Marketplace Talk: August ecommerce news 2026

🏭 Amazon doubles down on Germany with €300M+ logistics investment in Pforzheim

Amazon is expanding its logistics center in southwestern Germany, with an investment of more than 300 million euros. The site, which currently stores medium-sized items such as game consoles and diaper packs, will be renovated to handle a broader range of small to medium-sized products, from USB sticks to irons, with a capacity of around 20 million items after the upgrade. Hundreds of transport robots will also be introduced to move shelving to employees and reduce manual handling time.

The workforce at the site will more than double, from over 1,000 to more than 2,000 employees, by the end of 2029. All existing jobs will be retained during the renovation. The Pforzheim investment adds to a broader pattern of Amazon infrastructure commitments across Europe: 15 billion euros pledged in France and 40 billion British pounds targeted for the UK by end of 2027.

"For sellers operating on Amazon.de, this signals continued confidence in the German market and a strengthening of the logistics backbone underpinning fast delivery promises. A larger, more automated fulfilment network typically means improved in-stock rates and faster Prime delivery, both of which influence seller visibility and conversion on the platform."

Eric Blauberger
Account Executive (EMEA)

🎯 Six preparation gaps that cost sellers their peak season. ChannelEngine's support data explains why

ChannelEngine's support team analyzed every request raised by sellers across last year's full peak season — the preparation window, Black Friday week, and post-season cleanup — totaling over 2,000 tickets. The most important finding: the large majority of issues were preventable. Sellers who struggled arrived at peak week with things unverified. The platform handled the volume without downtime during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, even as other integration platforms experienced outages. What created pressure was a lack of preparation, not a failure of infrastructure.

Six recurring themes emerged. The most widespread was product content and listing readiness: missing GTINs, attribute mapping gaps, and compliance errors that kept listings offline at exactly the wrong moment. One seller had thousands of products offline because compliance values weren't transmitting correctly. Other recurring issues included marketplace connections expiring without the seller noticing, pricing rules that hadn't been tested end-to-end and failed on the day, stock sync misconfigurations causing both lost sales and oversells, API quota limits hit by custom integrations under peak load, and account access problems, including one team locked out on the first morning of peak week after losing access to their 2FA device.

The data also revealed a clear calendar pattern: the preparation window is about connections, content, and pricing; peak week adds stock sync and API load; December is about returns, refunds, and order lifecycle. Sellers who sequenced their preparation to match that pattern had a materially smoother season. For anyone reading this now, the window to act is still open, but it is closing.

"The support data doesn't lie: the sellers who had the hardest peak season were the ones who showed up to it unprepared, not the ones who ran into bad luck. Most of what we resolved in November and December was entirely fixable in September. The checklist we're releasing exists precisely because preparation is a discipline, and the same gaps keep coming back every year."

Daryl Timmerman
Support Manager

🛍️ TikTok Shop reaches 300,000 UK small business sellers as live commerce surges

TikTok Shop has crossed 300,000 small business sellers in the United Kingdom, up from 200,000 at end of 2024 — a 200% year-on-year increase in new sellers joining the platform. The milestone comes after a slow start: TikTok launched its shopping feature in the UK in late 2021, and initial consumer interest was underwhelming enough that the platform delayed wider expansion. By 2024, revenues had increased 180%, signalling a genuine turnaround.

Live commerce is a key driver of that growth. More than 6,000 live shopping broadcasts now take place on the app in the UK every single day, with sales generated through TikTok Shop Live sessions up 55% year over year. Independent retailers are using live formats not just to sell, but to answer product questions and build direct relationships with shoppers beyond their local area.

TikTok also points to what it calls the "TikTok Shop halo effect",  the pattern where strong platform visibility converts into wholesale partnerships, listings with larger retailers, and physical store expansion. For brands considering TikTok Shop as a channel, the UK now offers compelling scale, an engaged seller community, and a live commerce infrastructure that is increasingly hard to ignore.

"300,000 sellers on TikTok Shop UK is no longer a test, it's a market. What makes this interesting is the halo effect: brands are using TikTok not just to sell, but as a discovery and validation platform that opens doors on other channels. If you're not at least piloting it, you're making a deliberate choice to cede that ground."

Mitchell Dröge
Alliance Manager

📦 Amazon brings AWD bulk storage to Europe's five biggest markets

Amazon has launched its Warehousing & Distribution service — known as AWD — in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK, starting 20 August. The service lets sellers store bulk inventory with Amazon for extended periods, with automated replenishment flowing into FBA fulfilment centers based on demand. The flat-rate, long-term storage model is positioned as a solution to FBA capacity constraints, particularly ahead of high-volume periods like Prime Day and Black Friday.

Amazon launched AWD in the US four years ago, where it has since expanded to support fulfilment beyond Amazon's own sales channels. That cross-channel capability is not included in the European rollout for now. In Europe, the service adds a new layer between sellers' inventory and the FBA network — one that Amazon says reduces manual restocking, lowers stockout risk, and gives sellers more flexibility without hitting FBA limits.

The practical implication for European sellers is straightforward: AWD can simplify operations and reduce the logistical headaches around peak season. But it also deepens reliance on Amazon's infrastructure. As Amazon tightens its grip on the European logistics chain — managing storage, replenishment, and fulfilment — sellers should weigh the operational gains against the strategic trade-off of consolidating more of their supply chain inside a single platform.

"AWD coming to Europe is genuinely useful for sellers who are hitting FBA limits or struggling with peak-season replenishment. But it's worth being clear-eyed: diversifying your fulfilment infrastructure across channels remains good practice, even if AWD solves a real problem in the short term."

Mitchell Dröge
Alliance Manager

💰 Amazon charges the highest average commission of all marketplaces — 19.7% versus a 14.5% market average

Research by software platform FiveX into the ten largest online marketplaces in the Netherlands found an average commission rate of 14.5% in August. Amazon sits firmly at the top with an average of 19.7%, while French platform Cdiscount is the most affordable at 11.2%. Bol comes in at 14.2%, just below the market average. The spread across all ten platforms shows a standard deviation of 2.25 percentage points, suggesting the middle of the market is closely bunched, with Amazon as a clear outlier.

The analysis was based on more than 50 million orders, of which 5 million were placed in the last quarter. Crucially, the research only covers commission fees. Fulfilment, shipping, and advertising costs — which often represent a significant portion of total marketplace spend — were excluded from the comparison.

That caveat matters. Amazon's 19.7% commission looks starkly higher than Bol's 14.2% in isolation, but once FBA fulfilment and sponsored product costs are factored in, the true comparison per platform shifts. For sellers evaluating their channel economics, this research is a useful starting point — but total cost per order across all fee types is the only number that actually reflects margin.

"Commission rates are the most visible number but rarely the most important one. What I'd want any seller to do is calculate their actual blended cost per order on each platform, including fulfilment, shipping, and advertising, before drawing conclusions about which channel is working hardest for them. Amazon's 19.7% doesn't tell you much without those other figures alongside it."

Twan Rutten
Strategic Business Growth Lead

🔍 ECB research: Southern Europe leads Chinese platform adoption, but a new €3 customs charge is slowing parcel growth

A large-scale consumer survey conducted by the European Central Bank this spring found that more than half of euro area consumers (52%) have shopped on a Chinese ecommerce platform at least once. Usage is highest in Greece (79%), Portugal (77%), and Spain (69%), while France (40%) and Germany (40%) sit well below the average. The ECB attributes the regional differences to variations in consumer habits, platform awareness, delivery infrastructure, trust, and the availability of local retail alternatives.

Price and product variety are the two primary drivers of Chinese platform adoption. The ECB concluded that low prices combined with extensive product choice represent the core competitive advantage of platforms like AliExpress, Shein, Temu, and Banggood. Geopolitics, notably, appears to have little deterrent effect on purchasing behaviour.

The picture is shifting, however. Growth in low-cost Chinese parcels entering the EU slowed to 26% in 2025 after doubling the year prior, and there are now signs of contraction. Ecommerce shipments through Liège Airport — one of Europe's main gateways for Chinese cross-border parcels — dropped 24% year on year in July and 41% compared to June, following the introduction of a €3 charge on parcels valued below €150 that came into effect on 1 July. Shipments above the €150 threshold, meanwhile, rose 10%.

"The ECB data confirms what we see on the ground: Southern Europe has been a stronghold for Chinese platforms, and price sensitivity there runs deep. The new €3 customs charge is a real intervention, the Liège numbers show it has immediate impact. For brands in affected categories, this is an opportunity to reclaim competitive ground, but only if the pricing and assortment gaps are actually addressed."

Hugo Denoyelle
Senior Sales Lead France

📅 The sellers who grow through peak season start in August: here's what separates them

Owen Bruijn, Senior Customer Success Manager at ChannelEngine, has watched two types of sellers go through peak season year after year — similar in size, SKU count, and tooling, but arriving at very different outcomes. The difference, he argues, is not what they do in November. It is what they do in August and September, when most sellers are treating it as downtime. The sellers who grow have their promotional pricing largely locked in, their channel selection made, ad budgets front-loaded, and 3PL workflows reviewed before the promotional calendar even starts.

Four strategic decisions separate them from sellers who merely survive. First, margin clarity — knowing the true margin per unit on every channel, including fees, VAT, and shipping, so that dynamic repricing and ad automation do not work against each other at peak. Second, knowing when not to compete — recognising that the EU 30-day pricing rule can legally undermine Black Friday discounts if Singles' Day promotions are handled carelessly, and that spreading across every promotional event often destroys price perception without delivering proportional returns. Third, concentrating ad spend on high-margin products backed by solid stock and fulfilment — because paid traffic to a product that goes out of stock mid-campaign is pure waste. Fourth, bringing in partners early: agencies, 3PLs, and buying teams need to be aligned before October, when most of those conversations are already too late to act on.

The diagnostic value of peak season is as important as the revenue it generates. Sellers who go in with clear KPIs and come out with honest data on SKU-level return rates, true ad efficiency, and carrier SLA performance are the ones who compound year on year. The setup window is August and September. October is for locking and testing. If neither has started yet, now is the time.

"Every year I see sellers treat Q4 as something to get through. The ones who treat it as the highest-leverage moment of the year, and do the work in August when they still have time and focus, are the ones who come out ahead. The gap between those two groups is not talent or budget. It's preparation discipline and the willingness to make hard decisions before the season forces them."

Owen Bruijn
Senior Customer Success Manager

🚚 Home Depot turns its 2,000+ stores into same-day fulfilment hubs with nationwide express delivery

Home Depot has launched express delivery across the United States, promising customers eligible orders within three hours or less. The service taps into the retailer's network of more than 2,000 stores as local fulfilment hubs and covers thousands of SKUs across categories including plumbing, hardware, paint, and tools. Pricing is a flat $7 fee in most major markets, with no subscription required.

The retailer has been systematically tightening its delivery window over the past 18 months, cutting lead times in the US by 45%. The EVP of Interconnected Retail noted that the majority of express deliveries are now completing in under one hour, well inside the three-hour promise. Alongside express, more than 65% of in-stock parcel products are already delivered same day or next day via Home Depot's existing distribution center network.

For marketplace sellers in home improvement and adjacent categories, the message is clear: big-box retailers are deploying physical store infrastructure as a speed advantage that pure-play online channels cannot easily replicate. Delivery time is increasingly a differentiator, and brands selling across channels need to benchmark their own fulfilment commitments accordingly.

"When a retailer like Home Depot can promise delivery in under an hour at scale, it fundamentally shifts what customers expect across the board. Not just from Home Depot, but from every channel they buy from. For marketplace sellers in home, tools, and hardware, this is a wake-up call to take fulfilment speed seriously, not just pricing."

Damian Speck
Channel Partnerships Manager (North America)

📈 Target's Q2 comeback: 5.3% sales growth driven by beauty, hardlines, and digital

Target posted second-quarter net sales of $26.5 billion, up 5.3% year over year, with comparable sales rising 3.8% on the back of a 3.6% increase in shopper traffic. All six core merchandise categories grew, led by high-single-digit gains in beauty and food & beverage, and double-digit growth in hardlines — the revamped category now rebranded internally as Fun 101. The strong quarter prompted Target to raise its full-year guidance to around 5% net sales growth.

Digital commerce continued to accelerate, with digital comparable sales up 8.7% and same-day delivery growing more than 25%. Non-merchandise revenue jumped 20%, reflecting momentum in Target's retail media network Roundel, its membership programme, and its third-party marketplace Target Plus. The quarter also included $994 million in pretax tariff refund benefits, which contributed meaningfully to net earnings more than doubling year over year.

For brands selling through or competing with US retailers, Target's recovery signals renewed foot traffic and consumer confidence in physical retail, particularly in beauty and discretionary hardlines. Target's five-year Ulta Beauty shop-in-shop partnership ends this month, and the retailer is betting on its own Beauty Studio rollout in more than 600 stores to sustain that momentum independently.

"Target's numbers are a reminder that physical retail isn't losing, it's transforming. Double-digit growth in hardlines and 25%+ same-day delivery growth in a single quarter shows what happens when a large retailer finally gets product range and fulfilment working together. Brands that are building marketplace-only strategies should be watching this closely."

Damian Speck
Channel Partnerships Manager (North America)