Walmart Advertising Grows Six Times Faster Than Sales
Walmart's advertising business is growing at six times the rate of its overall retail sales. Walmart Connect, the company's U.S. retail media platform where sellers and brands buy sponsored placements, grew 33% in the third quarter while U.S. retail sales grew just 5%.
The Great Supply Chain Reversal
Just two years ago, the battle lines in e-commerce seemed clear. Amazon dominated through speed and convenience, Temu and Shein disrupted through price. Today, both sides are sprinting toward what the other perfected, driven by evolving regulations worldwide and the realization that modern retail demands supply chain flexibility, not purity.
Amazon Monetizes the Software Layer Sellers Depend On
Amazon's introduction of API fees for third-party developers represents another margin squeeze on sellers, this time arriving indirectly through the software tools that have become essential to operate on the platform.
Amazon is Now Just 40% Retail
Amazon's retail business now accounts for just 40.5% of the company's total revenue, marking a new milestone in its evolution from an online bookstore to a commerce infrastructure provider.
Amazon's Global Marketplace Opportunity
The conventional narrative fixates on gross merchandise volume as the ultimate indicator of marketplace potential. By that logic, Amazon's U.S. marketplace, with an estimated $305 billion in third-party GMV, dwarfs everything, and the conversation ends there.
Additional U.S. Tariff Costs Exceed $100 Billion
Additional tariffs imposed by the Trump administration caused U.S. customs revenue to surge to $215.24 billion in fiscal year 2025, an increase of nearly $120 billion compared to 2024 and almost $100 billion higher than the 2022 peak of $117.49 billion.
Death by Valuation: The Amazon Aggregator Autopsy
Thrasio's collapse doesn't prove that consolidating Amazon brands was a bad idea; it demonstrates that executing the strategy during an unprecedented capital bubble made success nearly impossible.
ChatGPT's Instant Checkout is an Instant Threat
OpenAI's Instant Checkout feature turns ChatGPT into a direct and instant threat to Amazon's most profitable business segment as it launches what will almost certainly be a billion-dollar GMV marketplace shortly after launching.
Data
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Research
We analyze the data and share insights as research reports and articles.
Analysis
We believe that data is better than opinions for understanding what's next in e-commerce.
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