This Week in M&A Issue #227
March 9, 2026
What’s up, Buttercup?
Today’s trend of the week is “lawn care”. 🌱
Spring hasn’t even arrived yet, and in some places, lawns are still covered in snow, but shoppers are already in full “backyard glow-up” mode.
According to Shopify data shared with Retail Brew, orders for irrigation gear jumped 105%, and sprinklers and herbicides rose 103%. And it doesn’t stop there. Gardening totes climbed 86%, fertilizers 72%, lawn mowers 69%, and mulch 63%. Even hoses (up 51%), landscaping plants (48%), and pots and planters (42%) are flying off shelves.
You can bundle products into “Spring Starter Kits,” create pre-season checklists, or offer early-bird discounts to capture demand before big box stores ramp up promotions.
Educational content like lawn prep guides, fertilizer schedules, or simple landscaping plans can help drive traffic and build trust. Subscription models for seasonal supplies could also turn one-time buyers into repeat customers.
Today we have for you:
- Our 2026 State of the Industry Report is here
- Amazon launches AI canvas to help sellers analyze their business data
And:
- Meta tests AI-powered product discovery inside its chatbot
- We’re hiring!
- How to use Claude Code to simplify SEO workflows
Alright, let’s dive in.
M&A
-Mar-05-2026-02-59-31-0880-PM.gif)
What’s Really Happening in the Digital M&A Market
Our 2026 State of the Industry Report is officially live.
If you’re thinking about buying or selling a business this year, this report will help you understand what kind of market you’re actually stepping into and how to position yourself for a strong deal.
Inside the report, we cover:
-
How buyer profiles and priorities have changed
-
Where multiples are settling
-
Which business models and niches are in highest demand
-
How long it takes to sell a business today
-
What deal structures sellers can expect
-
Our industry predictions for 2026
In our latest YouTube video, Greg also used this data to create a list of 5 M&A predictions for 2026.
He breaks down where he sees the biggest opportunities, which business models are thriving and which could crumble, and how the market may evolve over the next 12 months.
If you want a clearer picture of where online business deals are heading, we’ve got all the data you need in these two handy resources.
Amazon
Amazon Gives Sellers a New AI tool to Analyze Sales & Inventory Decisions
Amazon has launched a new AI tool to help marketplace sellers better understand their data and make faster business decisions.
The new experience, called “canvas,” is built into Seller Central and combines AI-powered chat with dynamic visual workspaces. Sellers can ask questions about their business and instantly generate personalized dashboards that pull together key data, insights, and recommended actions.
For example, a seller might ask the system to analyze sales performance or product trends. The canvas then creates a visual workspace showing metrics such as sales trends, customer traffic, and product performance. As sellers ask follow-up questions or request deeper analysis, the workspace updates in real time.
The system also supports scenario testing. Sellers can model decisions such as adjusting prices, changing advertising budgets, or altering inventory plans and immediately see how those changes could affect revenue, cash flow, stockout risk, and storage costs.
Another feature is automatic opportunity detection. If the system notices rising demand for a product, it may suggest increasing inventory or adjusting marketing activity to capture the momentum.
Amazon says sellers already accept recommendations from Seller Assistant nearly 90% of the time, which suggests the AI is already shaping operational decisions on the platform.
The new canvas feature is available starting March 3 for sellers in the United States and the United Kingdom at no additional cost. Later this year, Amazon plans to expand the canvas experience to more countries and make it available in additional languages.
Agentic Commerce
Meta Explores AI-Driven Shopping Recommendations
Meta is testing a new feature that lets people research products directly inside its AI chatbot, helping Meta compete more closely with AI tools from OpenAI and Google.
Users can ask the chatbot for product suggestions and receive a set of visual recommendations directly in the chat.
Instead of replying with a long block of text, the chatbot shows results in a scrollable carousel. Each recommendation includes a product image, the brand name, the price, and a link to the retailer’s website. The assistant also adds short bullet points explaining why each product might be a good option.
Some of the recommendations may also be personalized. In tests reported by Bloomberg, the system appeared to tailor suggestions based on information Meta already has about the user, including their location and the gender inferred from their name.
Users cannot complete a purchase inside the chatbot. When they click on a product, they are sent to the retailer’s website to learn more or finish the purchase.
Both OpenAI and Google have already introduced similar tools that help people discover products and, in some cases, complete purchases directly inside the chat.
Despite growing investment from large tech companies, AI shopping assistants are still early in adoption. One survey found that only about 2% of U.S. digital shoppers currently begin their product searches with an AI chatbot.
The feature is currently being tested with a small group of users in the United States through the web version of Meta AI on desktop.
Read All About It!
✅ The $1M solopreneur MVP: build and validate your product fast
📚 How to start an online bookstore: turn books into business
🔥 Top trending topics for March 2026: hottest topics in the US right now
💳 Amazon Seller Wallet launches in Europe: available for seven EU marketplaces
We’re Hiring
Help Power Million-Dollar Deals from Anywhere in the World
Want to work behind the scenes of million-dollar online business deals?
Now’s your chance.
As our marketplace continues to grow, we’re looking for two talented people to join our global, fully remote team at Empire Flippers.
Ruby on Rails Developer
If you love building clean, scalable systems and writing thoughtful, high-quality code, this could be a great fit. You’ll work on the core technology that powers our marketplace, helping entrepreneurs buy and sell life-changing online businesses.
From designing server-side architecture to building APIs and monitoring performance, you’ll be involved across the full software development lifecycle.
More info here: https://empireflippers.com/career/ruby-on-rails-developer/
Sales Executive
If you’re great with people and driven by results, this role is all about guiding buyers and sellers through one of the biggest financial events of their lives. You’ll manage inbound and outbound conversations, support sellers through vetting, and help get deals across the finish line while developing high-level sales and negotiation skills in online business M&A.
More info here: https://empireflippers.com/career/sales-executive/
If these roles aren’t for you, feel free to pass this along to someone in your network who might be a perfect fit.
Using Claude Code to Find Paid and Organic Traffic Gaps
We all know how difficult it is to collate and analyse SEO data when that data is increasingly spread across multiple platforms and formats.
Lucky for us, Search Engine Journal just released a guide on how to turn Claude Code into your own SEO command center.
Claude Code allows you to pull data from Google Search Console (GSC), Google Analytics 4 (GA4), and Google Ads into one project directory. Scripts structure the data into JSON files, and you can then interact with Claude Code using natural language to answer questions that usually require spreadsheets and manual cross-referencing.
One powerful use case is paid-organic gap analysis. Claude Code can compare GSC query performance with Google Ads terms to reveal where you’re paying for traffic you already rank for organically, or where paid campaigns exist without organic coverage. Tasks that once took an afternoon can now be completed in under two minutes.
According to the guide, setting this up involves:
- Configuring API access with service accounts
- Writing simple Python scripts to pull data
- Saving reports to your project directory
- Asking Claude Code cross-source questions about trends and opportunities
The result is a lightweight SEO command center without dashboards or BI templates to maintain. Claude Code generates markdown reports you can push into Google Docs or other client deliverables.
There are limitations. Claude Code doesn’t replace strategic thinking. It finds patterns faster, but humans still need to make the decisions. It can also hallucinate analysis results, so you need to validate outputs against raw data.
This workflow doesn’t replace full-featured SEO platforms like Ahrefs or Semrush if you need historical trends, automated alerts, or dashboards. But it does provide flexibility for ad-hoc, cross-source questions and reduces repetitive manual work.
AI has brought a lot of complexity and unpredictability to SEO, but it also gives you a chance to simplify and improve your workflow, so it’s worth taking advantage of.
Money Nomad
Looking for a side hustle?
Try Money Nomad, our sister marketplace built specifically for profitable side hustles and micro-businesses that are too small for Empire Flippers.
Check out this recent listing available on the Money Nomad Marketplace:
Listing #10055 – $29,750.00
Display ads, affiliate | home & garden
GarageTransformed is provides helpful guides and design ideas for improving the look and functionality of your garage. Revenue is generated through display ads and Amazon Associates. Traffic is driven from Pinterest and organic search. Pinterest traffic circumvents risks from the Google algorithm and AI. The Lasso WordPress plugin handles Amazon Associates links, and can be easily updated to include a new affiliate tag. Content available for publishing includes 15 professionally written articles and 9 unpublished articles which detail garage schematics available for sale through an affiliate. Learn More
Subscribe to the This Week in M&A Newsletter
to Get Content like This in Your Inbox Every Friday
