Post-Prime Day News Update: Smaller Baskets, AI Shopping Traffic, and Walmart’s Retail Media Push

This week’s Selling on Giants News and Updates breaks down what happened after Prime Day and what it tells us about the second half of eCommerce in 2026.

Prime Day beat expectations, but the headline sales number does not tell the whole story. U.S. online spending grew strongly, but average order value declined, household spend softened, and shoppers leaned heavily into lower-ticket products, essentials, grocery, household items, supplements, and consumables.

The consumer is still spending.

They are just spending more intentionally.

In this episode, Mr. Will covers:

Prime Day beat expectations, but baskets got smaller

Prime Day delivered strong top-line growth, but smaller average orders show that shoppers were more value-conscious. For sellers, the post-event review cannot stop at revenue. Brands need to look at contribution margin, inventory depletion, new-to-brand customers, Subscribe and Save enrollment, organic rank movement, ACoS, TACoS, and ROAS.

AI shopping traffic is no longer experimental

AI-referred shopping traffic surged during Prime Day and converted better than many traditional sources. That is a major signal for Amazon sellers, DTC brands, and marketplace operators. AI discovery is becoming measurable, which means product data, structured attributes, clear bullets, reviews, images, and product feeds matter more than ever.

Amazon’s Item Highlights and title changes

Amazon’s new Item Highlights field, combined with the upcoming 75-character title limit, shows that listing optimization is entering a new phase. Sellers can no longer rely on keyword-stuffed titles. Titles, highlights, bullets, images, attributes, and A+ Content need to work together as one structured listing system.

FBM handling times and operational discipline

Amazon’s new seller-fulfilled handling time requirements are now live. Sellers need accurate SKU-level handling times or Amazon may adjust them based on historical performance. This impacts delivery promises, conversion, Buy Box eligibility, and Seller Fulfilled Prime performance.

The INFORM Act as an account health issue

Amazon is reminding high-volume sellers to keep business information, identification, bank details, tax information, and annual certifications current. Compliance is no longer background paperwork. It is part of account health and long-term marketplace stability.

Walmart acquires Vibe.co and moves deeper into connected TV

Walmart’s planned acquisition of Vibe.co shows that Walmart is building a full-funnel advertising platform, not just a marketplace. Walmart Connect, VIZIO, first-party shopper data, closed-loop measurement, and self-service connected TV could make streaming advertising more accessible to marketplace brands.

Walmart Sparky and AI-powered shopping

Walmart’s Sparky AI assistant is becoming part of the shopping experience, including live commerce. Alongside Amazon, Google, OpenAI, and Shopify, Walmart is rebuilding product discovery around conversational AI and machine-readable product data.

WFS long-term storage fees and Walmart Marketplace maturity

Walmart Fulfillment Services is introducing long-term storage fees for aging inventory. This brings Walmart closer to the FBA model and reinforces that inventory planning, sell-through, bundling, liquidation, and SKU discipline matter more as Walmart Marketplace matures.

Walmart product claims enforcement

Walmart is tightening policy around Made in USA, biodegradable, compostable, PFAS, and other product claims. Sellers need to make sure packaging, images, descriptions, attributes, and marketing claims are accurate and supported.

FedEx, tariffs, and supply chain pressure

FedEx results suggest parcel demand remains healthy, but shipping costs and carrier margins are still under pressure. At the same time, new tariff proposals tied to forced labor enforcement could expand sourcing complexity beyond China. Sellers need to stress test landed costs, shipping assumptions, supplier documentation, and margin sensitivity before peak season.

The bigger takeaway:

Prime Day may be over, but the real work starts now.

The strongest brands will not be the ones that only celebrated top-line sales. They will be the ones that review margins, clean product data, fix listings, audit compliance, protect inventory, and prepare for the next wave of platform changes.

The market is still growing.

It is just getting less forgiving.

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

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.

Transcript

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Welcome back to Selling on Giants. I'm your host, Mr. Will, and this week we are coming out of Prime Day with a much clearer picture of where the market is heading. The headline looks strong. Prime Day beat expectations. U.S. online spending came in above $26 billion, up more than 9% year over year. Day one alone crossed $8 billion in online sales. Mobile carried more than half of purchases, and the broader retail ecosystem showed up aggressively with Walmart, Target, Best Buy, TikTok Shop, and brand websites all trying to capture the same deal-seeking customer. So, yes, the consumer is still spending, but the more important story is how they spent. Average order value went down. Household spend moved lower. A large share of purchases were under $20. Grocery, household essentials, supplements, consumables, and everyday categories performed well. That tells us shoppers did not disappear. They got more intentional. They stocked up, they hunted value, they spread their spend across lower ticket items instead of treating Prime Day like a free pass to buy expensive products without thinking. That distinction matters because too many brands are going to look at top-line sales and declare victory before they understand what actually happened. A record revenue day does not automatically mean a healthy business outcome. You can grow sales and still compress margin. You can acquire customers and still lose money on the first order. You can clear inventory and still damage profitability if the discount, ad spend, and fulfillment costs do not work together. Traffic was not the limiting factor, profitability was. That is the real prime day takeaway. The marketplace can still generate demand, but the operator has to decide whether that demand is worth buying. The post-event review cannot stop at sales. It needs to include contribution margin by ASIN, inventory depletion, new to brand customer acquisition, subscribe and save enrollment, organic ranking movement, ad efficiency, A costs, tacos, row A's, and whether the account actually gained durable ground after the promotional noise settled. A lot of brands probably had their biggest prime day ever and still made less money than they think. That is not me being negative. That is just how event math works when baskets get smaller, CPCs rise, discounts deepen, and customers concentrate around essentials and low-ticket products. The real winners will not be obvious until the follow-up data comes in. Did new customers come back? Did subscribe and save grow? Did organic rank improve? Did the brand protect margin? Did the inventory position survive? Did the account leave Prime Day stronger? Or did it just rent revenue for four days? That is the question serious operators need to ask this week. Now, one of the biggest post-prime day signals was not only where sales came from, it was where traffic came from. AI referred shopping traffic surged during the event, and Adobe data showed that visitors coming from generative AI experiences converted better than other traffic sources, spent more time on site, viewed more pages, and added products to carts more frequently. That is a very big deal. For years, sellers optimized for Google, Amazon SEO, paid ads, marketplace search, and maybe social traffic. Now AI discovery is becoming measurable, not theoretical. Not something for a future conference panel where everyone says agentic commerce six times and then goes to lunch. Measurable. Prime Day showed that shoppers are using AI to research products, compare options, and arrive with more intent. That changes how we should think about listings. AI systems do not reward keyword stuffing the same way an old search algorithm might have. They need structured information, they need clarity, they need attributes, they need accurate product data, they need to understand what the product is, who it is for, what problem it solves, what specifications matter, how it compares, and why a customer should trust it. This is where Amazon's new item highlights field becomes important. Amazon is adding another searchable visible field alongside the upcoming title changes. Starting July 27th, most categories will need titles at 75 characters or less, and item highlights gives brands another space to communicate materials, use cases, and comparison points. That means title strategy is changing. You cannot just jam every keyword into the title and hope Amazon forgives the mess. The lazy seller reaction is to complain that Amazon is taking keyword space away. The operator reaction is to redesign the listing architecture. The title, item highlights, bullets, attributes, images, A plus content, and brand story all need to work together. Every field has a job. The title identifies the product cleanly. Item highlights communicate the most important differentiators. Bullets answer the buying questions. Images create the visual reason to believe. A plus content deepens the story. Attributes feed the machine. This is no longer just copywriting, it is product data strategy. And that connects directly to the broader AI shopping wars. Google is adding Search Console reporting for AI-powered search experiences. That matters because measurement always follows adoption. For years, SEO teams have been asking how AI overviews and AI mode affect impressions, clicks, and visibility. Now Google is starting to provide dedicated reporting. It is limited, but it is a start. And when Google gives brands visibility into AI search performance, that tells us AI search is not a side experiment. It is becoming part of the measurement stack. The bigger point is that commerce is becoming machine readable. Search, advertising, marketplaces, product catalogs, product feeds, checkout systems, and recommendations are all moving toward AI assisted decision making. Whether it is Google's Universal Commerce Protocol, OpenAI's Commerce Work, Shopify's structured product data push, Amazon's shopping assistance, or Walmart's Sparky, the direction is obvious, AI needs clean product information to make decisions. That means product catalogs are becoming strategic infrastructure, not back office admin, not something an intern fixes when the upload breaks. Infrastructure. If your product data is messy, your AI visibility will be messy. If your attributes are incomplete, your recommendations will be weaker. If your reviews do not support your claims, the machine has less reason to trust you. If your product pages are vague, the customer and the agent both have to work harder. That is bad retail. Now, Amazon also made a very practical operational change that seller-fulfilled brands need to pay attention to. Amazon's new handling time requirement for seller-fulfilled products took effect June 29th. Sellers now need accurate SKU level handling times, either through automated handling time or manual SKU settings. If Amazon determines your handling times are inaccurate, it can use historical performance to adjust them. This sounds like a small operations update, it is not. Handling time affects delivery promises, conversion, buy box competitiveness, and seller-fulfilled prime performance. If your settings are padded, outdated, or inconsistent with what the warehouse actually does, Amazon is going to close that gap. The platform wants delivery promises that reflect reality, not seller optimism. For FBM sellers, this week should include a handling time audit. Review every seller-fulfilled SKU. Check warehouse cutoffs, weekend operations, shipping templates, staffing, and the actual time it takes to get orders out the door. Do not let Amazon make assumptions based on old shipping behavior because your internal settings were sloppy. Amazon is rewarding operational consistency. That should not surprise anyone at this point. The same idea applies to compliance. The Inform Consumers Act is no longer background paperwork. High volume sellers need to keep identity, business, bank, tax, and certification information current. If information is not maintained, sellers can face account deactivation. Most account problems are not dramatic. They are boring. Missed verification, old business addresses, bank information that does not match, outdated tax records, a certification request that sat in someone's inbox. Sellers like to imagine suspensions happen because of some big policy event, but plenty of pain comes from administrative failure. This is why account health is an operating process, not a one-time setup task. Log in, review the information, make sure the business records are current, complete outstanding verification requests before they turn into enforcement. Nobody wants to lose account access because the company treated compliance like filing cabinet work. Now let's move to Walmart, because Walmart had one of the biggest retail media stories of the week. Walmart announced plans to acquire Vibe.co, a self-service connected TV advertising platform designed to simplify streaming advertising for small and mid-size advertisers. This matters because Walmart is not just building a marketplace. Walmart is building an advertising platform. Amazon has spent years expanding DSP, Prime Video Advertising, sponsored ads, and full funnel retail media. Walmart is responding with Walmart Connect, Visio, first-party shopper data, closed loop measurement, and now Vibes self-service CTV technology. The signal is pretty clear, retail media is moving beyond sponsored search. For marketplace sellers, the important part is access. Connected TV has historically been difficult for mid-market brands. High minimums, fragmented buying platforms, creative requirements, measurement issues, and agency complexity kept a lot of brands out. If Walmart can make CTV more accessible through self-service tools and tie exposure back to Walmart sales, that changes the upper funnel conversation. Sponsored products still matter. Search still drives the bulk of marketplace conversion, but Walmart is building the infrastructure to influence shoppers before they ever search on Walmart.com. That is the difference between advertising inside a marketplace and building a full funnel media ecosystem. This also connects to Walmart's Sparky AI assistant showing up in live shopping. Walmart integrated Sparky into a live shopping experience during Walmart deals, using AI to help shoppers discover products during the broadcast. Walmart has already described Sparky as an AI shopping assistant that helps customers find products, synthesize reviews, and make more confident purchase decisions. Search is changing. The customer does not always want a list of products anymore. Sometimes the customer wants help deciding. They ask, what should I buy? What is best for this occasion? What works for this use case? What do other customers say? That makes AI the merchandising layer. For sellers, the takeaway is the same whether we are talking about Amazon, Google, Shopify, or Walmart. Product data matters, titles matter, attributes matter, images matter, reviews matter, product descriptions matter. AI cannot recommend what it does not fully understand. Walmart is also maturing operationally. Beginning June 30th, Walmart Fulfillment Services introduces long-term storage fees for aging inventory, with higher fees for items stored more than 450 days. This brings Walmart closer to the FBA model where slow-moving inventory becomes expensive warehouse space. That is a good thing for the platform and a wake-up call for sellers. As Walmart Marketplace grows, Walmart needs healthier inventory inside its fulfillment network. Dead inventory takes space from products that can turn. Sellers need to review aging inventory, slow-moving SKUs, bundling opportunities, liquidation options, and whether certain products should be removed entirely. Inventory planning is not optional anymore on Walmart. The platform is becoming more disciplined because it has to. Walmart is also tightening product claims guidelines, including made in USA claims, biodegradable claims, compostable claims, PFAS disclosures, and consistency across packaging, images, descriptions, and item attributes. If claims are unsupported or inconsistent, listings can be unpublished. This is where compliance and merchandising collide. Brands love claims because claims help conversion made in USA, sustainable, biodegradable, compostable, chemical-free, clean, safe, non-toxic. The problem is that those claims carry regulatory and marketplace risk if they are not supported. If the packaging says one thing, the listing says another, and the documentation is missing, the marketplace is not going to treat that as a branding exercise. It is going to treat it as a trust issue. Sellers should audit claims across Walmart, Amazon, DTC, packaging, images, A content, rich media, and ad creative. If the claim cannot be substantiated, either support it or remove it. Honest product information is one of the easiest ways to protect the brand long term. This is a good moment to pause because this is exactly where Bellovic spends a lot of time with brands. Everyone wants growth, everyone wants more traffic, everyone wants stronger ads. But marketplace growth now depends on the infrastructure underneath the account. Clean data, clear listings, strong inventory planning, accurate claims, compliance discipline, fulfillment reliability, reporting that shows profit, not just revenue. Bellivix has helped brands sell over $500 million on Amazon, and we are a verified ad partner. But the real work is not just launching campaigns. It is helping brands turn marketplace complexity into a clear operating plan. When Amazon changes listing structure, when Walmart tightens claims, when AI starts influencing discovery, when retail media moves into CTV, the question is not what is the headline. The question is what do we actually do inside the account? If your team is trying to scale across Amazon, Walmart, and broader marketplaces and the complexity is starting to outrun the structure underneath it, visit BellVicks.com. Now let's talk logistics and supply chain, because the second half of the year is going to test a lot of assumptions. FedEx reported stronger than expected fourth quarter results with revenue around $25 billion and healthy parcel demand. That is a useful signal for e-commerce operators because parcel carriers give us an early read on shipping volume and fulfillment pressure. The good news is that demand still looks healthy. The more complicated news is that carrier margins remain under pressure, and when transportation costs rise, they usually find their way downstream. Fuel surcharges, peak surcharges, residential delivery fees, general rate increases, packaging costs, and fulfillment fees all eventually show up in the seller's economics. If you are forecasting holiday profitability, do not only model product costs and ad spend, model shipping inflation, review carrier contracts, package weight, packaging dimensions, fulfillment methods, zone exposure, and channel level shipping costs. Small improvements in packaging and carrier mix can protect margin later. Waiting until Q4 surcharges arrive is not strategy. It is surprise management. Trade policy is another area sellers need to watch. The U.S. Trade Representative is moving forward with proposed Section 301 tariff actions tied to forced labor enforcement, with public hearings beginning July 7th. No final action has been announced, but the proposal covers a broad set of economies and potential tariff rates that could affect sourcing beyond the usual China discussion. This is important because a lot of brands spent the last few years diversifying away from China and assumed that solved the tariff problem. The next phase may be more complicated. It is not just country of origin anymore. It is supplier compliance, forced labor enforcement documentation and traceability. That means brands need to understand where products are manufactured, where raw materials come from, which suppliers have documentation, and how margin changes if landed costs move. Supply chain flexibility continues outperforming supply chain concentration. The brands with clean documentation, diversified options, and better landed cost visibility will be able to respond faster. Amazon's India investment also fits this broader infrastructure story. Amazon announced an additional $13 billion to expand AI and cloud infrastructure in India, building on previously announced investment. Amazon also continues expanding fulfillment centers and delivery stations in the country. The obvious headline is cloud and AI. The marketplace operator should also watch the long-term sourcing and cross-border implications. India is becoming more important to Amazon's global ecosystem. More suppliers, more sellers, more logistics investment, more exports, more AI infrastructure, more competition. That does not mean everyone needs to run to India tomorrow. It means sourcing strategy needs to stay open. The next decade of marketplace competition will not come from one geography. It will come from a more distributed supplier base, better logistics networks, and more sellers using infrastructure that used to be harder to access. Now let's bring it back to the consumer because the post-prime day picture lines up with McKinsey's broader consumer research. Consumers are still spending, but they are more intentional. Confidence may have improved modestly, but shoppers are still value conscious, still comparing more, still prioritizing trusted brands, and still balancing affordability with convenience. That explains why Prime Day sales were strong while average order size declined. Shoppers showed up, they bought, but they bought carefully. They stocked up, they looked for utility, they searched for value, they did not stop spending, they demanded a reason to spend. That is the environment brands are selling into now. Winning increasingly depends on answering one question quickly. Why should someone buy this product instead of another one? If the main image does not answer it, the title does not answer it, the reviews do not support it, the price does not make sense, and the A plus content does not reinforce it, then the shopper has every reason to compare or leave. Value does not mean cheapest. Value means the purchase feels justified, premium products can still win, strong brands can still grow, but the reason to believe has to be obvious. When you connect the whole week together, the pattern is clear. Prime day beat expectations, but smaller baskets show that shoppers are more selective. AI referred traffic is becoming real, which means product data and structured content matter more. Amazon's handling time rule and inform requirements show that operational discipline is becoming harder to avoid. Item highlights and the upcoming title cap show that listing architecture is changing. Walmart's vibe acquisition and sparky rollout show that retail media and AI shopping are converging. WFS storage fees and product claims rules show that Walmart Marketplace is maturing. FedEx and USTR remind us that shipping and sourcing assumptions need to be stress tested. Google Search Console AI reporting shows that AI visibility is becoming measurable. The bigger takeaway is simple. The market is still growing, but it is getting less forgiving. The brands that win the second half of the year will not be the ones chasing every shiny object. They will be the ones with cleaner data, stronger margins, better inventory discipline, clearer product positioning, more reliable fulfillment, and the operational maturity to turn changing platform rules into better execution. Prime Day may be over, but the real work starts now. Review the results, protect the margin, fix the listings, clean the data, audit the claims, watch the inventory, prepare for title changes, and do not confuse promotional revenue with durable growth. If this episode helped you connect the dots, share it with someone on your team who is responsible for making sense of the post Prime Day fallout. And if you are getting value from selling on Giants, take a second to leave a review so more sellers can find the show and stay ahead of what is actually changing. Mr. Will here, signing off from Selling on Giants. Let's keep building.