Next year, sellers will have to wait much longer to get funds from their sales on Amazon. Beginning March 12, 2026, sellers will have a standard reserve period of seven days after delivery date (DD+7).
“Moving your reserve setting to DD+7 provides time for you to accrue fees and other costs before disbursement and gives your customers time to receive, open, and evaluate their order,” Amazon told sellers. But some of those responding to the news were skeptical that the move was anything but a way for Amazon to have time to earn more interest on sellers’ funds.
Amazon gave an example of how the DD+7 payout period works: “For example, if you sell a product on January 1 and it’s delivered on January 3, then under the DD+7 policy, your funds for that order will become available for disbursement on January 11.”
Amazon warned sellers that the transition could cause a onetime cashflow issue for sellers, and it could temporarily limit their ability to disburse funds on or around the migration date. “This is because of the change to delivery confirmation before the reserve period begins,” it said. “We recommend that you review your cash reserves to ensure sufficient funds on hand during the transition. This update will affect you more if you have longer periods between order and shipping or shipping and delivery.”
“We’re now responsible for USPS and UPS delays” was a common response from sellers, who panned the change in a thread on the Amazon seller discussion boards.
One seller who has been selling on Amazon for 12 years said the change was “insane” and said it came on top of other unpopular changes such as the following:
“ON TOP of them not reimbursing correctly for lost fba inventory.
“ON TOP of the safe-t claims team being a group of morons who don’t understand their own policies.
“ON TOP of the a to z claims teams wrongly assessing claims and helping customers steal from sellers.
“ON TOP of more and more and more brands being gated every single day.”
Some sellers wondered what Amazon would do in cases when packages never receive a delivery scan that shows the delivery date. “Are the funds for those held in limbo indefinitely,” one asked.
Another replied, “I called Amazon customer support team but they did not know how to answer it.”
That’s an especially critical question for sellers of certain types of goods, as a seller of trading cards in the sports collectibles category pointed out in a separate thread.
Amazon allows packages under $10 in value to be shipped without tracking using “USPS Standard Mail envelopes” or “USPS First Class Mail envelopes” shipping service.
“With untracked shipping there is no confirmation of shipping available,” the seller explained. “Is this a case of decisions being made by Amazon when they are unaware of the policies of their site? Or will this be the end of untracked shipping. Too bad if the buyers like it.
“It is my opinion that a switch to DD+7 is not solving any problems. Sellers that did not have a reserve currently are not the problem. They are the good guys.”
One seller said they were relieved to see the thread discussing the notification. “I’m a 15+ year seller with excellent health and feedback. Thank you for posting this, so I know it’s just not my business affected by this. I really thought something had gone wrong when I first read the notification and my stomach dropped.”
Another seller noticed what could be considered the hypocrisy of the forthcoming policy in relation to how Amazon refunds buyers: “Since Amazon has this new policy, the return refund policy should be changed as well. It should be refunded after the seller receives the package.”
