Our US CEO Maciej Stanski recently sat down with Scott Needham on the Smartest Amazon Seller podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about multichannel ecommerce operations, where ecommerce is heading, and what operators need to do about it. Watch the full conversation below, or read on for the key takeaways.
Amazon is still king, but it’s getting harder to win on
Amazon remains the anchor channel for most sellers and it’s still worth being there. But the math is changing. FBA fees are up, advertising costs more, and the platform is less forgiving than it used to be. The growth is still there, but the margins are tighter and the platform demands more from sellers operationally.
The point isn’t to abandon Amazon. It’s to stop treating it as the only game in town.
TikTok Shop is a real channel, not a trend
TikTok Shop has become one of the fastest-growing channels for US sellers, and it’s particularly interesting for smaller operators. Unlike Amazon, where established players with large advertising budgets dominate, TikTok still has a greenfield element. If you have the time and willingness to figure out how to get eyeballs on your products, you can compete on a different field entirely.
That said, it’s not for every product. TikTok is social commerce first. If you can’t sell it on video, it may not perform. But for the right product and the right seller, the incremental revenue opportunity is very real.
Your back-office ops are now a competitive advantage
This was the sharpest point in the conversation. For years, back-office ecommerce operations including order management, catalog hygiene, and inventory sync were treated as a cost center. Something you outsource and forget about.
That’s no longer the right frame. Sellers who invest in getting their operational infrastructure right are building something competitors can’t easily copy. A well-organized, fully parameterized product catalog that feeds cleanly to every channel isn’t just an ops win. It’s a business moat. The sellers who treat it that way are pulling ahead. The ones who don’t are running out of stock on their best listings.
Get your ops in order before chasing agentic AI
There’s no shortage of noise around AI right now. Maciej’s take was measured: AI is real, and purposeful AI built into your workflows creates genuine value, but it only works if your data is in order first. A clean, unified catalog and a single source of truth for your multichannel ecommerce operations are the foundation. Without that, AI features are just adding complexity on top of chaos.
Simple workflow automation and a well-maintained single catalog will solve more problems for most sellers than any AI tool they’re chasing on LinkedIn.
Base is the ecommerce management platform that gives multichannel sellers a single source of truth for their orders, inventory, listings, and fulfillment across every channel they sell on. Want to see how it works? Book a demo.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Amazon still worth selling on in 2026?
Yes. Amazon is still the largest ecommerce marketplace in the US and remains the anchor channel for most sellers. But it’s less forgiving than it used to be. FBA fees have increased, advertising costs more, and account reserves are tighter. It’s still worth being there, but relying on it as your only channel is a bigger risk than it used to be.
Is TikTok Shop worth it for small sellers?
For the right product, yes. TikTok Shop is particularly interesting for smaller sellers because it’s still relatively open compared to Amazon, where large advertising budgets dominate. If your product translates well to video content, the incremental revenue opportunity is real. It’s not a fit for every category, but it’s worth evaluating seriously.
What does “multichannel operations” actually mean?
Multichannel ecommerce operations refers to the back-end infrastructure that keeps your business running when you’re selling across more than one platform including Amazon, Walmart, TikTok Shop, your own website, and others. It covers inventory management, order routing, product listings, fulfillment, and analytics. The more channels you add, the more complex those operations become.
How do I manage inventory across multiple sales channels?
The most reliable approach is to centralize your inventory in a single platform that syncs in near real time to every channel you sell on. When inventory is managed in one place, stock levels update automatically across every channel when a sale is made, reducing the risk of overselling or going out of stock without visibility. Platforms like Base are built specifically for this.
What is a single source of truth in ecommerce?
A single source of truth means having one system where all your operational data lives including orders, inventory, listings, fulfillment status, and analytics across every channel. Without it, different teams work from different data, channels fall out of sync, and decisions get made on incomplete information. For multichannel sellers, establishing a single source of truth is one of the highest-leverage operational investments you can make.
Do I need a separate tool for every sales channel?
No, and that’s one of the core problems multichannel sellers run into. Cobbling together a separate tool for each channel creates data silos, integration failures, and ops teams buried in manual reconciliation. A unified platform that connects to all your channels from one place is more reliable, more efficient, and significantly easier to scale.
How do I scale multichannel selling without adding headcount?
The answer is automation and centralization. When your orders, inventory, and listings all flow through one platform, you can automate the repetitive work including order routing, inventory updates, listing sync, and repricing that would otherwise require more people to manage manually. Sellers using Base have reported up to 50% reduction in process burden, handling more volume with the same team size.
Base is the ecommerce management platform that gives multichannel sellers a single source of truth for their orders, inventory, listings, and fulfillment across every channel they sell on. Want to see how it works? Book a demo.
