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- Tariff relief is here (they’re illegal) ⚖️ [MDSR #65]
Tariff relief is here (they’re illegal) ⚖️ [MDSR #65]
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Million Dollar Sellers
March 06, 2026
Brought to you by a vetted community of 700+ eCommerce founders representing nearly $12B in annual revenue.
📰 Hot Off The Presses
In our last poll, most MDS readers said their biggest remaining leverage in 2026 lies in pricing and margin strategy, with channel diversification close behind. Based on the past few weeks of headlines, that instinct looks pretty well calibrated.
First, the tariff saga continues to deliver whiplash. The Supreme Court’s decision declaring the Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs illegal sent Amazon and Etsy stocks popping as investors priced in potential cost relief.
But don’t pop the champagne just yet. Businesses are already gearing up to battle the White House over tariff refunds, while brands are celebrating the reprieve even as fresh uncertainty looms around what trade policy comes next.
For sellers planning pricing cycles, the takeaway is simple: tariff volatility isn’t disappearing, it’s just entering a more legally complicated phase.
Meanwhile, the geopolitical backdrop is adding new wrinkles to global logistics. The Iran conflict is disrupting ocean and air cargo networks, and Amazon itself briefly felt the ripple effects after drone strikes damaged several of its Middle East data centers and forced the company to suspend deliveries in Abu Dhabi. If you’re mapping supply chains for the second half of the year, it’s a reminder that geopolitical risk is now a logistics variable, not just a headline.
On the tech front, AI is rapidly reshaping how people discover and buy products. Walmart says shoppers using its AI tools are building 35% larger baskets, while OpenAI is already testing ads inside ChatGPT shopping experiences and Google is embedding commerce directly into Gemini-powered shopping features in search.
Translation: discovery is fragmenting faster than most brands realize.
Amazon, of course, is racing to keep its home-field advantage. The company just rolled out AI-powered “Canvas” workspaces inside Seller Central, giving merchants a conversational interface that can generate charts, analyze performance trends, and model business scenarios on demand. Think of it as an AI command center for your seller account rather than another analytics dashboard buried in menus.
At the same time, the competitive landscape around Amazon is shifting quickly. New data shows just 1.6% of sellers now drive roughly half of all Amazon third-party GMV, while TikTok Shop continues its rapid climb with U.S. GMV jumping 68% to $15.1B in 2025.
Translation: the pie is still growing, but it’s concentrating fast — and discovery is splintering across more platforms at the same time.
Which brings us to this week’s question ⤵️
🗳️ This edition’s poll
Where are you seeing the biggest opportunity for growth right now? |
📡 March signals to watch
A few more eCom developments worth keeping on your radar this month — from structural shifts in discovery to macro signals shaping the next phase of online retail.
AI commerce + discovery shifts ⤵️
What will ads look like in an agent-assisted shopping world? — As AI shopping agents gain traction, brands may end up marketing to algorithms instead of humans — raising big questions about how ads, discovery, and attribution will actually work.
Amazon’s $50B OpenAI deal keeps the cloud giant firmly in the AI race — Amazon is investing heavily to stay competitive in the AI arms race — and the outcomes could shape everything from product discovery to seller tools.
AI fueled a massive surge in fraud losses last year — The same technology powering AI commerce is also accelerating fraud — forcing retailers and marketplaces to rethink trust and verification systems.
Platform power ⤵️
Amazon takes the No. 1 spot on the Fortune 500 — Amazon officially overtook Walmart for the top revenue spot, underscoring how dominant the company has become across retail, logistics, and cloud.
Amazon and Shopify now account for roughly half of U.S. eCommerce — The U.S. online retail landscape continues to consolidate around two ecosystems — a reminder that most sellers’ growth still flows through one of these platforms.
Global trade + sourcing signals ⤵️
China’s $112B cargo gap suggests record levels of tariff evasion — Trade data hints that companies are increasingly rerouting or relabeling shipments to avoid tariffs — a sign of how aggressively businesses are adapting to global trade pressure.
💸 Million Dollar Advice
If you’re analyzing competitors on Amazon without checking who’s actually behind the listing, you’re missing a powerful layer of market intelligence.
A single click on the “Sold by” name can open the door to a competitor’s entire storefront. From there, you can analyze their catalog, estimate monthly sales and revenue, uncover the keywords driving their traffic, and even trace the business behind the brand off-Amazon.
The best operators don’t just study listings. They study the sellers shaping the category.
Want to see how the pros turn seller research into a real competitive advantage?
Add this guide to your reading list 👉 How to look up a seller on Amazon (and what the data reveals)
🏙️ 4 days until MDS Inspire takes over the Wynn
On Monday, MDS Inspire returns to Wynn Las Vegas with 400+ vetted 7–9 figure eCommerce founders gathering for three days of candid, operator-level conversations.
And the lineup is stacked.
Across Amazon, TikTok Shop, Meta, creator-led growth, and scaling modern brands, founders are sharing the tactics and lessons they’re actively applying inside their businesses today.
A few signals from this year’s attendee pool:
Nearly half of attending brands did $10M+ last year
Close to 10% are behind $50M+ brands
The channels founders are most bullish on: TikTok Shop and creator-led growth
This isn’t a vendor conference. It’s a room full of operators comparing notes.
If you’ve been thinking about coming, this is the final window.
🎟 Headed to Prosper? Use these MDS-only ticket discounts
If you’re already heading to MDS Inspire at Wynn Las Vegas, you may want to stick around.
Prosper Show kicks off right after, and we’ve secured a couple of exclusive MDS discounts if you plan to attend both.
Use the codes below while they’re still available:
Free Expo Hall pass — use code EXMDS
15% off the All-Access Conference Pass — use code AAMDS15
Both events take place at the Wynn, so many founders are making a full week of it.
⭐ The new playbook for Amazon reviews
Amazon quietly retired its Early Reviewer Program a few years ago. But the core challenge hasn’t changed: new listings still need early reviews to build trust, drive conversion, and trigger ranking momentum.
Today’s best-performing sellers are using a faster, more strategic approach built around three core pillars.
1️⃣ Launch fast with Amazon Vine
Vine has effectively replaced the Early Reviewer Program as the primary launch accelerator. By enrolling a new ASIN, brands can generate up to 30 detailed reviews from vetted Vine Voices, often within weeks. That early burst of social proof helps build credibility, improve conversion, and send strong signals to Amazon’s ranking algorithm.
2️⃣ Systematize reviews with the “Request a Review” button
Once a product is live, the Request a Review feature inside Seller Central becomes the engine for ongoing review generation. It sends Amazon-approved review requests to customers, keeping the process fully compliant while boosting response rates. Many sellers see review rates jump from ~1–2% to double or triple that when they use it consistently or automate it.
3️⃣ Turn the unboxing moment into a review trigger
Smart packaging inserts can also help generate reviews — not by asking for five stars, but by creating real value for the customer. For example, a QR code for warranty registration or setup guides creates a natural touchpoint for post-purchase engagement that can lead to reviews.
The takeaway: review velocity still matters. The difference now is that sellers have faster, more scalable tools to generate it.
Think this is helpful?
📆 Where eCom founders are meeting this March
By March, most founders are deep in execution mode. The advantage isn’t more advice. It’s being in the right conversations with people who are navigating the same decisions in real time.
That’s what MDS events are built for.
Small by design. Curated by intent. Timed around the moments that actually shape the year.
🤝 Ecompreneur Socials
Low-pressure settings with a clear purpose: reconnect with fellow founders and recalibrate before Q2 sneaks up.
🤝 MDS Connects
Curated founder meetups aligned with the industry’s biggest moments so conversations happen when context matters most.
⏳ Seats are limited and many of these fill well in advance.
Lock them into your 2026 calendar now → All Event Links
👀 Did you see that post ?
Turns out AI users diversify channels too…
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,
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Million Dollar Sellers (MDS) is an exclusive community of 650+ 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]