Expanding beyond Amazon is one of the biggest growth unlocks for ecommerce brands. But as we explored in this live session, success takes more than listings and logistics – it requires a pricing strategy that’s built for multichannel scale.
On September 18, we hosted a discussion with Alex McGlynn, Head of Sales, and Jordan Schanzer, CEO of Flashpricer, who shared actionable insights on how sellers can expand smarter and price more strategically.
If you couldn’t join us live (or want to revisit the insights), you can watch the full recording here.
Who is Jordan?
I’m the founder of Flashpricer. I’ve been in this space for about 15 years, mostly in repricing. I was employee #1 at Informed Repricer, which is where I got my start. Along the way, I also became a seller myself – wholesale, retail arbitrage, online arbitrage, dropshipping, private label.
With tools I built to help myself sell better, I’ve managed over $80 million in sales. I also worked with Walmart’s repricing team to launch their initial repricing API, which gave me a lot of exposure to the inner workings of the space.
Now, I’m back supporting sellers, both resellers and private-label brands, in their repricing strategies, helping them sell more across all channels.
Who is Alex?
I don’t have quite as much ecommerce experience as Jordan, but I’ve been in the space for about 5 years and in SaaS sales for 13 years. At Zentail, I’ve become a multichannel expert, working with sellers on launching to new marketplaces like Walmart, eBay, and Target, and feeding back insights to our product team.
Fun fact: I helped Target Plus design their most recent application process. It’s still not perfect, but it’s getting better. Another fun fact: Zentail was the first multichannel product for Jet.com. That’s how we became a software company: We started as sellers, built Zentail to expand, and Jet told us we were better at software than selling.
Why is expanding beyond Amazon such a critical opportunity right now?
Alex: Amazon’s fees keep getting higher, and the amount of revenue being taken continues to grow. At the same time, other marketplaces are seeing expansion in sales and trying to offer competitive rates to pull sellers away. There are really good opportunities for brand-new sellers on Walmart and eBay – and ecommerce will keep growing.
Folks who got on Amazon 10–15 years ago are fully entrenched. They have thousands of reviews, loyal customers, and a brand presence that’s hard to replicate for new sellers. The same thing is true now for anyone launching on Walmart, Target, TikTok, Shein, Temu, etc. Given the slight slowdown in Amazon’s growth and the opportunities for net-new sellers elsewhere, it’s a perfect time to test the waters. You don’t need to launch everywhere at once – start testing channels, meet new customers, and set yourself up for the next generation of buyers who might not be on Amazon.
Jordan: Diversification is critical. Many sellers have gotten comfortable on Amazon and are making good money, but you’re always one suspension away from losing it all. You don’t want to build your business on a house of cards where Amazon has total control. Expanding spreads your risk.
Why Walmart? It’s the second-strongest marketplace to expand into. Walmart sales may not match Amazon today, but sellers who get in early and optimize their listings are already seeing Walmart grow to 25-30% of their Amazon sales. The sooner you expand, the sooner you can grow with these marketplaces. It’s not overnight success, but the long-term payoff is huge.
What challenges do sellers face when moving beyond Amazon?
Alex: The number one thing I hear is time. Sellers say, “I just don’t have the time to launch Walmart,” or, “I’ll get to it after the holidays.” And that’s because doing it manually is extremely time-consuming. You have to create the listings, port everything over, make sure it matches the marketplace’s requirements. It’s a lot.
That’s why tools like Zentail exist: to make that part faster. But even with automation, it’s not as simple as copy-paste. Every channel has its own quirks and makes things harder than they need to be, so you have to lean on the experts and the right systems.
There are two big pitfalls I see all the time:
- Treating a new channel like a test. If you’ve got 100 SKUs and you only put two or three up on Walmart, it’s not going to work. You need to bring over most of your catalog – 90 out of 100 – to really give Walmart a chance to perform. Otherwise, your footprint is just too small.
- Not giving it the same effort you gave Amazon. When sellers started on Amazon, they put in the work: listings set up correctly, marketing strategy, pricing strategy. On Walmart you need to do the same. Walmart has its own version of A+ content, and pricing especially has to be tailored. You can’t just mirror Amazon and expect results.
How should sellers decide which channels to test first?
Alex: The first question is whether a web store makes sense for your product. There’s still a lot of green space with Shopify and with traditional Google Pay ads. It’s not going to be the right move for everyone, but it’s at least worth having that conversation.
Then you want to think about where the buyers already are. Walmart and eBay are still in the top five ecommerce sites in the US, and that’s not going to change much anytime soon. So if you’re asking where to start, that’s where the volume is.
Jordan: Follow the data. You do want your own Shopify store eventually so you’re not chained to marketplaces forever, but the reality is that marketplaces bring you the customers – and that’s why we pay them the 15% fee.
The traditional path has been to start with Amazon US, then move into international Amazons, and then Walmart. If you still have bandwidth, look at eBay. That’s the order most sellers have gone historically, and that’s why we build software for the two biggest right now.
For some sellers, eBay might only end up being 5% of their Amazon sales. Walmart, though, is a different story. On the low end, it can be 20% of Amazon sales, and on the high end, we’ve seen it get to 40% if you’re really doing things right. There are even sellers who sell exclusively on Walmart now.
The key is less is more. Don’t try to be everywhere at once unless you’ve got a really big team. For most brands today, Amazon and Walmart are king and queen and you should be prioritizing them.
Why is pricing often overlooked in multichannel growth?
Jordan: On the reseller side, people think, “I’ll get a repricer when I have more listings/sales.” But without a good repricer, especially on Walmart, you won’t get more sales. Price and delivery times matter a lot. A quality repricer pays for itself many times over.
For brands, pricing gets overlooked because teams focus on product, listings, inventory, ads, and agencies, and leave price static (match competitor or $1 up/down) while pouring money into ads. You need to test pricing programmatically, over accurate time windows, different days of the week, and make data-driven decisions. It’s time-consuming to do manually, so not many brands do it yet. Harmony comes when you expand to multichannel and optimize both ads and pricing. Different marketplaces demand different prices at different times.
(On marketplaces’ own repricers: Amazon’s isn’t great; serious sellers don’t use it. Walmart pushes theirs – sometimes with fee incentives – but sellers don’t want a tool that drives prices to the bottom. Marketplaces will likely lean on integration partners for brand-side pricing.)
How do Zentail and Flashpricer complement each other?
Alex: The first step is getting listings live. With Zentail’s SMART Types, we take the catalog data you already have on Amazon and automatically map it to Walmart’s requirements. Things like metric versus imperial get translated, and missing fields are flagged so you can fill them in quickly. That’s what turns a process that normally takes months into just a few weeks. For example, we’ve seen sellers with 1,000 SKUs reach listing quality scores in the high 80s on Walmart in three to four weeks. Doing that manually would take months.
From there, pricing comes into play. You don’t want to just copy your Amazon prices and hope it works. Marketplaces like Walmart require a different strategy, and that’s where Flashpricer comes in. Once listings are strong, it’s about the right product at the right time at the right price: we focus on time and findability, Flashpricer ensures the price is competitive, and marketing dollars amplify it all.
Jordan: It’s important to remember that each marketplace has its own pricing dynamics. Mirroring Amazon pricing doesn’t always work for resellers or brands. We’ve seen around $650 million a year in arbitrage between Amazon and Walmart sellers, which shows just how big those pricing gaps can be. Every marketplace demands its own price point, and once a shopper is inside an app like Walmart or Amazon, they rarely bounce out to compare. That’s why you need to make sure you’re in the right position at the right time, with the right price, on each marketplace.
Black Friday/Cyber Monday: How should sellers think about pricing?
Jordan: You’ve got to keep a very close eye on things during Black Friday and Cyber Monday – those days are bananas. They can also be some of the most profitable days of the year if you manage them right. Be glued to your repricer and your order system. Watch what’s selling and at what prices, and use that information to squeeze extra margin while demand is high.
One thing people often miss is that you don’t always have to discount. In fact, a lot of times I did the opposite. Those days are an opportunity to increase profit. If you’re using AI repricing, you can let the tool capture gains automatically, but you can also widen your min/max thresholds throughout the day. That way, when demand spikes, you’re raising prices and making more without losing sales.
A common mistake I see during this time of the year is that too many sellers overload on coupons or percent-off deals when they’re not necessary. If you’re launching a new product, sure, it’s a great time to push velocity and collect reviews. But if a product is already selling strong, heavy discounts can actually leave money on the table. Think of Q4 as your chance to expand and maximize profit, not just slash prices.
Why is Q4 a critical time to test or launch a new marketplace?
Alex: There’s more bang for your buck in Q4. Almost a third of ecommerce sales happen between early October and late December, so if you’re going to test a new channel, this is the time. The higher volume means you get quicker feedback: are your listings resonating, are you picking up reviews from new buyers, is the channel a good fit?
If you can get your products launched in a mostly complete way, you’re going to generate more revenue than the year before. Expanding your footprint intelligently almost always leads to higher sales, and you’ll learn what to adjust going into the next year. Every day you wait is dollars you’re not making, so there’s really no reason to keep putting it off.
How do poor-quality listings hurt discoverability and conversions in peak season?
Alex: Three main ways:
- Wrong categorization: If a new Walmart listing isn’t set up correctly, their system may auto-assign it to the wrong product type. I’ve seen products end up in strange categories, which means they don’t show in the right search results. Fixing that is manual – even with Zentail – if the original source data was weak.
- Suppression: Walmart suppresses listings that don’t meet a minimum quality threshold. Sometimes they won’t be visible at all, or they’ll get buried on page 10 or 11. A lot of sellers don’t realize their listing quality is poor until it’s already costing them sales.
- Spec changes (Walmart V5): New listings must comply with version 5 requirements, while older ones may be grandfathered for a while. We’ve seen sellers switch to the new spec and immediately see a 5-10% sales bump. Walmart won’t say outright that they favor compliant listings, but the data suggests they do. Even if something is marked “recommended,” it’s worth filling out.
Market pressures (tariffs, inflation): how should sellers think about pricing?
Jordan: Each marketplace has its own cost structure – WFS vs. FBA, inbound shipping, storage, referral fees, and even category-specific differences. If your cost of goods goes up $2, you can’t just tack $2 onto the price and assume you’ll net the same income across channels.
That’s where tools come in. Flashpricer pulls in all those fees (WFS, FBA, FBM shipping costs, plus your COGS) and can even respect MAP pricing. You can set min/max thresholds manually or tie them directly to metrics like ROI, fixed profit dollars, or net margin.
Once you’ve defined that range, you know you’re profitable. Inside the range, let the system and experts decide whether to lean toward maximizing profit or maximizing velocity. That’s how you stay competitive and protect margins when external costs like tariffs or inflation start shifting.
What’s one thing to prioritize right now to maximize Q4 revenue?
Alex: First, make sure your primary channel is set up for success: inventory strategy (including backup like merchant-fulfilled), listing quality, pricing, marketing. Button everything up.
Second, if you’re considering a new channel and have inventory: Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment opened a lot of doors. It’s an easy way to get started on Walmart now – use FBA inventory to fulfill Walmart orders. Walmart has assured everyone (there’s an agreement in place) that you won’t get dinged for this. If you’ve thought about testing Walmart, now’s the time because the inventory hurdle is gone. Marketplaces can change their mind, so take advantage while it’s available.
What are some low-hanging fruit or quick wins sellers can tackle now?
Alex: If you do nothing else for Q4, test an algorithmic repricer now. Starting today gives Flashpricer time to tune things properly. We’ve seen sellers implement a repricer and see a 10-15% sales bump within a week, just by being competitive on price. It’s one of the fastest levers for revenue.
Another quick win: Try a multichannel tool if you’ve been considering it. We’ve onboarded and launched sellers on new channels in as little as two weeks. Last year, we helped two brands launch over 1,500 items on Target in under 10 business days. It sounds crazy, but our SMART Types system makes it possible – even if it’s just one marketplace to start. If Walmart is on your radar, reach out to Zentail and Flashpricer soon. You probably have 3-4 weeks to make the call and still have it impact your 2025 revenue, especially in what’s been a weird ecommerce year.
Jordan: On the pricing side, you need equal testing windows. There’s always a learning phase before you hit the sweet spot. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll get reliable data and results. I was honestly surprised (in a good way) that Zentail can migrate that many listings in under two weeks. If you’re not multichannel yet, get with Alex’s team first. Once you’re ready, Flashpricer picks you up on pricing. Setup from Zentail is simple, and from there it’s just a few clicks before you’re testing and seeing more sales at higher profits.
Why Walmart Should Be on Every Seller’s Radar
Jordan: For Walmart, you’re not too late. We’re still years behind where Amazon was at a similar stage. Start planting your listings and building them up now. I’ve seen brands doing massive sales on really simple products on Walmart just because they got there early. Don’t discount that opportunity.
Alex: One more point I want to reiterate again: Walmart now allows Amazon MCF. That was always the biggest hurdle: inventory. If you didn’t have inventory positioned for Walmart, you couldn’t really test the channel. Now that barrier is gone. With MCF approved, the only thing standing in your way is moving forward.
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