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Walmart is opening its marketplace to outside AI shopping agents, Amazon extended its Black Friday deal window, and UPS is raising shipping rates.

In this October 27, 2026 episode of Selling on Giants, Mr. Will breaks down Walmart's new AI shopping rules, overlapping holiday promotions, UPS rate increases, and Amazon's return-policy uncertainty.

Is Walmart allowing AI agents to shop for customers?

Yes. Walmart announced Agent Profiles and an Agent Gateway designed to let authorized AI assistants shop on behalf of customers. Shoppers can approve purchases or set spending limits, while agents cannot access payment-card details. The Gateway is still in beta. For brands, accurate titles, attributes, pricing, and delivery promises will matter even more to AI product recommendations.

Did Amazon extend its Black Friday deal deadline?

Amazon extended its deal-sourcing window to November 13, but sellers should verify which promotion types and ASINs qualify in Seller Central. The extra time does not extend the October 28 FBA inbound deadline for Amazon-optimized shipment splits. Peak fees can turn strong sales into weak margins. More time is not more inventory.

When do Walmart and TikTok Shop Black Friday events start?

TikTok Shop runs November 11–30. Walmart is spreading promotions across November 12–15, November 23–29, and November 30–December 2. Brands need coordinated inventory, creator content, advertising, and pricing across channels.

How much are UPS shipping rates increasing?

UPS announced an average 5.9% increase effective December 21, with FedEx planning a similar average increase in January. Actual costs also depend on zones, fuel surcharges, package size, and contract terms. Compare Walmart's expanded carrier choices before changing fulfillment plans.

Are Amazon FBM return rules changing in December?

A seller-shared Amazon notice says most U.S. seller-fulfilled returns will require prepaid labels starting December 18, excluding heavy and bulky items. Sellers disagree about what changes in practice. Verify your own Seller Central notice and model holiday returns.

Is Amazon testing real-time seller chat?

A beta Enable Real-Time Chat toggle has appeared in some Seller Central accounts, including one spotted by Mr. Will. Amazon has not announced eligibility, response-time rules, or any conversion impact. Don’t enable a live channel without a staffing plan.

What should marketplace sellers do now?

Audit Walmart catalog data for agent-based discovery. Confirm eligible Amazon promotions and available FBA inventory. Recalculate margins using peak fees and shipping costs. Align holiday calendars across channels, and review returns before January.

The operator takeaway: A platform extending a deadline, automating a shopping journey, or opening another sales channel does not guarantee profitable growth. Brands win when catalog accuracy, inventory discipline, and contribution margin drive decisions.

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Why does a barcode look the way it does? Mr. Will started with that simple question and ended up with a story about entrepreneurship, industry standards, and the data that now runs modern retail.

The barcode began in 1948 as a checkout problem. Joe Woodland sketched the first version in the sand at Miami Beach, inspired by Morse code. He and Bernard Silver patented a circular bullseye design, sold it for $15,000, and waited decades for the technology to catch up. When the grocery industry finally chose a standard in 1973, the winner was IBM engineer George Laurer’s vertical bar design, chosen largely because it survived the realities of high-speed printing. Woodland, then at IBM, backed it.

Will also covers what founders can learn from being early, why retailers like Walmart and Amazon end up setting the rules, and how the barcode’s biggest impact came from the data every scan created. He closes with a question every Amazon and Walmart operator should ask: am I actually using my data to make decisions?

Related reading from BellaVix:

How to Create UPC Codes for Amazon & Prevent Issues

Amazon FNSKU vs UPC: Which Barcode Should You Use for FBA in 2026?

The Most Important Facts About Barcodes and Their Relationship With Amazon

How to Get a Walmart GTIN Exemption: Step-by-Step Seller Center Guide

Selling on Giants is brought to you by BellaVix. Learn more at https://bellavix.com

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Amazon is creating multipack listings for sellers, Google is moving shopping into a universal cart, and TikTok's Black Friday starts weeks before Thanksgiving. The margin stakes are rising.

In the October 19, 2026 episode of Selling on Giants, Mr. Will breaks down the holiday demand outlook, Amazon's new automation and Q4 costs, Walmart's expanded shipping choices, TikTok's extended promotional calendar, and Google's push to own more of the buying journey. This episode focuses on operator decisions.

How strong is the 2026 holiday shopping season?

The National Retail Federation forecasts $1.013 trillion in November and December retail sales, up 4.2% year over year. But revenue growth doesn't necessarily mean stronger unit demand. With shopping starting earlier, brands must watch units, conversion, inventory, and contribution margin.

When does TikTok Shop's Black Friday campaign begin?

TikTok Shop is running its Black Friday and Cyber Monday event November 11–30, supported by eligible three-day delivery badges and more convenient returns. Participating isn't enough: creator content, inventory, pricing, and fulfillment must be ready.

What is Amazon's Black Friday deal deadline, and how do peak FBA fees affect profits?

October 20 is Amazon's deadline for submitting eligible Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. Peak FBA fulfillment fees began October 15 and run through January 14, 2027, with an additional fuel and logistics surcharge. Will explains why a healthy ACoS or ROAS can disguise poor contribution margin once discounts, advertising, and fulfillment costs are included.

Why is Amazon automatically creating multipack listings?

Amazon is creating virtual multipack listings for selected brand-owned FBA products, with listings scheduled by October 28 and customer purchasing starting November 11. The units come from existing inventory, but pricing, pack structure, imagery, and product positioning still need human review. Automation still needs brand oversight.

What's changing with Walmart's seller-fulfilled shipping?

Walmart has approved eight additional parcel carriers, giving marketplace sellers more ways to compare shipping rates during peak season. Cheaper labels can protect margin, but poor delivery performance can quickly erase those savings. Cost and reliability both matter.

What is Google's Universal Cart, and why should Amazon and Walmart brands care?

Google's Universal Cart is rolling out through Search and Gemini, allowing shoppers to collect products from different merchants in one experience, track price drops, and move toward checkout. As platforms compete to control checkout, accurate product feeds, imagery, pricing, and inventory become critical.

The operator takeaway: More promotions don't automatically create profit. More listings don't automatically improve merchandising. And AI won't fix messy product data. The brands that win Q4 are the ones that connect advertising, inventory, fulfillment, and margin into one operating plan.

Like and follow Selling on Giants for weekly marketplace news and practical operator insights.

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Using AI every day but still doing most of the work by hand? Edwin Choi, Founder & CEO of Jet Fuel Agency, explains how eCommerce teams move from basic prompting to AI agents that run, connect, and improve their own workflows.

Mr. Will and Edwin cover a three-level framework for building AI maturity, why teams should document their judgment calls before automating anything, and where agents deliver the most impact today, from competitor gap analysis to CRO testing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

- AI adoption happens in three levels: communication (prompting LLMs well), skills (turning playbooks into repeatable processes), and agentic workflows (connected agents that trigger each other and run QA).
- Don’t automate too early. Document your team’s internal DNA, the judgment calls and strategies behind your work, so agents behave the way you intend.
- Competitor gap analysis is a strong first use case. Agents can crawl competitor ads, product detail pages, and keywords to surface opportunities.
- For CRO, combining historical test data with Microsoft Clarity session recordings shows where visitors drop off and generates new experiments.
- AI looks backward at existing data. Taste-making, the ability to anticipate trends and set a brand’s direction, becomes the most valuable marketing skill.
- Human oversight stays essential. AI prepares the data, and the strategist makes the final call.
- Measure success beyond time saved. Track output quality, employee retention, and whether the work is 10x better.

CONNECT WITH EDWIN

Website: https://jetfuel.agency/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/choiedwin

Related resources from BellaVix:

https://www.bellavix.com/how-to-conduct-an-amazon-competitive-analysis/
https://www.bellavix.com/case-study/mastering-the-art-of-agency-strategy-elevating-amazon-account-performances-with-expert-techniques/

Selling on Giants is a podcast about the people, strategies, and decisions shaping eCommerce across Amazon, Walmart, DTC, and the broader digital marketplace.

#ecommerce #AIagents #AIautomation

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Holiday shopping is starting earlier, Amazon's Q4 costs are rising, and Walmart is closing the gap on fulfillment. Meanwhile, AI shopping is creating a new battle for product visibility.

In this October 12, 2026 episode of Selling on Giants, Mr. Will breaks down what Prime Big Deal Days revealed about holiday demand, the Amazon deadlines sellers cannot afford to miss, Walmart's latest marketplace moves, and why AI product cards may become the next Buy Box.

Did Prime Big Deal Days actually increase holiday demand?

U.S. online shoppers spent $9.86 billion on October 6 and 7, up 8.5% year over year, according to Adobe. That figure covers online retail broadly, not just Amazon. Will explains why pulling purchases into October isn't the same as incremental growth, and why brands must measure incremental demand and contribution margin before Black Friday.

What are Amazon's critical October deadlines for Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Key holiday dates include October 14 for AWD arrival, October 21 for FBA minimal shipment splits, and October 28 for Amazon-optimized splits. Deal submissions close October 20, while peak fulfillment fees begin October 15 and run through January 14. These decisions can quietly erase Q4 profitability.

Are Amazon's new partial refund controls worth using?

Amazon now lets eligible FBA sellers configure partial refunds by return reason. Brands can compare recovery value against processing and disposal costs. The answer depends on SKU economics, not a blanket policy.

How is Walmart becoming a stronger Amazon competitor?

Walmart's new Brand Highlights bring enhanced images, video, and branded storytelling to eligible product pages. Its Stockton fulfillment center adds West Coast capacity, while a limited test explores placing third-party marketplace inventory directly inside Walmart stores for pickup and faster delivery. The opportunity is growing, but copying an Amazon strategy into Walmart still isn't a strategy.

What changes when AI agents and TikTok influence checkout?

Walmart, Shopify, Stripe, and others are supporting the emerging Personal Agent Protocol, while TikTok is introducing Buy Direct and an AI-powered Shopping Assistant. These developments point toward shopping journeys where a consumer starts with a conversation or video rather than a traditional search page.

Could AI product cards become the next Buy Box?

A small study involving 40 shoppers suggests consumers often choose products and offers from structured AI shopping cards. The numbers are early and directional, but the operator lesson is clear: accurate product attributes, strong imagery, competitive offers, availability, and reliable delivery matter as much as AI mentions.

The bottom line: More traffic does not fix weak margins. Faster delivery does not fix poor inventory planning. AI visibility does not fix a weak product offer. The brands that win are the ones connecting marketing decisions to operational discipline and real profitability.

Like and follow Selling on Giants for weekly coverage of Amazon, Walmart, TikTok Shop, retail media, and AI commerce.

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What if your product isn’t the problem?

What if your customers simply don’t see the problem the way you do?

In this episode of Selling on Giants, Mr. Will explores why some products struggle to sell even when the product itself is good—and why the answer may have less to do with traffic, advertising, or adding new SKUs than with seeing the customer’s problem from a different perspective.

The story starts with Bette Nesmith Graham, the entrepreneur who created Liquid Paper. Working as a secretary in the 1950s, Graham realized that typing mistakes did not necessarily need to be erased. She could simply paint over them.

The breakthrough was not the white paint.

It was reframing the problem.

That lesson applies directly to ecommerce.

Brands often respond to slow sales by launching more products, expanding their audience, adding keywords, or increasing advertising. But if the underlying positioning is unclear, more traffic and more products can simply create more ways to avoid solving the real problem.

Sometimes the answer is already sitting right in front of you—in customer searches, reviews, questions, and the language shoppers use to describe what they actually need.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why slow sales do not always mean you need another product
• What Bette Nesmith Graham’s Liquid Paper story teaches brands about problem-solving
• Why Amazon search data is a form of customer research
• How long-tail searches can reveal the problem behind the purchase
• Why customers may search for a situation rather than a product
• How customer language can reshape your positioning, listings, and advertising
• Why adding more audiences can make your messaging less effective
• How advertising can amplify a positioning problem instead of fixing it
• Why founders sometimes need to stop building and start listening
• How to identify the actual job your product is doing for customers

This episode is for ecommerce founders, Amazon sellers, brand operators, and marketplace teams trying to understand why a product is not converting despite having traffic, advertising, and a solid product behind it.

Your customers may not be buying what you think you are selling.

They may be buying comfort, convenience, relief, protection, confidence, or a solution to a very specific problem.

Before launching another SKU, adding another variation, or spending another dollar on traffic, ask a simpler question:

What problem is the customer actually trying to solve?

At BellaVix, we help brands turn marketplace data and customer behavior into clearer strategies for positioning, advertising, listings, and growth.

BellaVix has helped brands sell over $500 million on Amazon and is a Verified Ad Partner, but the real work starts with understanding what customers are actually looking for.

The key question:
Are you selling the product—or solving the problem behind the purchase?

Subscribe to Selling on Giants for weekly operator-level breakdowns on Amazon, Walmart, retail media, marketplace strategy, AI commerce, eCommerce growth, and what actually changes for brands responsible for profitability.

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Amazon is turning advertising into an AI-powered operating system for the customer journey.

In this October 5th episode, Mr. Will covers Amazon’s biggest unBoxed announcements, paid review campaigns, TikTok checkout, Walmart seller intelligence, and Prime Big Deal Days priorities.

How is Amazon changing advertising?

Amazon Ads Agent brings sponsored ads, display, video, streaming TV, analytics, and audiences into one AI-led environment. Full Funnel Campaigns allocate one budget across formats, while DVA+ combines Sponsored Display, Sponsored TV, and programmatic capabilities.

Amazon is also introducing natural-language analytics and an Amazon Marketing Cloud SQL generator. The tools reduce technical work, but brands still define success. ROAS, contribution margin, new-to-brand growth, category share, and long-term sales are not interchangeable.

Can Amazon advertisers pay for reviews?

Amazon Review Requests enters U.S. open beta in late October. Advertisers can pay to show verified purchasers an invitation to leave a rating or review. Products remain eligible until they reach 1,000 ratings and reviews.

Brands are not buying positive reviews. Customers choose whether to participate and what rating to provide. Review acquisition is becoming a media expense alongside Vine and advertising. Amazon says early tests produced approximately three times as many ratings and reviews per week.

What is TikTok Buy Direct?

Buy Direct lets shoppers purchase inside TikTok without requiring a traditional TikTok Shop. The brand remains the merchant of record, while TikTok manages discovery and checkout through Shopify, Salesforce, Stripe, and other partners.

TikTok is also testing an AI Shopping Assistant and expanding its U.S. Ad Network across nearly 400,000 outside applications.

What is changing for Walmart sellers?

Walmart’s Assortment Growth tool now recommends products and categories based on demand and marketplace gaps. Walmart also warns that accounts left suspended without a successful appeal can face permanent termination. Suspended sellers should begin remediation or decide whether to preserve the account.

What should brands watch during the October sales events?

Prime Big Deal Days runs October 6th and 7th, with major deals released three times per day. Amazon advertisers should monitor budgets around each release instead of relying only on daily totals.

Walmart’s event runs October 5th through October 11th. Consumer confidence has also fallen to its lowest level since 2014. Shoppers may continue spending, but brands should expect stronger demand for value, promotions, bundles, and clear price justification.

The operator takeaway: use the automation and infrastructure, but control the objective, economics, customer relationship, and final decision.

Selling on Giants delivers operator-focused ecommerce news and marketplace strategy for brands growing across Amazon, Walmart, TikTok Shop, Target, and the broader retail ecosystem.

Follow Selling on Giants for weekly operator-level coverage of Amazon, Walmart, TikTok Shop, AI commerce, retail media, marketplace strategy, and the changes actually affecting ecommerce operators.

Subscribe to Selling on Giants for weekly insights that go beyond the headlines and focus on what actually impacts your business.

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Spending more on Meta ads while revenue stays flat? Krista Karpan, Co-Founder & CEO of Milked Media, explains why eCommerce brands plateau and how to diagnose it using MER, year-over-year data, and creative testing.

Mr. Will and Krista cover how Milked Media drives growth for fashion, jewelry, beauty, and home brands across paid social, email, Google, and creative, plus the early decisions that turned a small agency into an award-winning performance marketing business.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

- Diagnose a plateau with year-over-year data. Month-over-month comparisons are distorted by seasonality.
- Meta attributes on a 1-day view, 7-day click window. High-ticket products like fine jewelry have longer purchase cycles, so platform ROAS undercounts.
- MER (total revenue divided by total ad spend) removes attribution from the equation. If Meta shows growth but Shopify revenue is down, something is broken.
- Brands that stop launching new or limited-edition products end up relying on sales and train customers to wait for discounts.
- Broad targeting plus diverse creative outperforms lookalikes and interest targeting. Creative angles, like mom-focused messaging, are how you reach specific audiences.
- Meta's Andromeda algorithm favors creative volume, creative diversity, and partnership ads.
- For partnership ads, a creator's on-camera skill matters more than follower count.
- Human-made creative performs better at the top of the funnel. AI-assisted creative can work at the bottom.

CONNECT WITH KRISTA
Milked Media: https://www.milkedmedia.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristakarpan/

CONNECT WITH MR. WILL
www.bellavix.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willhaire/

Watch the full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/6cLgg-r_qtQ

Selling on Giants is a podcast about the people, strategies, and decisions shaping eCommerce across Amazon, Walmart, DTC, and the broader digital marketplace. If this episode helped, follow the show and leave a rating.

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