The hidden cost of selling on retailers like Amazon, Fnac, or Walmart

Selling through retailers is a no-brainer for most brands. You get visibility. You tap into huge audiences. You let someone else handle logistics, fulfillment, and support. What’s not to love?

But behind all the reach and convenience, there’s something you rarely hear about.

You start giving things up. Slowly, quietly, and sometimes without realizing it.

Sure, you’re selling more units. But you're also losing control. You don’t own the relationship with your customer. You can’t measure your performance. You’re flying blind when it comes to advertising. And that can cost you more than you think.

This article is for brands that have leaned into retail (such as Amazon, Fnac, Cultura, Walmart, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, or others) and are starting to feel the side effects. You don’t need to walk away from retail. But you do need to understand what it’s costing you… and what you can do about it.

1. What you gain when you go retail

Let’s be clear, selling through retailers brings a ton of value. It’s why so many brands prioritize them over direct-to-consumer channels.

Below is what you truly get.

Distribution without friction

Retailers like Amazon or Walmart already have massive audiences. Getting your product in front of the right people becomes 10 times easier. You don’t need to build your own traffic engine; they’ve done it for you.

Trust from day one

New brands benefit from instant credibility by being listed on well-known platforms. Customers feel more secure buying on Amazon than from an unknown Shopify site. Especially in a world where cheap dropshipping stores and questionable products have made people more cautious about what they buy online. Being on a trusted retailer helps cut through that doubt. It gives your brand a seal of legitimacy that’s hard to fake.

Logistics handled

You don’t have to worry about warehouse space, last-mile delivery, or customer support. Retailers take care of the hard stuff, which lets you focus on growth.

Simple setup

You can go to market faster. No need to build your own ecommerce stack. No need to manage payments, taxes, returns, or integrations. Retail simplifies operations. For many brands, these are real superpowers, especially in the early stages. But they come at a cost, and that’s where things get tricky.

2. What you give up in return

The benefits of retail are real. But so are the tradeoffs. And the further you grow, the more those hidden costs start to show.

Here’s what most brands don’t realize until it’s too late.

You lose the customer relationship

When someone buys your product on Amazon or Fnac, that’s not your customer — it’s theirs.

You don’t get the email. You can’t retarget them. You have no way to turn a first purchase into a second one. You’re building someone else’s ecosystem, not your own.

This makes it harder to build brand loyalty, gather feedback, or launch new products. Everything becomes a one-time transaction.

You can’t track what works

Retailers don’t let you add tracking pixels. That means no Meta events, no Google conversions, no clear picture of what drives a sale.

You end up running ads in the dark — unable to connect your spend to your results. And when you can't measure impact, it’s almost impossible to improve.

Your margins get squeezed

Most retailers take a cut of every sale. On Amazon, that can go as high as 15% or more once you factor in fulfillment, storage, and referral fees.

You may be selling more, but you’re earning less on each unit. And when ad costs rise (and they will), you’ll have little room left to scale.

Your brand gets diluted

Retail platforms are built around search, price, and product specs. They’re not built for storytelling.

You lose the chance to shape your narrative, control the buying experience, or stand out with unique packaging or upsells. Everyone looks the same on a retailer shelf — and your brand becomes just another product in the mix.

3. Why this breaks your ad performance

Most brands realize the problem only after they try to scale ads.

They launch Meta or Tik Tok campaigns, send traffic directly to the retailer (or at least to their Shopify with a redirection button) and hope for the best. But the results are blurry at best and disappointing at worst. Here’s why.

Meta can’t learn without signals

Meta’s algorithm relies on signals and events like purchases, add-to-carts, and page views. The algorithm can be optimized based on who sees your ads.

But when you send traffic to a retailer, those signals disappear. There's no pixel on Amazon, Walmart, Barnes&Noble, or Fnac. Meta doesn’t know what happened after the click, so it can’t improve performance.

Without feedback, your cost per click stays high. Your cost per result gets unpredictable. And your best-performing campaigns start plateauing.

You can’t optimize what you can’t see

If you don’t know what’s working, how do you decide what to scale? Which creative to keep running? Which audience is converting? You’re flying blind.

Many brands either stop spending on Meta altogether or just keep running broad awareness campaigns that don’t lead to real growth.

You end up depending on organic demand

Eventually, most retail-native brands fall into a passive marketing model. They rely on their retailer to do the selling through search, rankings, and recommendations.

But when demand slows down or competition rises, you have no levers to pull. You’re stuck watching your sales drop, with no way to react.

4. A smarter middle ground for modern brands

The goal was never to abandon retail. Platforms like Amazon, Best Buy or Costco are valuable partners. But relying on them shouldn’t mean giving up your ability to grow.

There’s a middle path. One where you keep your retail distribution but take back some control over your data.

That’s what Pixamp helps unlock.

Instead of sending traffic straight to the retailer and losing the trail, you send people to a Shopify landing page first, a.k.a a space you control. From there, shoppers click a “Buy on Retailer” button, and Pixamp logs that action as a high-intent signal.

That signal is sent back to Meta, giving the algorithm something to learn from. You still don’t own the checkout, but now you own the signal. And that changes everything.

You can:

• Spend budget with more confidence

• Let Meta start optimizing again

• Make smarter decisions based on what drives action (not just what looks good on paper)

No, it’s not the perfect data loop. But it’s a real step forward. And for retail-first brands trying to grow without giving up retail… it’s the most practical path there is.

Final thoughts

Selling through retailers isn’t a mistake, it’s a growth lever. But it comes with invisible costs that most brands don’t talk about. You lose control of the customer. You lose visibility. And without data, your ability to grow through advertising starts to disappear.

You don’t need to leave retail to fix this. You just need a smarter way to reconnect your ad budget with real buyer intent.

Pixamp gives you that bridge. You keep your existing retail setup, and we help you feed the right signals back to Meta. That means better targeting, better results, and a way to scale without flying blind.

You still don’t own the checkout. But now, you own the signal.
And that’s what makes the difference.

FAQ

Does Pixamp work with all retailers?

Yes, Pixamp works with any retailer. As long as your product is listed, we can track high-intent clicks and send them back to Meta for smarter optimization.

Can Pixamp track actual conversions from retailers?

Not directly. Retailers don’t share real-time sales data. Instead, Pixamp tracks purchase intent signals — like when someone clicks “Buy on [Retailer].” These signals are strong enough to improve Meta’s learning and reduce wasted ad spend.

Do I need a Shopify site to use Pixamp?

No. We currently support natively Shopify, however, we'd build a custom integration to another CMS for you (such as WordPress, Wix, or Salesforce Cloud commerce). Yet, we cannot guarantee 100% that it will work.

Do I need to spend 100% of my ad budget through Pixamp?

Not at all. Pixamp is designed to complement your strategy, not replace it. You can start by using a portion of your budget to test campaigns that drive traffic through Pixamp-powered landing pages. As you see results and Meta begins to optimize based on purchase intent signals, you can scale up based on performance. It’s a flexible layer you can adapt to your goals.