Selling on Giants: The eCommerce Marketplace Podcast

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International expansion can create new revenue opportunities—but it can also introduce tax, compliance, logistics, inventory, and operational complexity fast.
In this episode of Selling on Giants, Will Haire sits down with Andy Hooper, co-founder of Expandly and an international eCommerce expansion specialist, to discuss what it really takes to enter new markets successfully.
Andy shares a practical framework for brands considering expansion into the UK, Europe, and other international markets, including why he typically looks for brands generating at least $5M in annual home-market revenue before expanding internationally.
In this episode:
 When an eCommerce brand is actually ready for international expansion 
 Why international growth should be treated as a long-term investment
 The capital, inventory, and internal resources needed to expand 
 Why launching one market at a time can reduce risk 
 Andy's four pillars of international expansion
 Tax and product compliance considerations 
 Logistics, 3PLs, and international inventory planning 
 Why localized websites and SEO matter in new markets 
 Expandly's 90-day onboarding process
 Why UK and European expansion timelines can vary significantly 
 Common mistakes brands make when expanding too quickly 
Andy also explains how his journey from selling on eBay and Amazon after the 2008 financial crisis eventually led to VAT compliance, international consulting, logistics, and multi-market operations.
If you're considering taking your eCommerce brand into the UK, Europe, or another international market, this episode offers a practical look at the infrastructure, investment, and planning required to do it without creating unnecessary complexity.
About Andy Hooper:
Andy Hooper is the co-founder of Expandly and an international eCommerce expansion specialist helping established brands navigate marketplaces, compliance, logistics, inventory, and multi-channel operations.
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Amazon is tightening its bundle policy while critical Q4 inventory and import deadlines arrive. At the same time, Amazon Ads is expanding into ChatGPT as AI reshapes how shoppers discover products.
In this September fifteenth episode of Selling on Giants, Mr. Will breaks down the marketplace changes that require immediate attention and what they mean for brands responsible for profitability, inventory, and execution.
What is changing with Amazon product bundles?
Beginning January eleventh, twenty twenty-seven, most bundles sold under a single ASIN must be packaged by the original manufacturer or brand. Seller-assembled bundles may require authorization, while virtual bundles and certain categories remain exempt.
Sellers need to audit existing bundle ASINs, secure authorization, calculate inventory sell-through, and identify listings that may become violations. A bundle is not a defensible product strategy simply because Amazon previously allowed it.
Which Q4 deadlines matter now?
Amazon Canada inventory must arrive at fulfillment centers by September sixteenth to guarantee Prime eligibility for Prime Big Deal Days. The Black Friday and Cyber Monday arrival deadline is October twenty-eighth.
Deal sourcing closes September twenty-ninth for Prime Big Deal Days and November thirteenth for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Eligible price discounts require at least fifteen percent off the validated reference price.
U.S. importers also face a September eighteenth enforcement deadline. Customs and Border Protection may immediately void an Importer of Record number when Form 5106 contains inaccurate or incomplete information. Brands need to verify their physical address, contact information, tax identification details, and customs broker power of attorney.
How are Amazon Ads and ChatGPT working together?
Amazon Ads and OpenAI have launched a U.S. pilot that allows select advertisers to extend campaigns into conversational advertising experiences within ChatGPT.
The timing matters. Deloitte expects holiday eCommerce sales to grow between seven point five percent and eight point four percent, reaching as much as three hundred eighteen point nine billion dollars. Bain also reports that twenty-four percent of holiday shoppers plan to begin product discovery through generative AI platforms.
Amazon is now taking its advertising capabilities beyond Amazon-owned properties and into the conversations where shoppers research, compare, and make decisions.
Why are product images, reviews, and attributes becoming more valuable?
Target now supports AI-powered photo search and summarized review insights. Instacart and Shipt can build grocery carts from conversations, recipes, and uploaded photos.
Product discovery is expanding beyond traditional keyword searches. Images, ingredients, materials, pack quantities, use cases, reviews, pricing, and availability are becoming inputs that AI systems use to recommend products and assemble carts.
How are Amazon and Walmart tightening delivery standards?
Starting September thirtieth, Amazon requires a Business Hour Delivery Rate of at least ninety percent for seller-fulfilled Amazon Business orders. Sellers that remain below the requirement may lose access to Business customers beginning October thirtieth.
Walmart is also evaluating Walmart Plus badge eligibility over a fourteen-day performance window. Sellers need strong on-time delivery, low cancellations, sufficient order volume, and delivery promises of two calendar days or less.
Speed now affects marketplace eligibility, visibility, conversion, and profitability. Sellers need to evaluate fulfillment performance at the SKU and regional level before making faster promises that increase sales but eliminate margin.

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Most Amazon brands do not need more traffic. They need fewer distractions.
In this episode of Selling on Giants, Mr. Will breaks down why many brands stall on Amazon not because they lack SKUs, campaigns, keywords, tools, or traffic, but because the account has become too bloated to scale efficiently.
The core idea is simple: everything you think you “have to do” on Amazon may actually be optional unless it helps the customer click, convert, buy, review, and keep the flywheel moving.
Using Elon Musk’s “algorithm” framework, this episode looks at a better way to approach Amazon catalog optimization:
Question every requirement
Delete anything you can
Simplify what remains
Accelerate
Automate last
Most Amazon accounts get this order wrong. Brands jump straight to speed, tools, automation, and campaign expansion before asking whether the catalog, listings, variations, or ad structure deserve to exist in the first place.
Mr. Will shares a real operator example from a dog leash and harness brand doing around one million dollars on Amazon. On the surface, the business looked healthy. Revenue was steady, the catalog was full, and the team was constantly launching new colors, styles, and ideas. But underneath, the account was carrying hundreds of variations, aged inventory, storage fees, wasted ad spend, underfunded winners, and cash tied up in products that were not moving.
The answer was not more traffic.
The answer was focus.
In this episode, we cover:
Why more SKUs often create more drag, not more growth
How aged inventory quietly eats margin
Why top-line revenue can hide catalog and inventory problems
How too many variations can confuse customers and weaken conversion
Why ad spend should be earned by performance, not spread evenly across the catalog
How pausing underperforming spend can improve Tacos and growth
Why automation only works after the account is clean
How to separate real growth opportunities from catalog noise
Why Amazon catalog optimization often starts with deleting
The one question every seller should ask before adding anything new
The leash brand’s breakthrough came when the account was simplified around the products that were actually driving demand. The catalog was cut down, listings became cleaner, ad spend was concentrated around proven performers, and budget moved toward top converting SKUs, high-intent keywords, and proven placements.
That is the bigger lesson: Amazon growth does not always come from doing more. Many times, it comes from doing less, better.
At BellaVix, we help brands turn marketplace complexity into clear operating plans. That means cleaning up catalogs, rationalizing SKUs, tightening listings, restructuring campaigns, focusing budget on what has earned it, and building feedback loops that help teams make better decisions with less noise.
BellaVix has helped brands sell over five hundred million dollars on Amazon and is a Verified Ad Partner, but the real work is helping brands stop scaling complexity and start scaling what already works.
The question worth asking:
If you cut your catalog in half tomorrow, would your business suffer, or would it finally focus?
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’s ad auction is headed to court, Good Good Golf turned one bad advertisement into a distribution crisis, and Walmart made a purse out of rotisserie chicken packaging. Ecommerce had a week.
In this episode of Selling on Giants, Mr. Will breaks down the Federal Trade Commission’s challenge to Amazon’s advertising auctions, new insurance requirements for Amazon sellers, fourth quarter cost pressure, AI-powered product discovery, Sephora’s TikTok Shop strategy, and two completely different lessons in creating brand attention.
What is the FTC alleging about Amazon’s advertising auctions?
The FTC and twenty-two state attorneys general allege that Amazon used undisclosed reserve prices inside Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display auctions. According to the complaint, approximately 1.2 million advertisers paid more than $20 billion in additional advertising costs.
Amazon disputes the allegations and says advertisers never paid more than their submitted bids. There has been no court ruling, refund program, or announced change to Amazon’s advertising auctions.
Mr. Will explains why sellers should preserve historical campaign and billing reports while continuing to make advertising decisions based on conversion, ACoS, TACoS, contribution margin, and total sales performance. The lawsuit does not make Amazon’s advertising data useless, but it challenges the assumption that every increase in CPC comes from another advertiser bidding more aggressively.
Read the FTC complaint against Amazon.
Which Amazon sellers now need commercial liability insurance?
Beginning November 2, sellers offering products in categories subject to enhanced safety requirements must carry at least $1 million in commercial liability insurance, regardless of monthly Amazon sales.
The affected categories include children’s products, cosmetics, ingestible products, and products containing lithium batteries. Sellers need to confirm that their policies cover the actual products being sold and that the legal business name matches the information in Seller Central.
This turns insurance into a product-level condition of marketplace access rather than a requirement limited to larger sellers.
Why are fourth quarter margins facing more pressure?
Canada’s new countertariffs take effect September 8, with rates of 15%, 25%, or 50% applying to selected U.S.-origin products. Exposure depends on the product’s classification and legal country of origin, not simply the warehouse from which it ships.
At the same time, Amazon Shipping is joining USPS, UPS, and FedEx in applying holiday surcharges. Walmart Marketplace is also extending the return window for most eligible purchases made between October 1 and December 31 through January 31.
Brands need to account for tariffs, carrier surcharges, promotional discounts, and January returns before judging holiday profitability. Fourth quarter revenue that returns after the margin has already been spent is not profitable growth.
How is Alexa Plus changing product discovery on Amazon?
Amazon has completed the U.S. rollout of Alexa Plus and included unlimited access with Prime. Customers can now describe a problem, compare options, and narrow their choices before viewing a traditional search results page.
Amazon reports that more than 350 million shoppers used Alexa for Shopping during the previous twelve months and that those users spent approximately 40% more per order. These are Amazon-reported figures, but they point toward a larger shift in how shoppers discover products.
There is no confirmed Alexa Plus optimization tool or secret conversational ranking formula. Sellers should focus on accurate attributes, compatibility information, use cases, reviews, and catalog consistency. AI cannot confidently recommend information the brand never provides.
Read Amazon’s Alexa Plus announcement.
Why is Target using AI to build larger baskets?
Target says customers who create back-to-school wish lists generate approximately 45% more demand within the category. Its AI recommends products that may be missing based on browsing activity, previous purchases, school requirements, and similar customer behavior.
The opportunity is no longer limited to ranking for an individual keyword. Brands also need retailers to understand which products belong together within a broader shopping mission.
What is Sephora doing on TikTok Shop?
Sephora is launching the Sephora Drop Shop, a TikTok Shop experience built around exclusive monthly product releases, creator content, teasers, interactive experiences, and live reveals.
This is not Sephora uploading its entire catalog to another marketplace. It is using channel exclusivity to combine entertainment, product discovery, scarcity, and checkout within one coordinated launch.
Participating brands gain access to TikTok’s audience, but Sephora controls product selection while TikTok controls the discovery environment. Inventory commitments, creative ownership, reporting access, promotional timing, and post-exclusivity pricing all need to be clear before participation.
How did one advertisement become a distribution crisis for Good Good Golf?
Good Good Golf published an advertisement showing a male personality shoving a female employee while promoting a Callaway driver. The advertisement was deleted, but the commercial consequences continued.
Callaway ended the partnership. Dick’s Sporting Goods and Golf Galaxy removed Good Good merchandise. The company lost sponsorship and media opportunities, and its chief executive officer and president left the business.
This was more than social media backlash. It became distribution risk.
Brands working with creators and retail partners need clear conduct standards, content approval rights, takedown requirements, and termination provisions. Retailers can remove a product faster than a brand can complete a traditional crisis response.
Why did Walmart make a rotisserie chicken purse?
Walmart transformed its rotisserie chicken packaging into a limited-edition purse priced at $5.97, the same price as the actual chicken. It sold out within hours and quickly appeared on resale marketplaces.
The campaign worked because Walmart built on a product customers already recognized, purchased, joked about, and discussed online. It did not manufacture a random viral moment.
Good Good Golf and Walmart both created attention, but only one strengthened the relationship between the brand, its retail partners, and its customers. The difference is judgment.
The takeaway: Marketplace success increasingly depends on connecting advertising, compliance, logistics, product data, and brand governance. The operator’s job is to connect those decisions before the marketplace connects them for you.
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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How do you know if your Shopify ads are actually making money?

In this episode of Selling on Giants, Will Haire sits down with Adam Callinan, founder of Pentane, to break down the financial math behind profitable DTC growth.

The conversation centers on one critical concept: contribution profit.

Adam explains why metrics like ROAS, AOV, LTV, and revenue don't tell the whole story, and how DTC founders can use contribution profit to understand whether a campaign, promotion, or pricing change is actually creating value for the business.

In this episode, we cover:

- Why contribution profit matters more than revenue alone
- How DTC brands can determine the right Shopify ad budget
- The limitations of relying on ROAS to measure profitability
- How pricing, discounts, and bundles impact your bottom line
- The financial guardrails founders should establish before scaling
- How BottleKeeper used Facebook video ads to accelerate growth
- Why operating with constraints can actually create an advantage
- How Shopify and Amazon revenue should be viewed together
- Where brands lose visibility between ad spend, COGS, fulfillment, discounts, and profit
- How real-time financial intelligence can improve marketing decisions
- What separates DTC brands that scale sustainably from those that simply grow revenue

Adam also shares what he is building with Pentane, a platform designed to help eCommerce operators connect financial data with marketing and operating decisions.

If you're a Shopify brand, DTC founder, eCommerce operator, or marketer spending money on ads and trying to scale profitably, this conversation is for you.

Learn more about Pentane: www.pentane.com
Free Profit Masterclass: www.theprofitmasterclass.com
Connect with Adam Callinan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adammcallinan/ 

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