The return of Returnuary 📦 [MDSR #63]

Brought to you by MDS, helping you accelerate your sales and growth without reinventing the wheel.

Author

Million Dollar Sellers
January 16, 2026

Brought to you by a vetted community of 700+ eCommerce founders representing nearly $12B in annual revenue.

📰 Hot Off The Presses

If our last poll is any indication, sellers aren’t easing into 2026.

Most of you said your top priority is adapting listings and content for AI-driven discovery, followed closely by expanding off Amazon. Margins, ops discipline, and a fair amount of uncertainty filled out the rest.

On the macro front, pressure is still building. U.S. manufacturing activity dropped to its lowest point of 2025 as weak demand and tariff effects continue to weigh on companies. At the same time, founders are speaking candidly about how tariffs took an emotional and financial toll in 2025.

If anyone was hoping Amazon might absorb some of that shock, think again. The company is reportedly pushing suppliers for cuts ahead of a Supreme Court tariff ruling.

January is also doing what January does best. Returnuary turns holiday returns into a margin problem just as sellers try to stabilize Q1 cash flow. And in a quiet but telling move, Amazon skipped its Black Friday and Cyber Monday recap for the first time since 2016.

Meanwhile, consumer discovery is fragmenting fast. A new study found 37% of consumers now start searches with AI instead of Google, while retailers prepare for agent-driven shopping at scale.

Amazon is leaning hard into that shift. The company is rolling out updates across devices as its AI on the web, wrist, and phone finally comes together — even as backlash grows around Amazon’s AI shopping tool scraping websites without consent and concerns that the “Buy For Me” agent is hijacking listings.

Elsewhere, competition isn’t slowing. Google is racing ahead with checkout inside AI mode, while Walmart opens ads inside its gen-AI shopping agent Sparky.

With all of this in motion, we want to hear where you’re feeling it most ⤵

🗳️ This edition’s poll

💸 Million Dollar Advice

If you’re thinking about networking as a nice-to-have, you’re leaving growth on the table. At scale, the right relationships don’t just open doors. They compress timelines, de-risk decisions, and surface opportunities you won’t find on your own.

This breakdown walks through the real ROI of strategic networking, a practical playbook for building high-value connections, and how to turn follow-ups into partnerships that actually compound over time. 

Looking for less small talk, more leverage?

 ⏳ Standard pricing ends Feb 15: Secure your spot at MDS Inspire

MDS Inspire is the biggest event MDS hosts each year — and with just two months to go, this is the last window to register before pricing increases.

Taking place March 9–11, 2026 at Wynn Las Vegas, Inspire brings together 400+ vetted 7–9 figure founders for three days of operator-level strategy, honest conversation, and high-signal connection across Amazon, TikTok, and DTC.

Why Inspire is worth prioritizing:

  • Access to a vetted room of serious operators — not spectators

  • Tactical, scale-relevant insights you can actually apply

  • Real proximity to founders shaping what’s working right now

  • A rare chance to step out of execution mode and recalibrate

Choose your pass before prices increase on Feb 15:

Want a quick feel for the energy? 📽️ Watch the Inspire 2025 highlight reel

🕳️ The hidden cost sitting in your warehouse

When sellers think about inventory costs, they usually stop at COGS and storage fees.

But inventory carrying cost is the full cost of holding unsold inventory over time — and it’s often much higher than expected.

Here’s the short version:

  1. Carrying cost shows up in more places than you think. Beyond storage, it includes insurance, financing costs, depreciation, shrinkage, obsolescence, and spoilage. Each piece adds up quietly in the background.

  1. Tied-up cash limits flexibility. Inventory sitting on shelves is capital you can’t redeploy. That makes it harder to test new products, react to tariff changes, or adjust pricing when demand shifts.

  1. Slow-moving inventory is the real risk. High inventory isn’t always the issue. Products that take too long to sell drive up carrying costs even if they eventually move.

  1. Volatility makes carrying costs worse. Returns season, unpredictable demand, and platform changes all increase the chance that inventory lingers longer than planned.

  1. The fix isn’t just ordering less. Better forecasting, tighter reorder points, and faster sell-through matter more than gut-feel inventory decisions.

If margins feel tighter than they should, inventory carrying cost is often part of the answer.

Think this is helpful?

⚖️ AWD vs. 3PL: Which is actually cheaper?

Amazon AWD costs can add up fast once storage time and transfers kick in. 

Tactical Logistic Solutions built a free calculator to compare AWD vs. 3PL costs using real pallet-level inputs.

Access the Free AWD vs. Tactical Calculator - Tactical Logistic Solutions

AWD vs. 3PL: Which is actually cheaper? Find out with our free calculator.

Try it for free here ⤵️

📶 Where sellers trade signal, not noise

Every year brings more tools, more opinions, and more commentary about what sellers should be doing. What’s harder to find are spaces where experienced operators can compare notes honestly, pressure-test ideas, and walk away sharper than they arrived.

MDS events are built for that exact purpose. Small by design. Curated by intent.

And focused on conversations that help founders make better decisions faster.

🤝 Ecompreneur Socials

Relaxed settings with a clear purpose. Built for reconnecting with fellow founders before the year accelerates.

🤝 MDS Connects 

Curated meetups aligned with the industry’s biggest moments — so conversations happen when context matters most.

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

👀 Did you see that post ?

Google’s building the rails for agentic commerce…

Notice who’s not on the co-developer train?

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 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]