Michael Callachan publishes Beyond the Basket, a free UK ecommerce newsletter that reports on retail and marketplace news and explains what it could mean for online sellers.
Michael Callachan is most useful for UK ecommerce news and practical implications for online sellers.
Best for
A UK ecommerce software company co-marketing listing or ad tools to marketplace sellers.
Not for
A direct-to-consumer brand wanting a creator to show a physical product and drive purchases.
Key takeaways
Google can rewrite your Shopping ad title and drop your brand.
M&S uses Zalando's Zeos after a Poland pilot cut logistics costs 50%.
The Q3 UK Ecommerce Pulse Report draws on 26 newsletter issues.
Check first: Confirm newsletter subscriber count, UK share, open and click rates, and commercial terms.
Main ideas
A company's job listings say what it will do next · Growth can hide where the margin is leaking · A platform change matters only once you know what to check
Michael Callachan publishes Beyond the Basket, a free UK ecommerce newsletter.
The posts reviewed show its focus: reporting retail, marketplace and platform changes, then explaining what they could mean for online sellers.
For example, they turn a report about Card Factory’s online sales into a practical suggestion: test a personalised version of a bestseller against the standard listing.
Callachan connects business signals to grounded, testable implications for sellers.
Examples range from reading a Joybuy job listing as a possible sign of a move into fresh food to linking M&S’s logistics partnership and Poland pilot results to whether sellers should rent existing fulfilment infrastructure before building their own.
The work also covers operational risk and platform changes: a post on refund-fraud research makes the scale of the issue legible, while another distinguishes higher click-through rates on rewritten Shopping ad titles from revenue.
A Q3 report draws on 26 newsletter issues and reader polls to present eight trends with practical next steps.
Follow the newsletter for a UK ecommerce briefing that pairs varied news with business context and often an action to consider.
Michael Callachan writes Beyond the Basket, a UK ecommerce newsletter.
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The through-line in the posts is a habit of turning news into a decision: companies reveal their plans before they announce them; revenue growth can hide margin problems in fulfilment; platform changes matter only once a seller knows the specific setting to check; agent-run ad campaigns are becoming ordinary rather than experimental; personalisation is where online card and gift demand is heading; refund fraud has become normalised in the UK; and a newsletter's own archive can become a report that grades its past calls.
A company's job listings say what it will do next
Michael Callachan argues that hiring posts are among the earliest public signals of a company's direction because a role describes capabilities the business does not yet have.
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The method is to read the job specification as a list of missing pieces, then test it against what the company already owns.
A Fresh Category Operation Manager listing at JD.com's UK arm, Joybuy, covers the UK and five other European markets. Callachan reads the spec — cold-chain logistics, food safety and traceability, sourcing relationships with growers and freight forwarders, import/export and customs — as capabilities Joybuy does not have today, set against its five UK warehouses and own delivery fleet reaching about 17 million people.
Callachan keeps the claim modest: one hire does not make a grocery strategy, but the post is described as the first real signal that Joybuy wants to move beyond an Argos-style offer and compete with Amazon.
Michael Callachan's recurring test for a company announcement is whether the numbers underneath the headline hold together.
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Strong revenue growth alongside falling profit points to a structural cost problem rather than a demand problem. The fix may be to rent infrastructure someone else has already built instead of building it market by market.
M&S is expanding into Europe on Zalando's Zeos logistics platform after a Poland pilot cut logistics costs 50% and lifted conversion nearly 97%.
Callachan notes that online sales rose 24.8% to £17.4bn while profit fell 19.1%, and argues logistics is where the margin was leaking out deal by deal.
The lesson for sellers: before building your own fulfilment in a new market, find who has already solved it and rents out the pipes.
A platform change matters only once you know what to check
Michael Callachan reports rule and feature changes across commerce platforms, then names the specific report, setting or listing detail a seller should inspect.
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The focus is the operational consequence, including cases where a platform metric improves without benefiting the seller.
Google Shopping ads are showing an AI-rewritten version of a product title instead of the submitted one.
Ecommerce SEO expert Thomas Phillips flagged that rewrites can drop brand names, cut key specs and, in some cases, put a competitor's name on a seller's own ad.
Callachan points to Google's new Product Titles report as the way to see when a rewrite happened, notes that take-up appears low, and adds that higher click-through rates on rewritten titles do not necessarily translate into more revenue.
The same issue covers Amazon UK checking main listing images for non-white backgrounds, text and logos at listing creation.
Agent-run ad campaigns are becoming standard, not experimental
Rather than treating each ad-platform launch as a novelty, Michael Callachan places it in a pattern across the major platforms.
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The practical emphasis is on the controls a seller keeps when AI tools run campaigns: who approves, which account access runs through, and whether anything goes live without a human.
X is launching an Ads MCP server that gives AI tools such as Grok and Claude 23 functions to run ad campaigns through chat.
New campaigns are created paused by default, require explicit human approval and run through the advertiser's own login.
Callachan's framing is that X now joins Google, Meta, Amazon, TikTok and Snap in exposing ad infrastructure this way, making agent-run campaign management standard practice rather than an experiment.
Personalisation is where online card and gift demand is going
Michael Callachan reads an individual company's results for a wider signal about where demand sits, then turns it into a small, testable move rather than a strategy statement.
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The test is deliberately cheap: one bestseller, one variant, compare the two.
Card Factory's own-site online sales fell 15.5% in the half to July, with the digital loss widening to £3.5m.
Nearly all of the group's £16m online sales came from Funky Pigeon, acquired from WH Smith in August 2025 and now focused on personalised cards and gifts.
Callachan's read for independent card and gift sellers entering Q4 is personalisation.
The suggested move is to test a personalised version of one bestseller — even just a name or gift message — against the standard listing.
Michael Callachan treats shopper behaviour as an operational risk, using research figures to show how widespread a problem is and how rarely it is caught.
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The argument is about scale and normalisation, and flags AI as a tool that makes fraudulent claims harder to detect.
Research from Ravelin finds that 37% of UK shoppers admit to refund fraud or plan to, ahead of France at 33% and Germany at 25%.
Frequent abusers — four or more claims a year — net an average of £491 per claim, and AI is increasingly used to fake damage evidence.
Callachan cites the British Retail Consortium describing the problem as having moved from fringe to normalised, and headlines the point that 98% get away with it.
Michael Callachan's newsletter pairs each news item with an implication or an action.
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The quarterly report extends that into a structured briefing built from the newsletter's own back catalogue and reader polls. A distinctive part of the method is grading the previous quarter's calls in public rather than only presenting new ones.
The Q3 UK Ecommerce Pulse Report from Beyond the Basket draws on 26 issues published between July and September, plus reader polls run through the quarter.
It sets out eight trends for UK online sellers, with a practical next step for each — including why AI assistant traffic is converting better than other channels, which ad controls Google and Meta are taking away and what sellers can still steer, and the high street names arriving on TikTok Shop.
It also includes a scorecard on how the previous quarter's seven calls held up.
Shows what kind of platform change this newsletter catches for UK sellers: it takes a technical ad change, names who flagged it and explains what sellers should check.
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Michael Callachan reports that Google Shopping ads can now show shoppers an AI-rewritten product title instead of the one submitted.
Ecommerce SEO expert Thomas Phillips flagged that the rewrite can drop brand names, cut key specs and, in some cases, put a competitor's name on a seller's ad.
Google's new Product Titles report shows when a rewrite has happened, though they note few sellers appear to check it.
Rewritten titles are reportedly pulling higher click-through rates, which, Callachan says, does not necessarily translate into more revenue.
The same issue covers John Lewis opening its Christmas shop online after 'Christmas' searches jumped 33% when the World Cup ended, eBay expanding its AI-powered Magical Listing tool to more UK, US and German sellers, WooCommerce 11.1 adding a self-serve order withdrawal button for a 14-day EU consumer rights window, and installment platform Float launching in the UK.
For brands planning a campaign
A UK ecommerce software partner could propose a co-marketing piece on Merchant Center checks or title monitoring. The angle: what sellers should do when an ad platform rewrites their listing, using Callachan's CTR-versus-revenue distinction as the hook.
Shows how the newsletter produces original synthesis rather than link roundups: it turns 26 issues published between July and September, plus reader polls, into eight trends with a practical next step for each.
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Michael Callachan announces the Q3 UK Ecommerce Pulse Report from Beyond the Basket.
It covers eight trends that defined the quarter for UK online sellers and what each means for peak season and Q4.
The report draws on 26 issues of Beyond the Basket published between July and September, alongside reader polls run through the quarter.
Each trend comes with a practical next step for UK sellers, whether they sell through their own site, on marketplaces, or both.
It also covers why traffic from AI assistants is converting better than other channels, the ad controls Google and Meta are taking away and what sellers can still steer, the high street names arriving on TikTok Shop, and a scorecard on how the previous quarter's seven calls held up.
For brands planning a campaign
A UK ecommerce software partner could propose co-marketing around a future pulse report or peak-season scorecard, using the report's structure as a template for a joint benchmark. One option: co-brand a quarterly seller survey or scorecard to inform the next report.
Shows how the newsletter connects a corporate announcement to a margin problem and a reusable lesson for sellers entering new markets.
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Michael Callachan reports that M&S is expanding into Europe with Zalando's Zeos logistics platform after a Poland pilot cut logistics costs 50% and lifted conversion nearly 97%.
They ask why M&S needed that help: online sales were up 24.8% to £17.4bn, but profit was down 19.1%.
Callachan argues that logistics may be where the margin was leaking out, deal by deal and market by market.
The practical suggestion: find a provider that has already solved fulfilment in a new market and rents out the pipes before building your own.
For brands planning a campaign
A logistics or fulfilment software company could use this as a co-marketing seed: a checklist or webinar on cross-border fulfilment. The angle: rent the pipes before you build, with the M&S pilot numbers as proof.
Shows a distinctive analytical habit: treating job listings as early public signals of a company's next move, then testing what the role implies against what the business already has.
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Michael Callachan argues that job listings can reveal what a company is about to do before it says anything publicly.
JD.com's UK arm, Joybuy, posted a Fresh Category Operation Manager role covering the UK plus five other European markets.
The role calls for experience in cold-chain logistics, food safety and traceability, sourcing relationships with growers, packers and freight forwarders, and import/export and customs.
They note that none of this exists in Joybuy's business today.
Joybuy already has five UK warehouses and its own delivery fleet reaching about 17 million people, so it lacks fresh food supply chain know-how.
Callachan says one hire does not make a grocery strategy, but it is the first real signal that Joybuy wants to be more than an Argos rival and is gunning for Amazon too.
For brands planning a campaign
A recruitment or ecommerce intelligence platform could co-market around 'job listings as leading indicators.' The angle: a joint analysis of marketplace hiring signals, using the Joybuy fresh category role as the opening example.
Answers the question 'What practical Q4 move does this newsletter surface from a company result?' It is a compact example of the newsletter's data point, named source, and testable next step.
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Michael Callachan reports that Card Factory's own website revenue has fallen for two years running.
Online sales through the site dropped 15.5% in the half to July, and the digital loss widened to £3.5m.
Nearly all of the group's £16m online sales came from Funky Pigeon, acquired from WH Smith in August 2025.
The company says Funky Pigeon is now focused on personalised cards and gifts, with more launching for Christmas.
Callachan sees a clear signal for independent card and gift sellers moving into Q4: personalisation.
The practical move is to test a personalised version of one bestseller for Q4, even with just a name or gift message, and compare it against the standard listing.
The same issue notes Amazon UK checking main images for non-white backgrounds, text and logos at listing creation, B&Q's marketplace GMV rising 34% to £306m in six months, Discord launching Ads Manager with full self-serve access opening in early 2027, and the Q3 UK Ecommerce Pulse Report with eight trends for peak season.
For brands planning a campaign
A personalisation software or marketplace tool could sponsor a Q4 test framework around personalised bestsellers. The angle: compare one personalised listing against a standard listing, using Card Factory's own-site decline and Funky Pigeon's focus as context.
Answers the question 'Does this newsletter cover risk and operations, not just growth?' It is a strong example of a sourced research finding turned into a memorable UK retail story, with the headline number doing the framing.
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Michael Callachan reports new research from Ravelin finding that 37% of UK shoppers admit to refund fraud or plan to, ahead of France at 33% and Germany at 25%.
Frequent abusers—those with four or more claims a year—net an average of £491 per claim, and they say AI is increasingly being used to fake damage evidence.
The British Retail Consortium calls it a problem that has moved from fringe to normalised.
The same issue covers Vinted closing in on Next and Primark as the UK's third-biggest fashion retailer, Tesco relaunching F&F Online with 400 new styles and smarter search, Amazon blocking Meta's Muse AI shopping agent from its site, and the ECB opening its digital euro pilot to merchants for a live launch in H2 2027.
For brands planning a campaign
A fraud prevention vendor could co-market a UK refund fraud briefing. The angle: what the Ravelin data means for returns policy and evidence checks, using the 37% and £491 figures as the entry point.
Shows how the newsletter places AI agent infrastructure in a wider pattern across major ad platforms, rather than treating each launch as a novelty.
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Michael Callachan reports that X has launched an Ads MCP server, giving AI tools like Grok and Claude 23 functions to run ad campaigns through chat.
New campaigns start paused and need explicit human approval to go live; access runs through the advertiser’s own login.
The launch puts X alongside Google, Meta, Amazon, TikTok and Snap, where agent-run campaign management is becoming standard practice rather than an experiment.
The same issue covers M&S expanding into 22 European markets via Zalando’s Zeos after a Poland pilot cut costs 50% and lifted conversion 97%; Etsy testing ad groups and a goal-based ad budget as its Q2 take rate hits 25.9%; eBay banning airbags and related parts from listings from 24th September; and UK online retail sales dipping 3.9% in July while the three-month trend remains up 11% year-on-year.
For brands planning a campaign
An ad tech or AI agent vendor could propose a co-marketing explainer on agent-run campaigns with human approval workflows. The angle: standard practice across major platforms, with X's paused-by-default and login-based access model as the practical detail.
Michael Callachan tracks rule, feature and policy changes across major commerce platforms, then identifies the practical check or adjustment for sellers.
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Examples include Google Shopping ads showing AI-rewritten product titles, X launching an Ads MCP server that lets AI tools run campaigns with human approval required, Etsy testing ad groups and goal-based budgets, eBay banning airbags and steering wheel covers, Amazon UK checking main listing images, and Discord opening an Ads Manager.
The posts pair platform changes with brief explanations of what they mean for UK sellers, often naming the report or setting to check.
For brands planning a campaign
A UK ecommerce software company could co-market practical platform-change explainers, such as a joint webinar or sponsored deep dive on keeping listings and ad accounts compliant across marketplaces.
AI is a recurring lens in the newsletter: Google rewriting product titles in Shopping ads, X exposing ad infrastructure to AI tools like Grok and Claude, Amazon blocking Meta’s Muse AI shopping agent, AI used to fake refund damage evidence, and traffic from AI assistants reportedly converting better than other channels.
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The posts frame AI as an operational consideration for sellers, not just a headline trend.
For brands planning a campaign
A software partner could propose a co-branded issue or guide on AI commerce readiness, using Michael Callachan’s news analysis to show how AI is changing seller workflows.
Michael Callachan uses operational details to explain retail strategy.
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One post covers M&S expanding into 22 European markets through Zalando’s Zeos logistics platform after a Poland pilot cut costs 50% and lifted conversion 97%.
The takeaway: sellers should look for existing fulfilment pipes before building their own.
Another reads a JD.com Joybuy job listing for cold-chain, food safety and sourcing experience as a signal that Joybuy is moving beyond an Argos-style offer towards groceries and competition with Amazon.
The analysis starts with a concrete number, pilot result or job specification, then traces the strategic gap or opportunity.
On the Joybuy post, Michael Callachan notes that one hire does not make a grocery strategy, but calls it the first real signal.
For brands planning a campaign
A logistics or marketplace software company could sponsor content on cross-border fulfilment choices or partner on a case-study-style issue about renting existing infrastructure before building.
The newsletter also covers shopper behaviour and commercial risks.
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Posts report that Brits are Europe’s worst refund abusers, with 37% of UK shoppers admitting refund fraud or planning it; that Vinted is closing in on Next and Primark as the UK’s third-biggest fashion retailer; Tesco relaunching F&F Online; and the ECB opening its digital euro pilot to merchants.
For brands planning a campaign
A fraud-prevention, payments or returns-management software company could co-market around refund risk, buyer behaviour or payment changes, using the newsletter’s news-plus-implication format.
Beyond the Basket is a free UK ecommerce newsletter published twice a week.
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Its Q3 UK Ecommerce Pulse Report draws on 26 issues published between July and September, plus reader polls, and covers eight trends with a practical next step for each. Recurring report topics include AI assistant traffic converting better, ad controls Google and Meta are taking away, high street names arriving on TikTok Shop, and a scorecard on the previous quarter’s calls.
Each news item or trend comes with an implication or action. The quarterly report turns the newsletter archive and reader polls into a structured peak-season briefing.
For brands planning a campaign
The clearest partnership route is sponsorship or co-branding around a recurring report or issue, giving an ecommerce software company sustained reach through a format that combines news, data and seller actions.
Michael Callachan treats job listings and company moves as early indicators of strategy.
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The Joybuy post reads a single Fresh Category Operation Manager listing as evidence of needs in cold-chain, food safety, customs and grower relationships—capabilities Joybuy does not currently have—alongside its existing UK warehouses and delivery fleet.
The post states the signal, lists the capabilities missing from the job specification, then explains what the company already has and why the hire matters.
For brands planning a campaign
This approach suits a partner seeking strategic analysis rather than just product mentions, such as a marketplace-intelligence or recruitment-adjacent software brand.
Michael Callachan's posts describe Beyond the Basket as a UK ecommerce newsletter, a free twice-weekly publication covering retail and marketplace news and explaining what it means for UK online sellers.
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The brands named across the seven posts — among them Google, eBay, Amazon, M&S, Zalando, Etsy, X, Tesco, Vinted, JD.com's Joybuy and Card Factory — are subjects of news being reported, not sponsors, clients or partners. The posts disclose no sponsorship, affiliate arrangement or client work.
Beyond the Basket
Owned business
Michael Callachan's posts call Beyond the Basket “my UK ecommerce newsletter” and describe it as a free, twice-weekly UK ecommerce news publication with practical next steps for sellers who use their own site, marketplaces or both.
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A Q3 Pulse Report draws on 26 issues published between July and September, plus reader polls run during the quarter.
Michael Callachan publishes Beyond the Basket, a free UK ecommerce newsletter that runs twice a week and turns industry news into decisions sellers can act on.
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Individual posts open with a development — a platform rule change, retailer result, job listing or research finding — and explain what it means for UK online sellers, often naming the report, setting or test to check.
Across a few months of posts, themes emerge: rules and features across Google, Amazon, X, Etsy and eBay; margin leaks in fulfilment and cross-border expansion; AI in listings, ads and fraud; and shopper behaviour as operational risk.
The Q3 UK Ecommerce Pulse Report distils that approach, bundling the newsletter’s coverage and reader polls into eight peak-season trends, each with a next step, plus a public scorecard on the previous quarter’s calls.
Readers seeking ongoing UK ecommerce news and practical follow-through can start with any recent issue-linked post, then follow the newsletter.
Both write for people selling on major marketplaces, making sellers’ blind spots the subject.
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Kacinski details what lies beneath a marketplace dashboard — unauthorized sellers, pricing violations, Buy Box loss, diverted inventory and unannounced listing changes.
Michael Callachan reads between the headlines, checking whether revenue growth masks a margin problem or an ad-platform launch leaves the seller in control.
Both start with a dashboard number and trace what is driving it.
Kacinski writes from inside a brand-protection service, using client cases (3,395 unauthorized sellers removed for one health brand, 77% of sellers cleared for a household goods brand) and closing with a booking link.
Callachan curates news for a broad UK seller audience as a free newsletter.
Kacinski focuses on marketplace control on Amazon and Walmart; Callachan covers platforms, logistics, consumer research and policy.
Both turn ecommerce work into lessons for operators.
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Hassan Raza draws on running TikTok Shop stores across European markets to show that traffic, products and customers have to move together, each market responds differently, and a strong dashboard day takes strategy, testing and continuous optimisation. Callachan draws lessons from company results and platform changes, arguing that personalisation is where card and gift demand is heading and that a newsletter’s past calls deserve grading.
Raza shares firsthand client-store performance — one day showing €1,449.29 GMV across 102 orders, and country-by-country order splits for a one-month TikTok Shop — in posts charting a personal journey into the field. Callachan’s posts are secondhand news briefings sourced from platforms, retailers and research firms, aimed at UK sellers rather than promoting a service.
Both cover European ecommerce expansion and its operational machinery.
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Vincenzo Toscano argues that Q4 advertising needs audience building before peak to protect margins against CPC spikes, and that expansion across Europe and the US is brands’ top concern. Callachan makes a similar margin argument, comparing M&S’s 24.8% online sales growth with a 19.1% profit fall to show logistics leaking margin market by market, and treating FBA Select and AWD-style fulfilment changes as strategic questions.
Toscano’s event-led, organisational writing recaps the London Amazon EU Accelerate meetup and the Amazon Ads EU Business Accelerator, naming speakers, sponsors and the Ecomcy team.
It focuses on Amazon advertising, AMC and DSP.
Callachan publishes a twice-weekly news digest with no event or agency frame, covering more platforms and making no advertising-service pitch.
Michael Callachan writes for people who run or market UK online retail businesses: marketplace sellers, ecommerce managers, and in-house or agency teams tracking platform changes.
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The only audience number available is the LinkedIn profile figure of 542 followers, recorded 9 October 2026; it does not establish newsletter scale or composition.
For a co-marketing campaign with a UK ecommerce software company, the topic alignment is clear: posts cover Google Shopping ad title rewrites, M&S's European expansion through Zalando's Zeos, X's Ads MCP server for campaign management, refund fraud rates, Amazon image rules, and Q3 UK ecommerce trends, all framed around what they mean for sellers.
Ask for the newsletter subscriber count and UK share, open and click rates for recent issues, and results from comparable sponsorships.
If the campaign targets a particular job title, seniority, or company size, ask whether an audience survey or other documented source verifies those attributes.
Michael Callachan's posts show them publishing Beyond the Basket, a free UK ecommerce newsletter issued twice a week, but document no sponsorship or partnership offer.
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None of the seven posts sets out advertiser formats, rates, editorial rules for sponsored placement or a way to make a partnership enquiry, so marketers should ask what a partner could buy and how to start a conversation.
The posts show the shape of the asset a partner would attach to.
Issues follow a steady structure: one main story with context and an implication for sellers, then four or five short secondary items, with the sign-up link in the comments rather than the post body.
Several main stories close with a practical action, such as testing a personalised version of one bestseller against the standard listing for Q4.
Coverage concentrates on UK marketplace, retail and advertising-platform developments — Google Shopping title rewrites, Amazon listing-image checks, X's Ads MCP server, Etsy ad-group tests — and offers decision input for online sellers rather than general retail news.
A UK ecommerce software company selling listing-management or ad-ops tools to marketplace sellers is a strong match for Michael Callachan.
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The campaign could co-market a tool that helps sellers keep product listings and ad copy accurate across Amazon, Google Shopping, eBay and Etsy.
The posts show a repeatable format for co-marketing that tool.
Each of the seven covers a platform change and its consequences for sellers: Google Shopping serving AI-rewritten product titles and a new Product Titles report few sellers are checking; Amazon UK inspecting main images for non-white backgrounds, text and logos at listing creation; eBay banning airbags and steering wheel covers; Etsy testing ad groups and goal-based budgets; and X opening ad infrastructure to AI tools, with new campaigns paused until a human approves.
A vendor whose product sits inside that workflow is relevant to every story without needing a product mention.
The newsletter's quarterly report offers another opening: it turns 26 issues between July and September, plus reader polls, into eight trends, each with a practical next step.
That structure lends itself to a joint peak-season checklist, a sponsored deep dive or a question contributed to the next pulse report.
The posts publish no sponsorship formats, rates, editorial rules or enquiry route.
Ask for commercial terms.
They also publish no newsletter audience figures; the only measured number is a LinkedIn following of 542, recorded 9 October 2026.
Ask for subscriber count, UK share, open and click rates, and results from comparable sponsorships before committing budget.
When to choose a specialist
A direct-to-consumer brand seeking a creator to drive purchases and show a physical product in use is a poor match.
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That includes a personal-care or home-goods label looking for a UK creator to post product-led content for ordinary shoppers and direct them to checkout.
The writing addresses people who run or market online retail businesses, and each post focuses on a business decision rather than a consumer recommendation: whether M&S's margin was leaking through logistics, whether a JD.com job listing signals a grocery push, how refund fraud affects returns policy, and whether a Q4 personalisation test is worth running.
None of the seven posts shows a product in use, a consumer offer or the lifestyle and shopping content a campaign aimed at ordinary shoppers would require.
The audience case for this campaign is unproven.
The posts give no subscriber count, reader geography, engagement rate or purchase intent; the only measured figure is 542 LinkedIn followers as of 9 October 2026, which says nothing about consumer reach.
They also publish no sponsorship format, rate or enquiry route, so a buyer cannot price a consumer placement from the available information.
For a brand seeking a seller and ecommerce-manager readership, Michael Callachan is a fit; for one seeking shoppers, the posts point elsewhere.
A worked campaign example
A UK ecommerce software company wants a co-marketing partner for a tool that keeps marketplace listings accurate.
Angle. Build a co-branded issue of Beyond the Basket around the Google Shopping story: ad platforms can serve rewritten product titles that drop brand names, cut specifications and, in some cases, substitute a competitor's name onto a seller's own ad. The hook is Michael Callachan's distinction that rewritten titles are pulling higher click-through rates without necessarily producing more revenue. The partner can handle the practical detail, such as a Merchant Center check-list or title-monitoring walkthrough; the editorial contribution is the seller-side interpretation and a decision rule for when to intervene. Deliverables that fit the existing format include one co-authored main story with a single practical action at the end, a companion checklist hosted on the partner's site, and a question for the next quarterly pulse report, which already draws on reader polls.
Outreach message. Keep it short, specific and easy to decline: "I run a twice-weekly UK ecommerce newsletter, Beyond the Basket, and I've covered the Google Shopping title rewrites and the low take-up on the new Product Titles report. I'm talking to [company] because your product sits exactly where that problem lands. I'd like to propose one co-branded issue: I write the seller-angle analysis, you supply the Merchant Center check-list, and we put it in front of sellers ahead of peak. I don't publish rates publicly, so send me your format and budget and I'll tell you what's possible."
The posts contain no sponsor policy, format list, rate card or enquiry route; ask for commercial terms. They also give no newsletter subscriber count, UK share or engagement figures. Request those, along with results from comparable placements, before agreeing to a co-branded issue. If the partnership depends on reaching consumers rather than sellers, this is the wrong partner.
Choose Laurie Kacinski when the co-marketing campaign is about protecting a catalogue rather than writing better listings.
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The two posts set out a control-first framework for brands selling on Amazon, Walmart and other marketplaces: unauthorized sellers, pricing violations, Buy Box loss, inventory diversion and listing changes.
Worked examples include a health and wellness brand that arrived with 3,395 unauthorized sellers and a household goods brand whose third-party offers averaged 41% below its own everyday price.
The second post argues that Amazon's new multichannel selling tools, which connect eBay, Shopify, TikTok Shop and Walmart accounts, make those problems spread faster across channels.
For a partner whose product detects resellers, tracks price erosion or monitors listing edits, this is the closest match to its subject matter, backed by numbers brands recognise from their own dashboards.
The posts offer little basis for a newsletter partnership.
Two show the argument style and case-study approach, but neither establishes a recurring publication, sponsorship format, audience figures or enquiry route.
Ask for audience data, rates and partnership details before assessing reach or pricing.
The writing targets brands defending a catalogue, not sellers improving listings day to day, so the audience leans toward brand-protection and channel-control roles rather than the listing-management and ad-ops users a wider marketplace tool sells to.
Michael Callachan offers a twice-weekly issue with a repeatable news format; Laurie Kacinski offers deeper specialism in one problem area, with distribution still unproven.
Choose Hassan Raza when the co-marketing campaign should target TikTok Shop rather than the Amazon and Google Shopping workflow.
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Both posts document hands-on shop operation across European markets.
One describes building personal TikTok Shop stores from zero, testing products, working with affiliates and creators, then repeating the process for client brands.
The other reports a client store's country-level performance over one month, with Germany strongest by orders, followed by Spain, France and Italy, and argues that each market needs separate product, pricing, content and affiliate decisions.
A partner selling TikTok Shop tooling, affiliate management or multi-market shop operations gets a practitioner describing exactly the workflow the tool sits inside, plus a concrete reason why a single-market approach fails.
The subject range is narrow.
Every reviewed example is TikTok Shop, so a tool spanning Amazon, Google Shopping and eBay listings would reach only part of its intended audience.
The Amazon-specific mechanics Michael Callachan covers, such as main-image checks and Merchant Center title rewrites, have no equivalent here.
The format also differs: these are reflective progress posts built around client dashboards, not a recurring news issue, making a sponsored deep dive harder to slot into an existing editorial rhythm.
Two posts do not establish cadence.
Ask for sponsorship formats, rates and audience figures before assessing commercial terms or reach.
Choose Vincenzo Toscano when the campaign is specifically about Amazon advertising and the buyer wants event-stage credibility alongside written output.
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The posts place them on the programme of Amazon's EU seller events.
One recaps hosting a packed Amazon EU Accelerate meetup in London, with the Q4 message to use AMC and DSP to see who is buying rather than who is clicking, build audiences before peak so CPC spikes do not eat margin, and retarget into January.
The other reports being a main keynote speaker at the first Amazon Ads EU Business Accelerator and having their agency sponsor the event, covering European and US expansion, AI in advertising and operations, and fulfilment changes such as FBA Select and AWD.
For a co-marketing push that needs a speaker, a live event tie-in or an agency-side endorsement of Amazon Ads tooling, this is a stronger route than a written newsletter placement.
The fit is Amazon-specific and event-led.
AMC, DSP, FBA and AWD appear throughout; Google Shopping, eBay, Etsy and multichannel listing accuracy, central to a listing and ad-ops vendor's needs, do not.
Much of the value sits in physical events and agency sponsorship rather than a publication a partner can co-brand issue by issue, so the campaign would need to be adapted for an event, webinar or agency co-hosted format.
Ask for subscriber, reader or attendance numbers and sponsorship or partnership terms before assessing reach or price.
Seven LinkedIn posts attributed to Michael Callachan summarise issues of the Beyond the Basket newsletter and its quarterly Pulse Report.
The posts name the newsletter, describe its twice-weekly cadence, and give examples used across the page, such as Google Shopping serving AI-rewritten product titles, M&S's expansion into Europe on Zalando's Zeos platform, a JD.com Joybuy job listing, and refund-fraud research.
The posts have no publication dates, though several refer to Q3, Q4 or the July-to-September period, and they describe the newsletter's coverage rather than reproducing it.
The full newsletter issues, the Q3 UK Ecommerce Pulse Report, the underlying source reports, reader polls, subscriber and engagement figures, and any sponsorship formats or rates are not included in the posts here; those remain open questions, so the page does not answer them.
