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Costco has shut down Costco Next, its curated online marketplace that operated since 2017, without prior notice to members. The program allowed hand-selected vendors to sell higher-margin items such as electronics and appliances directly to members, with products shipping from partner facilities rather than Costco warehouses. CFO Gary Millerchip had described the platform’s growth as healthy during the fiscal 2025 third-quarter earnings call, noting that quarterly sales had matched the full-year total from fiscal 2022. The shutdown page now directs customers to contact vendors directly for returns and warranty claims. The closure comes ahead of Costco’s September 24, 2026 earnings report, with the company having beaten consensus estimates in its last two quarters.
Key Elements
Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) has quietly pulled the plug on Costco Next, its curated online marketplace that had been operating since 2017, leaving members with little more than a terse notice directing them to contact vendors directly for returns and warranty claims.
Visitors to the Costco Next page were greeted with a brief statement: “Access to Costco Next store fronts is no longer available. Please refer to the list below for contact information for vendors with active return policies. For eligible returns and warranty inquiries, contact the vendor directly.” Below the message sat a lengthy roster of partner companies and their contact details.
The shutdown came without prior announcement to members, many of whom were unaware the program existed at all. Costco never heavily promoted the offering, despite its longevity.
A Marketplace With a Different Approach
Costco Next functioned as a third-party marketplace, a model popularized by Amazon (AMZN), but with a distinctly Costco flavor. Rather than opening the floodgates to any seller, the warehouse club hand-selected suppliers based on merchandise quality and customer service track records. Items sold through the platform shipped directly from partner vendors, never touching a Costco warehouse. Categories skewed toward goods outside Costco’s typical warehouse aisles — bathroom vanities, gym equipment, luggage, bicycles and beauty products among them — with many listings structured as limited-time drops rather than a permanent, always-on catalog.
The arrangement allowed Costco to expand its online assortment into higher-margin discretionary categories such as electronics and appliances while preserving the value proposition members expect. Buyers at the company worked directly with partner retailers to curate the selection, keeping it far narrower than the sprawling catalog found on Amazon.
The strategy appeared to be gaining traction. During the company’s fiscal 2025 third-quarter earnings call, CFO Gary Millerchip offered an upbeat assessment. “Costco Next, our curated marketplace, also continues to show healthy year-over-year growth,” he said. “In Q3 fiscal year 2025, our sales on Costco Next equaled our total sales for all of fiscal year 2022, and we are excited about the pipeline of new vendors and development for future rollout.”
That optimism now stands in sharp contrast to the service’s sudden disappearance.
E-Commerce Evolution at Costco
The warehouse club was a late entrant to online retail. Its website did not sell merchandise until 1998, and even then the selection was sparse. Early iterations served primarily as a promotional vehicle for ancillary services such as TurboTax access and Costco Travel.
The digital landscape has shifted considerably since. Costco now offers a substantially expanded online selection and has partnered with delivery platforms Instacart and Shipt to fulfill orders directly from its physical locations. Costco Next represented another layer of that digital strategy, one aimed at capturing sales that would otherwise go to competitors with broader online catalogs.
| Milestone | Year |
|---|---|
| Costco begins selling merchandise online | 1998 |
| Costco Next launches | 2017 |
| Costco Next shuts down | 2026 |
Note: Timeline reflects key e-commerce developments at Costco based on available information.
The Costco Next shutdown is a rounding error next to the retailer’s broader digital push. Company-wide e-commerce sales topped $19.6 billion in fiscal 2025, up 15.6% year over year and equal to roughly 7.26% of total net sales, according to Digital Commerce 360’s analysis of Costco’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call. That growth has leaned on channels Costco controls directly — same-day delivery tie-ups with Instacart and Shipt, buy-now-pay-later financing through Affirm for big-ticket items, and expanded Costco Logistics home delivery — rather than the vendor-fulfilled model Costco Next relied on.
Warehouse Clubs Take Different Paths on Third-Party Selling
Closing Costco Next moves the retailer further from the open third-party marketplace model that dominates general e-commerce, and closer in spirit to sibling warehouse club Sam’s Club, which has never built a broad marketplace of its own.
| Retailer | Third-party marketplace approach | Reported scale |
|---|---|---|
| Costco (Costco Next, closed 2026) | Invite-only, hand-picked vendors; no longer operating | Sales reportedly matched all of fiscal 2022 by Q3 fiscal 2025 |
| Sam’s Club | No broad open marketplace; curated, Walmart-owned assortment | U.S. segment net sales of $90.2 billion in fiscal 2025 |
| Walmart.com | Open marketplace (Walmart Marketplace) | Surpassed 200,000 active third-party sellers in mid-2025 |
| Amazon | Open marketplace; the model Costco Next borrowed from | Third-party sellers made up 61% of paid units sold in Q4 2025 |
Note: Figures reflect each company’s most recently reported period as of publication; membership-club and open-marketplace models differ enough in structure that scale isn’t directly comparable across rows.
Even within the warehouse-club format, the strategy diverges. Sam’s Club has funneled investment into club-fulfilled delivery and a redesigned website built around its own curated assortment, rather than opening its platform to outside sellers the way Walmart.com does. Costco’s retreat from Costco Next points in the same direction — expanding channels it already owns instead of managing an outside vendor network.
Earnings Outlook Remains Focused Elsewhere
The marketplace closure arrives as Costco prepares to report quarterly results on September 24, 2026. The retailer has a track record of modest earnings beats, topping consensus estimates by an average of 0.53% over the last two quarters. In its most recent report, Costco posted earnings of $4.93 per share against expectations of $4.91, a 0.41% upside surprise. The prior quarter delivered $4.58 per share versus a $4.55 consensus.
Analysts tracking the stock have grown slightly more bullish on near-term earnings potential. The Zacks Earnings ESP for Costco currently stands at +1.45%, a metric that measures the divergence between the most accurate analyst estimate and the broader consensus. When paired with a Zacks Rank of #3, equivalent to a Hold rating, the combination has historically produced positive earnings surprises roughly 70% of the time.
Whether the Costco Next shutdown materially affects the company’s financial performance remains unclear. The program’s sales had been growing, but its overall contribution to Costco’s e-commerce revenue was never disclosed in detail. The company’s digital business continues to expand through its core website and same-day delivery partnerships, which may soften any impact from the marketplace’s removal.
For members who purchased items through Costco Next, the path forward is now direct engagement with the original vendors. The company’s notice emphasized that active return policies remain in effect, but all eligible returns and warranty inquiries must be handled by the suppliers themselves rather than through Costco’s traditional customer service channels.
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