Amazon Seller News: Biggest Updates From Amazon’s Recent Announcements
In recent weeks, Amazon has made several announcements that could be game changing for your business. From changes to how products are selected for featured offers, to key changes on the requirements for shipping products, these are major announcements that could impact how you run your seller account. In this blog, we walk you through these changes and the ways that they could create opportunities and pitfalls for your business.
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Amazon Policy News – Featured Offer Updates
An important opportunity is now available for all sellers as Amazon has opened up the requirements for having your listings be the featured offer for products. Under previous policy, listings chosen as the featured offer were required to be operated by sellers within certain performance eligibility requirements. Now, those requirements have been taken away, and Amazon will only be selecting products based on other criteria.
Amazon says the reason behind this change is a desire to continue catering the platform to be the most customer friendly it can be. With the current requirements, sellers offering the best deals on certain products may be blocked from reaching customers because of previous account health issues. Now, these barriers should be cleared, meaning a major opportunity for you to compete against other sellers for new business. Overall, this change should be helpful to most independent sellers, leading to potentially new customer interactions and increased sales.
Returnless Refunds Updates
Although there are no major changes coming to returnless refunds, Amazon is once again making a major push for their Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) sellers to make use of returnless refunds. This is a program that allows sellers to offer refunds on products without requiring that they be returned. According to Amazon, this program makes most sense for sellers offering products that are not sellable after first sale, and products which cost more to return than issuing a refund would.
While no major changes have been made to the program, Amazon is making another push for sellers to make use of it, likely in an attempt to continue catering their platform to customers. Because returnless refunds are a major convenience for customers, offering this on more products provides Amazon the ability to strengthen its connection with users.
Although returnless refunds may appear to be primarily beneficial to customers and Amazon, there is one way that they can help you avoid creating account health issues. One of the most common reasons for listing and account suspensions on Amazon is inauthentic product suspension. Typically, these suspensions are rooted in customer complaints after believing they have received a product that was advertised differently than it arrived. Because returnless refunds make getting money back for a product much easier, offering them to your customers may reduce the risk of receiving customer complaints on your products.
Business Hour Delivery Rate Crackdown
Along with other recent changes to product delivery requirements on Amazon, recent policy changes require Amazon sellers to maintain a much stricter compliance with business hour delivery rate. This is an enforcement issue which requires that business products be delivered during business hours and have a successfully completed shipment.
Under the new policy, Amazon will be evaluating all sellers who ship products for businesses, requiring that they maintain a 90% business hour delivery rate. This will first be evaluated on September 30th, 2026, with sellers then given a warning who fall outside of this range. Noncompliant sellers will then have 30 days to make changes to their shipping and handling processes and to achieve a 90% business hour delivery rate. Those that fail to make these changes may have their listings suspended for business customers or face larger account actions.
Contact Amazon Sellers Lawyer Today!
If you are facing account health issues or suspension on Amazon, reach out to the team at Amazon Sellers Lawyer today! Our team has over a decade of experience helping sellers get account and product reinstatement. We are constantly tracking changes like these to keep sellers informed of the biggest news on Amazon. Give us a call today at 212-256-1109 or fill out our online form linked here.
About the Author
CJ Rosenbaum, Esq.
CJ Rosenbaum is the founding partner of Amazon Sellers Lawyer. He’s been practicing law since 1995, and since 2016 his firm has focused exclusively on helping Amazon sellers deal with issues like suspensions, intellectual property disputes, and withheld funds.
CJ has written seven books on Amazon seller legal issues including the Amazon Sellers’ Guide to Copyright Law. He has spoken at major industry events like the Prosper Show, Global Sources Summit, Retail Global. CJ also works with the Amazon Sellers Lawyer team to provide free content for Amazon sellers. This is available through their online blog and YouTube channel, frequently covering major Amazon updates and important topics relevant to the seller space.
Through BrandProtectionAmazon.com, the firm also supports brands in protecting their products. This gives the team the unique opportunity to learn from case wins on both sides of the fence, strengthening protection for both the sellers and brands that Rosenbaum & Segall P.C. represents.
Amazon repeatedly rejecting your Plan of Action? Amazon Sellers Lawyer handles suspension appeals and account reinstatement cases – including arbitration against Amazon when they’re withholding seller money. Contact us to discuss your situation and figure out the best path forward.