More storefronts. Same landlords. 🔑 [Ecompreneur #70]

👋 Welcome to The Ecompreneur Roundup

The MDS Roundup is now The Ecompreneur Roundup, connecting this newsletter more directly with the Ecompreneur community MDS launched in 2024.

As eCommerce founders scale, broad forums and scattered groups tend to produce more noise than answers. Ecompreneur was created to offer something more useful: practical education, meaningful relationships, and opportunities to learn from other founders doing the work.

Since then, Ecompreneur has hosted more than 100 events worldwide — from casual Founder Socials to hands-on Operator Rooms.

The Ecompreneur Roundup will keep bringing you the seller news, sharp takes, and practical tactics you’re used to — now as part of that growing founder community.

New name. Same commitment to making eCommerce a little easier to navigate.

Welcome to the next chapter.

📰 Hot Off The Press

Last month, sellers said meeting Amazon’s delivery expectations — without letting costs or account-health risk climb — was their biggest concern.

Amazon’s response, apparently, was to add another delivery metric. But that’s hardly the only fresh headache.

The biggest plot twist arrived outside the marketplace. After earlier tariffs were struck down, the U.S. introduced new tariffs of 10%–12.5% covering trading partners responsible for nearly all U.S. imports. Small businesses immediately sued, followed by 25 states filing another challenge.

So the tariffs are back, the lawsuits are back, and sellers are recalculating landed costs — again — while their margin models beg for a day off.

Meanwhile, Amazon’s AI may be playing by different rules than its search results. In one study, nearly two-thirds of the products Alexa recommended weren’t in the organic top ten — and four in ten weren’t even visible on the search results page.

Translation: Alexa is finding products shoppers might never discover through a regular search. Ranking well and paying for placement still matter, but sellers also need Amazon’s AI to understand what their product is, who it’s for, and why it deserves the recommendation.

For sellers with products suited to organizational buyers, Amazon’s B2B channel is becoming harder to ignore. Amazon Business has reached $60B in annualized sales, with more than half potentially flowing through third-party sellers.

But brands fulfilling those orders themselves face a new requirement. Starting September 30, they must maintain a 90% Business Hour Delivery Rate or risk having their FBM offers deactivated for business buyers.

Amazon Business is getting bigger. So is the list of things sellers are expected to control after a package leaves their hands.

That becomes harder when the carriers themselves cost more. Ground parcel rates hit record levels in Q2, rising 6.9% YoY, while average fuel surcharges per package jumped 40%.

Amazon, meanwhile, is expanding fulfillment across Walmart, Shopify, and SHEIN — making itself a bigger part of seller operations even when the sale happens elsewhere.

TikTok Shop is making a similar pitch. Its reported pilot would run sellers’ marketing, ads, listings, creators, and content — for $10K plus a 10%–20% cut.

The August read: sellers are expanding onto more channels, but the same platforms keep following them into discovery, fulfillment, and day-to-day operations.

More storefronts. Same landlords.

📡 August signals to watch

A few more eCom developments worth keeping on your radar this month, from Amazon’s latest catalog rules and Seller Central security changes to selective school shoppers and a new way to fly through customs paperwork…

Amazon tightens its grip on listing content ⤵

The back-to-school shopper is loyal to the deal ⤵

Customs paperwork gets an AI assistant ⤵

💸 Million Dollar Advice

If you can’t explain how a price change affects demand, you’re not pricing — you’re hoping.

Price elasticity shows whether a higher price will protect margin without crushing volume, or whether a discount will generate enough extra sales to justify what it costs you. For Amazon sellers, it can also reveal when a change to one SKU is shifting demand toward a variation, bundle, or competitor instead.

The goal isn’t to find the highest price shoppers will tolerate. It’s to know which products can carry more margin, which need a softer touch, and when a promotion is actually earning its keep.

Price changes shouldn’t be gut calls. Add our new guide to your reading list 👉 What Is Price Elasticity?

🧪 Stress-test your next product before you stock it

Before your next SKU starts consuming inventory dollars, pressure-test it here:

1. Score the opportunity.
Evaluate demand, competition, margin headroom, and brand fit. Set the passing score before the team gets attached.

2. Make customers prove demand.
Clicks and compliments are not validation. For DTC, look for preorders, waitlist signups, or checkout intent. On Amazon, confirm shoppers already use the search terms you plan to target.

3. Model the full economics.
Include COGS, freight, duties, prep, returns, ads, and platform fees. If the margin depends on perfect conditions, the product is not ready.

4. Build for the channel.
Amazon needs keyword relevance and a controlled PPC ramp. DTC needs a compelling story, strong creative, and customer capture. One launch plan cannot do both jobs equally well.

5. Keep judging after launch.
Reviews, returns, search movement, and conversion should determine whether you scale, redesign, or pull the plug.

Kill weak ideas while they’re still cheap to change. Once the customer signals and economics line up, move aggressively.

Dig into the full product-development playbook → Read the guide

📊 Eom Market Pulse

Amazon crossed $200B in quarterly sales. Impressive, sure — but sellers should pay closer attention to where the growth is coming from.

• Amazon crossed $200B in quarterly net sales for the first time, up 20% YoY, while North America sales rose 16%. Demand is still growing on a very large base.

• Advertising revenue climbed 26%, reinforcing that more Amazon commerce also means more competition for paid visibility.

• Same-day and overnight deliveries increased 40%, while Amazon raised its planned 2026 investment to $220B across AI, logistics, chips, and other infrastructure.

Translation for operators: Amazon is building more ways to earn from every stage around the sale — discovery, advertising, seller services, and fulfillment. Their growth doesn’t come down to retail alone. 

More demand is good news. Amazon finding more ways to monetize that demand is the part sellers still need to price into the plan.

💬 Pull up a seat this August

MDS Summit Singapore is members-only — want in? MDS Summit Singapore is coming August 23–26, bringing members together for the biggest MDS gathering of the year.

👀 Did you see that post?

Sellers: trying to meet Amazon’s latest delivery metric.

This robot: recalculating route directly into the sea 🌊

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