Commerce Agencies Are Buying Up Amazon and Walmart Specialists to Build Retail Media Scale
A quiet but accelerating wave of acquisitions is reshaping the commerce agency sector. Independent agencies focused on Amazon and Walmart marketplace management have become the primary targets, as larger commerce shops race to acquire deep platform expertise before the best specialists are taken. Private equity is providing much of the fuel, and the pace of dealmaking in 2026 suggests the window for affordable acquisitions is closing fast.
Three Deals in Two Months
The flurry of activity became visible in April when Harvest Group, an Arkansas-based integrated commerce agency, announced its acquisition of Cartograph, an Austin-based Amazon agency founded in 2017 by Chris Moe. The deal was Harvest Group's largest to date and is expected to approximately double the size of its Amazon business and team. “We've always been focused on delivering strong results for our clients through deep Amazon expertise and operational excellence,” Moe said. “Partnering with Harvest Group allows us to build on that foundation, expand our impact, and create even greater opportunities for our clients and team.”
In May, two more deals followed in quick succession. Podean, which describes itself as the largest independent global marketplace-focused agency, acquired Cartbloom, a Walmart-first end-to-end agency that handles onboarding, catalog management, content, and advertising for Walmart Connect and Walmart Marketplace sellers. Cartbloom's founders, John Warren and Bryce Browning, will lead Podean's Walmart practice going forward. The deal was Podean's fourth acquisition in nine months, with two more planned before the end of the year.
Also in May, The EVOQ Group, a network of independent agencies, acquired Red View Ventures, an Amazon specialist firm. Financial terms of all three deals were not disclosed.
Private Equity Is the Engine
The common thread running through the most active buyers is Mountaingate Capital, a Colorado-based private equity firm with more than $1.4 billion in assets under management. Mountaingate backed Podean in August 2025 when it partnered with Podean and Commerce Canal to form a combined marketplace agency. It then backed Harvest Group in March 2026, announcing a growth investment designed to accelerate the company's acquisition strategy. Both investments follow Mountaingate's stated buy-and-build model, which prioritizes targeted add-on acquisitions to consolidate fragmented markets.
The pattern is straightforward. PE firms identify a fragmented but high-value service category, take a platform position with an established operator, then fund a series of bolt-on acquisitions to build scale. Commerce agencies serving Amazon and Walmart marketplace sellers fit that template well: the category is growing rapidly, the specialist firms are small and numerous, and the expertise they carry is genuinely difficult to build from scratch.
Why Amazon and Walmart Expertise Is Worth Buying
The acquisitions are a direct response to how retail media has matured. Amazon Ads generated more than $56 billion in revenue in 2025, and Walmart Connect grew 27% year-over-year in Walmart's most recent fiscal year. Both platforms now operate sophisticated ad ecosystems with their own bidding mechanics, sponsored product formats, DSP capabilities, and data-sharing programs that require platform-specific knowledge to navigate effectively.
Brands that sell on both Amazon and Walmart increasingly need agencies that understand both environments in depth, not generalist digital shops that treat them as extensions of paid search. That demand has made platform specialists valuable acquisition targets. As Adweek noted in its analysis of the trend, the biggest independent commerce shops have already been absorbed by holding companies, which means the remaining acquisition targets are smaller specialist firms, and the window for acquirers to add genuine expertise at reasonable valuations is narrowing.
What Comes Next
Podean CEO Travis Johnson told Adweek the company has two more acquisitions planned for later in 2026. Harvest Group, now backed by Mountaingate Capital, has signaled it intends to continue its acquisition push across retail and digital commerce capabilities. Both companies work with major retailers including Walmart, Sam's Club, Target, Amazon, and Costco, meaning their combined scale gives brand clients a single managed service relationship across the most important retail media networks in the U.S.
For brand owners and marketplace sellers evaluating their agency relationships, the consolidation trend has practical implications. Larger combined agencies bring broader platform coverage and more proprietary technology, but the boutique expertise that made specialist firms attractive in the first place can dilute during integration. As these roll-up platforms grow, the quality of day-to-day account management and the depth of platform-specific knowledge they deliver will determine whether the consolidation produces genuine value for the brands funding it.
