Amazon’s still the store — just not the front door 🚪 [MDSR #62]

Hot Off The Presses 📰

Happy New Year — now back to the regularly scheduled chaos 🎊

The last few weeks of the year made one thing clear: 2026 won’t reward sellers who “wait and see.” It’ll reward sellers who plan for volatility, price for reality, and show up where discovery is headed.

On the macro front, tariffs are still reshuffling the deck — and the winners and losers of tariffs aren’t always who you’d expect. 

Even as inflation cools overall, shoppers are staying stubbornly value-driven, which helps explain the early holiday signals: more thrifting and fewer returns… And then, of course, a return wave anyway. 

A survey found 40% of Americans plan to return gifts, while logistics data shows 20–25% of holiday purchases were returned, with post-Christmas volumes jumping as high as 45%.

For sellers, that’s your reminder that returns and margin leakage don’t care about your revenue screenshot.

Looking ahead, discovery is fragmenting fast. Sellers are already rethinking Amazon SEO for AI search, while shoppers are increasing cross-channel shopping and AI tool usage. And if you’re still relying on yesterday’s guardrails, take note: the old fraud playbook is failing in the age of AI commerce.

On the platform side, Amazon is tightening the screws. The company is ending FBA prep and item labeling services, changing FBM refund policy, and reportedly planning a new one-hour pickup service.

Zoom out, and competitive pressure is only intensifying.

Walmart is straight-up saying it’s a tech company now. TikTok Shop is driving social commerce growth, with sales forecasted to surge — surpassing $20B next year. And Shopify is building for a world where the “storefront” is the conversation, launching Agentic Storefronts.

New year, same rule: platforms optimize for themselves first. Sellers who optimize for unit economics and visibility everywhere win.

This edition’s poll 🗳️

Million Dollar Advice 💸 

If you’re serious about scaling on Amazon, unit economics can’t be an afterthought. They should guide the whole strategy. 

LTV, CAC, and contribution margin tell you what ads should cost, which SKUs deserve more inventory, and where growth actually compounds instead of quietly bleeding cash. Sellers who win long-term don’t chase top-line revenue — they build businesses where every unit sold makes the next one easier, cheaper, and more profitable.

This guide breaks down why unit economics should be your North Star, the core metrics that matter most for Amazon sellers, and how to calculate them clearly. 

Because that’s how you can make decisions with confidence instead of gut feel.

👉 Read the full breakdown: What is Unit Economics?

Reset your 2026 thinking — in a closed-door room 🔒

This is not a conference. And it’s not for everyone.

Operator Room is a private, invite-only gathering designed for founders and operators of scaled eCommerce brands — the kind navigating real tradeoffs, real complexity, and real stakes heading into 2026.

Hosted in an intimate, outdoor setting at a historic private home in Miami’s Morningside neighborhood, this is a closed-door room built for honest, peer-to-peer conversation — not decks, frameworks, or performative networking.

The discussion will be anchored by a small group of operators who have built and scaled iconic consumer brands, including leaders behind Glamnetic, Suja Juice, Kopari, Pudgy Penguins, and First Day. They’re not there to present or pitch. They’re there to participate — sharing context, pressure-tested perspective, and the decisions that don’t make it onto podcasts or panels.

What the room will focus on:

• What actually breaks as brands move past $30M–$50M

• How leadership and decision-making change at scale

• Using TikTok and retail expansion to anchor growth

• What operators are cutting — and where they’re still investing

• The challenges that never show up in public conversations

Attendance is limited and vetted.

Founders and operators only.

No vendors. No solicitation. No pitching. No plus-ones.

This room is for operators who don’t need tactics or validation — but value signal, perspective, and time with peers who understand the weight of the decisions ahead.

If you belong in that room, you’ll know.

👉 Apply to Operator Room Miami

🔮 In-Depth: What 2026 Consumer Trends Mean for Amazon Sellers

If 2025 was about reacting, 2026 is shaping up to be about recalibrating.

According to TrendHunter’s 2026 Trend Report, consumers are entering a phase defined by decision fatigue, value sensitivity, and delegation — leaning more heavily on systems, shortcuts, and signals to decide what’s worth buying.

A few themes stand out for sellers:

🧠 Decision outsourcing is accelerating

Shoppers increasingly rely on algorithms, assistants, and curated feeds to narrow choices. Fewer products get evaluated. More get filtered out upstream.

💸 “Value” is being redefined

Value isn’t just about low price — it’s about confidence. Consumers want fewer returns, fewer mistakes, and clearer expectations before they buy.

⏱️ Friction tolerance is shrinking

From discovery to delivery, patience is thin. Brands that require too much explanation, comparison, or guesswork are quietly losing ground.

🧩 Trust is modular, not brand-led

Instead of brand loyalty, buyers are stitching together trust from reviews, platforms, creators, and recommendations — often outside Amazon.

The TL;DR? 2026 won’t reward noise. It’ll reward sellers who make buying feel easy.

For Amazon sellers, the takeaway isn’t to chase trends — it’s to recognize the environment they’re operating in.

In a world where shoppers want fewer decisions and faster certainty, products that explain themselves, justify their price, and reduce post-purchase regret will outperform those that rely on traffic alone.

Think this is helpful? Feel free to pass it along 🙂 

eCom Stock Watch 📊

Click on the table below or view the full size data here. 

Plan your 2026 event lineup 🗓️

Slack threads and Zoom calls will always have their place — but the strategies that actually shape the year tend to get shared face-to-face.

As you plan ahead for 2026, MDS events are designed to put you in the room with founders who are actively building, testing, and refining what’s working right now. Think practical playbooks, real partnerships, and conversations that don’t make it onto LinkedIn.

🤝 Ecompreneur Socials

Low-pressure settings, high-signal conversations. A chance to connect with fellow founders before the year gets busy.

• February 12, 2026 — Arizona Ecom Founder Social

🤝 MDS Connects 

Curated meetups aligned with the industry’s biggest moments—so you’re networking when it matters most.

• March 11, 2026 — MDS Ecom Founder Social at Prosper Show 2026

⏳ Seats are limited. Lock these into your 2026 calendar now → All Event Links

Did you see that post 📲

2026 energy: recalculating…

Until Next Time ✌️

As always, thanks for sticking with us until the end. 

If you’d care to share your thoughts on this newsletter, we’re all ears. Just hit reply to sound off. 

See you next time with more of the latest and greatest content you need to succeed this year 🔥

Sincerely, 

Looking for a mastermind community?

Million Dollar Sellers (MDS) is an exclusive community of 700+ like-minded Amazon and DTC sellers from all over the world. Collectively, our members generate more than 8 billion in annual sales and dominate some of the biggest categories on Amazon. MDS offers world-class events, chapters, industry discounts, resource libraries full of SOPs, templates, and video recordings of private trainings, workshops, events and so much more.

If you are looking for a business professional community made for ecom entrepreneurs, then consider applying today. 

*To qualify, you must be a full-time seller or brand owner and do at least 1 million in verified annual revenue. Will Amazon’s Returnless Resolutions solve the returns debacle? [MDSR #30]