News
Marketplace developments with a date, a source and the per-unit math — not press releases. When a fee moves it lands here first, then on the policy log, then in every affected guide.
7 minAmazon is removing the seller-eligibility gate on the Featured Offer. The price gate stays.
Amazon's July 6, 2026 announcement removes the first step in Featured Offer selection — the seller-performance screen — in every store by the end of 2026. The ranking step, and the pricing rules that suppress offers, are unchanged. What the announcement says, what it does not say, and what to check in your account.
One of two steps removed; selection criteria unchanged
5 minAmazon's first $200 billion quarter — and the 26% number that matters more to sellers
Q2 2026: net sales up 20% to $200.6 billion, advertising up 26% to $19.8 billion. Demand is accelerating — and so is the pay-to-play pressure on organic visibility. The seller read, plus what to watch at Accelerate on 22-September 24.
5 mineBay closes the $1.4B Depop deal — and Etsy cuts 200 jobs six days after banking it
The Depop acquisition completed with eBay pledging to run the resale platform intact; Etsy announced 200 layoffs days after receiving the cash. What the reshuffle signals for sellers on both platforms — and why fee structures are the thing to watch next.
5 minNew rule: AI-generated people in your images must now carry a metadata tag
Amazon now requires product images and A+ Content featuring photorealistic AI-generated people to include 'contains-synthetic-performer' in the image file's XMP metadata before upload — with real people, AI-edited real people and non-photorealistic figures reported exempt.
5 minTikTok Shop is testing a Prime of its own: Shop Plus at $6, $10 and $15 a month
TikTok Shop is testing a paid membership bundling free shipping, discounts and coupons at three monthly tiers — a deliberate shift from impulse buying toward repeat purchasing. What a loyalty layer would mean for sellers still digesting the 8% fee.
8 minFrom day 181 to month 15: the sell-down, liquidate or remove decision at every step of the aged-inventory ladder
The storage guide explains the aged-inventory surcharge. This one decides. At each band from day 181 to the new 15-month tier, here is the monthly cost of holding one unit, the cost of removing it, and the discount at which selling it down beats both.
Decision points: day 150, day 240, day 330, month 12
6 min984 million titles later: the 75-character era is fully here
Amazon's August 13 FAQ reports more than 984 million product titles updated since the June announcement. The 75-character cap has been in force since July 27; over-limit titles are being rewritten by AI on Amazon's schedule — and only brand-registered sellers get a review window.
7 minAmazon now caps referral fees on your first 200 units of a new FBA product — if you inbounded on or after July 30
The 2026 FBA New Selection Program replaced the old rebate with an instant referral-fee cap: 10% on the first 100 units of a new branded parent ASIN, 5% on the next 100, plus 120 days of free storage, returns and liquidations. The enrollment window closes October 31, 2026. Earlier coverage — including ours — quoted a $25,000 threshold that belongs to a different program.
10% cap on units 1–100, 5% on 101–200, per new parent ASIN
6 minQ4 unit cost worksheet: what one unit costs to fulfil from October 15, tier by tier, 2025 versus 2026
The peak fee guide explains the rule. This page is the arithmetic: base 2026 fee, plus the peak uplift, times 1.035, for six representative size tiers — against what the same unit cost last peak. Copy the sheet, replace the fees with yours.
Q4 unit cost = (base + peak uplift) × 1.035
5 minYour Amazon contract changed on Sunday: no more pledging future revenue
Effective August 24, 2026, the Business Solutions Agreement bars sellers from transferring rights under the agreement and from pledging future Amazon sales revenue as collateral — a quiet clause with loud consequences for anyone using revenue-based financing.
5 minThe Q4 deal clock is running: Prime Big Deal Days submissions close September 8
Deal-submission windows for the holiday season: Prime Big Deal Days closes September 8, Black Friday/Cyber Monday closes October 20 — with a $50-per-deal early-submission discount for BF/CM until September 5. The dates, and the math to run before opting in.
Deal deadlines: Sep 8 / Oct 20
9 minWalmart is paying new sellers to show up: what the $75K New-Seller Savings actually contains
Walmart's New-Seller Savings 2026 runs to January 31, 2027: 20-40% off base referral fees by GMV tier, $2,000 in WFS credits, $1,500 in ad credits — and an opt-in step most sellers will miss. What the discounts are really worth at normal volumes, per Walmart's own terms.
20-40% off referral fees, first year
9 minTikTok Shop quietly moved its US referral fee to 8%. Your first full settlement under it lands this month.
Trade coverage dates the increase from 6% to 8% on most non-food US categories to August 4, 2026 — months after the promotional 1.8% rate ended in January. Two points reads small; on a thin-margin unit it is a fifth of the profit. The math, the conflicting sources, and the three checks to run in Seller Center this week.
US referral: 6% → 8% on most non-food categories (August 4, 2026, trade reports)