors
Amazon is piloting a Seller Expert program that offers gift cards to selected sellers in exchange for posting guidance and creating content in its discussion forums.
Why This Matters: This suggests continued investment in structured community support and signals increased focus on formalizing peer driven education within the platform. For operators, it raises the likelihood of more curated guidance shaping how new sellers execute, while brands should expect greater standardization of best practices and increased operational pressure to align with Amazon’s recommended frameworks.
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US E-Commerce Sales Projected to Reach 1.8 Trillion by 2030
Forrester projects US e-commerce sales will grow to $1.8 trillion and represent 29% of total retail by 2030, while physical stores are expected to generate 71% of sales.
Why This Matters: Continued online growth alongside resilient store sales suggests ongoing investment in logistics, fulfillment, and digital infrastructure without displacing physical retail’s role in brand building. For operators and USA based brands, this raises the likelihood of sustained competition for digital visibility on Amazon while reinforcing the need to integrate marketplace strategy with broader retail and omnichannel execution.
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TikTok Shop Reverses Exclusive U.S. Shipping Mandate After Seller Backlash
TikTok Shop has rolled back its plan to require U.S. sellers to use its internal logistics services exclusively, reinstating independent shipping options after widespread pushback.
Why This Matters: This episode suggests continued investment by marketplaces in fulfillment control while highlighting the operational pressure sellers face when platforms tighten logistics standards. For operators and USA-based brands, it raises the likelihood of ongoing shifts toward platform-managed shipping models, reinforcing the need for flexible multi-channel fulfillment strategies that protect margin and reduce dependency on any single ecosystem.
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Seller Tips & Tricks
Amazon Sellers Turn to AI to Analyze True Ad Profitability
Seller Labs reports that when sellers connect AI to their real Amazon data, the first and most common question is which ad campaigns are actually profitable after factoring in full product costs and fees.
Why This Matters: Rising fulfillment fees, higher ad costs, and thinner margins suggest increased focus on data driven advertising decisions rather than surface metrics like ACoS alone. For operators and USA based brands, this points to greater reliance on automation and AI tools to evaluate true profitability at the SKU and campaign level, raising the likelihood that disciplined data analysis becomes a competitive edge rather than a back office task.
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Amazon Chargebacks Become a Growing Margin Risk for Sellers in 2026
Palmetto Digital Marketing Group highlights that chargebacks are increasing in 2026 due to friendly fraud, faster refund culture, and stricter card network rules, creating a quiet but significant profit drain for Amazon sellers.
Why This Matters: As Amazon relies more on automation and banks control final dispute outcomes, this suggests increased operational pressure on sellers to strengthen fulfillment accuracy, documentation systems, and listing clarity. For operators and USA based brands, preventing chargebacks raises the likelihood of more stable margins and lower account health risk in an environment where fees and ad costs are already compressing profitability.
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Prosper Show 2026 Positions Itself as the Largest Amazon Seller Industry Gathering
Prosper Show will host over 1,200 sellers and 170 service providers across three days in Las Vegas, positioning itself as a large scale industry event focused on marketplace education and vendor networking.
Why This Matters: Large conferences like Prosper reflect the continued maturation and professionalization of the Amazon ecosystem, concentrating tools, legal services, logistics partners, and advertising providers in one place. For operators and USA based brands, events of this scale raise the likelihood of faster vendor evaluation and strategic recalibration, but the return depends on disciplined planning, targeted conversations, and post event execution rather than passive attendance.
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Amazon Sellers Continue to Rely on Alibaba for Private Label Sourcing in 2026
My Amazon Guy outlines the opportunities and risks of sourcing from Alibaba, emphasizing supplier vetting, sample testing, FBA compliance, and total landed cost control for Amazon sellers.
Why This Matters: Global sourcing remains foundational to private label strategy, but rising logistics costs, compliance scrutiny, and IP enforcement increase operational pressure on sellers to tighten supplier verification and documentation processes. For USA based brands, disciplined sourcing and inspection systems raise the likelihood of protecting margins and avoiding listing suspensions in an environment where quality and compliance gaps are punished quickly.
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Amazon Glitches Are Creating Unseen Revenue Risk for Sellers
Aura outlines how pricing bugs, search deindexing, Buy Box errors, inventory misfires, and AWS outages can disrupt Amazon listings without warning and erode sales before sellers realize what happened.
Why This Matters: Platform scale and automation increase the likelihood of temporary system failures that operators must detect and manage quickly to protect revenue and rankings. For USA based brands, stronger monitoring, price floor controls, and documentation processes raise the likelihood of limiting margin damage during high-risk events like Prime Day and viral social media pricing errors.
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Sales Down on Amazon Often Trace Back to Inventory or Reviews
EcomEngine argues that most Amazon sales declines are driven by stockouts, review slowdowns, Buy Box loss, or listing friction rather than ad performance, and provides a structured checklist to diagnose the root cause before increasing ad spend.
Why This Matters: For operators, availability gaps and review velocity directly affect ranking, conversion, and Buy Box ownership long before ads can compensate. For brands, this raises the likelihood of focusing on forecasting discipline, credibility management, and offer competitiveness as foundational systems before scaling paid traffic in an increasingly margin-sensitive environment.
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Amazon Reminds Sellers That Policy Violations Can Impact All Related Accounts
Amazon clarified in Seller Central forums that while multiple selling accounts are permitted for legitimate business reasons, policy violations in one account can trigger listing cancellations, suspensions, or payment holds across all related accounts.
Why This Matters: For operators running multiple brands or entities, account structure now carries shared compliance risk, increasing operational pressure to monitor health metrics and resolve warnings immediately. For brands scaling in the US, this points to greater reliance on centralized compliance systems and clean account governance to avoid cross-account disruption that can halt revenue across an entire portfolio.
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Amazon Narrows Variation Theme Removals, Eases Immediate Catalog Risk
Amazon revised its earlier plan to remove certain variation themes, now limiting removals to themes with no sales in the past 12 months and preserving core themes like size, color, and style for applicable product types.
Why This Matters: For operators managing large catalogs, variation structure remains a critical merchandising lever, and failed updates due to deprecated themes can block edits and disrupt revenue. For brands scaling in the US marketplace, this points to greater reliance on clean parent child governance and standardized catalog logic as Amazon continues simplifying variation rules across the platform.
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Video of the Week
Strong Opinions
California Attorney General Seeks Injunction Over Alleged Amazon Price Fixing
California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a motion for a preliminary injunction alleging Amazon coordinated with vendors and competing retailers to raise prices on other platforms, preventing lower-priced alternatives and insulating Amazon from price competition.
Why This Matters: For operators and brands that depend on Amazon distribution, this case highlights growing regulatory scrutiny around pricing policies and marketplace power, raising the likelihood of tighter oversight on how pricing parity and Buy Box eligibility are enforced. For USA-based sellers, potential changes to price enforcement rules could reshape competitive dynamics across Amazon and other retail channels, affecting pricing strategy, margin management, and multichannel expansion decisions.
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Amazon and OpenAI Discuss Potential Custom AI Models for Shopping
Amazon has held discussions with OpenAI about developing custom AI models that could influence shopping experiences, even as Amazon continues investing in its own AI assistant Rufus, which it says drove $12 billion in incremental sales in 2025.
Why This Matters: For operators, deeper AI integration into shopping flows points to greater reliance on algorithmic product recommendations that may increasingly shape what enters the cart and how traffic converts. For brands selling in the US marketplace, potential collaboration between Amazon and major AI platforms signals increased focus on AI-driven merchandising and discovery, raising the likelihood that visibility and conversion will depend even more on structured data, catalog optimization, and relevance signals rather than traditional keyword tactics alone.
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AI Agents Are Redefining Where Shopping Starts and Ends
AI platforms are rapidly becoming the starting point for product discovery, with growing consumer replacement of traditional search and early signs that agents may increasingly influence replenishment, research, and high-consideration purchases.
Why This Matters: For operators, rising AI-led discovery and agent-assisted checkout increase reliance on structured product data, fulfillment certainty, and conversion performance as agents compress research and route demand. For brands selling in the US, this signals increased focus on platform ecosystems like Amazon, Google, Walmart, and emerging AI interfaces as competitive battlegrounds where ownership of the customer relationship, not just the listing, may determine long-term visibility and growth.
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Amazon CEO Warns Tariffs May Drive Higher Consumer Prices in 2026
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said tariff-related costs are beginning to flow through to retail prices, with economists warning that broader price increases may materialize in early 2026 as sellers lose room to absorb higher import costs.
Why This Matters: This raises the likelihood of margin compression and pricing adjustments as inventory buffers thin and tariff costs flow through. Brands selling in the US should reassess cost structures, pricing power, and supplier exposure before competitive pressure intensifies.
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Saks Exit From Amazon Raises Questions About Luxury on Marketplaces
Saks’ withdrawal from Amazon’s marketplace following financial strain and low brand participation has reignited debate over whether luxury brands and broad online marketplaces are structurally misaligned.
Why This Matters: This development signals increased focus on brand control and owned customer relationships as luxury players prioritize in-store experience and direct channels over third-party marketplaces. For operators, it highlights category-specific limits to marketplace expansion, while brands selling in the US should evaluate whether their positioning aligns with Amazon’s scale-driven model or requires tighter control over environment, pricing, and customer experience.
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Supreme Court Limits Tariff Authority but Administration Signals Continuation Under Alternative Laws
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act cannot be used to raise tariff revenue, but administration officials immediately said tariffs would continue under other statutory authorities such as Sections 232 and 301.
Why This Matters: This signals continued investment in tariff-based trade policy even after judicial limits on one legal pathway, increasing operational pressure on import-heavy sellers to monitor cost exposure and pricing strategy. Brands selling in the US should expect ongoing trade policy volatility and greater reliance on formal trade statutes, reinforcing the need for supply chain flexibility and margin discipline.
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Top Upcoming
Amazon Events
- Vendor Connect 2026– March 5, 2026, London, UK
- ASGTG EVENT 2026 – March 5, 2026, Brooklyn, NY, USA
- MDS INSPIRE 2026 – March 9-11, 2026, Las Vegas, NV, USA
- Prosper Show 2026 – March 10-12, 2026, Las Vegas, NV, USA
Policy changes, AI-driven shopping behavior, and tightening Amazon compliance are reshaping the playing field. Sellers who stay informed and adapt quickly will hold the advantage.
God Bless,
Todd Welch
Amazon Seller School