Amazon is removing a safeguard for sellers of high-value items next month, a decision sellers are denouncing as untenable. On Friday, Amazon announced the following policy change:
“Effective February 8, 2026, all US sellers must use the Amazon Prepaid Return Label (APRL) program for customer returns regardless of item value. This change eliminates the previous high-value exemption to create a more consistent return experience for faster refund processing and reduced customer service requirements.”
Sellers of high-priced goods took issue with Amazon’s posture that the change “eliminates the need for buyer-seller messaging.” Sellers said it was imperative that they have a chance to resolve buyers’ problems, thereby reducing returns. One seller shared some examples:
“I’ve gotten returns with “you didn’t include the wireless dongle for the mouse”. “It’s in the slot inside the battery compartment”
“The cordless phone won’t charge”. “The batteries are shipped unplugged to prevent the discharged battery from beeping during shipment”
Another seller commenting on the announcement who sells furniture shared, “Do you know how many customers have been thrilled that we resolved the issue so they didn’t have to return the item?”
In addition, as one seller explained, “If someone is going to return a high-value item, we sure want to be able to communicate how it needs to be shipped back in order to prevent damage.”
Two sellers of furniture said their profit margins would take a big hit. One said, “If we have no choice but to sell on Amazon, the most feasible approach for us would be to raise the product prices by approximately 10% to maintain our existing profit margin. Otherwise, we will be operating at a loss.”
Another said they would have to raise prices because the new policy would “decimate” their margins – but they believed raising prices would decrease their volume. “The only solution I see is to go FBA, but for large furniture, FBA shipping rates are terrible.”
In addition to considering raising prices, some are considering removing high-value items from Amazon entirely. One bookseller asked if there was a quick and easy way to remove all listings of a specified value from Amazon. “I think I’ll just sell the expensive books elsewhere. Amazon has already made it very difficult to sell first editions,” they said.
Another bookseller replied, “You can look at your inventory, choosing descending high to low price, and delete the expensive stuff. I have been doing this. I’m selling books on 4 other sites where I have more control, and also where I have (slightly) smarter customers.”
Amazon said existing category exemptions would continue to apply, including Handmade, certified preowned watches, non-physical items, dangerous goods, and extra-large or heavy items. Additionally, it said items that are ineligible for prepaid return labels would remain exempt from the new requirement.
Amazon explained how it would protect sellers: “When we issue a refund to a buyer and you believe it wasn’t your fault, you can file a claim for reimbursement through the Seller Assurance for E-Commerce Transactions (SAFE-T) program.”
But citing the SAFE-T claims process was not necessarily reassuring to sellers. Vanessa Hung, CEO of Online Seller Solutions, said in a post on LinkedIn that sellers are concerned about the new policy because of their lived experiences, including questioning how effective SAFE-T reimbursement requests would be “when carrier claims are already difficult on Amazon labels.”
Hung predicted that some sellers would respond by taking actions including some of those being considered by sellers who commented on Amazon’s announcement thread:
- Raising prices
- Disabling higher-risk SKUs
- Reducing selection
- Or pulling certain categories off Amazon entirely
Kate Pavlenko of Amazon ad agency ANavigator suggested in a post on LinkedIn that sellers might reduce their ad budgets for certain items as a result of the policy. She advised sellers to make changes to their advertising strategies to mitigate the impact. “When control over high-value returns is reduced, the cost of a “bad order” goes up. That means some products will no longer support the same CPCs or budgets — even if conversion rates stay strong.”
One of her takeaways: products with fragile packaging or abuse risk need margin buffers – in other words, sellers of high-value items that might become damaged when returned by customers might need to raise prices for those products.
