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Amazon has set a date for third-party sellers to ensure their products are available in time Black Friday sales—pushing the deadline up a week earlier than last year.
According to a post on Amazon’s seller central forum, inventory must arrive at the e-commerce giant’s fulfillment centers by Oct. 19, to guarantee it is Prime badge-ready by Black Friday. Last holiday season, inventory had to be in Amazon warehouses by Oct. 26.
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In the post, Amazon recommends sending Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) inventory to fulfillment centers in August and September to ensure they have enough products in stock for the peak holiday shopping season.
From there, fulfillment center teams will be focused on receiving inventory in September and October to ensure products are placed in the right fulfillment centers before the holiday season starts.
Amazon said it would then shift its focus in November and December to processing customer orders, given it is the tech titan’s busiest time of the year. The company says it has limited slots to accept shipments to its fulfillment centers during the two months.
“This seasonal shift helps us ensure faster delivery speeds and maximizes your sales potential during the holidays,” the post wrote. “Also, you may see lower estimated capacity limits for October and November. On average, the estimated capacity limits for October and November can help provide enough storage for six months of inventory.”
Amazon also offers a Capacity Monitor tool aimed at helping sellers stay up to date on the company’s capacity limits. Sellers can currently view estimated capacity limits for October, and November capacity limits will be available starting August 20.
All date recommendations are subject to change.
To help sellers simplify operations and manage inventory more efficiently during the peak season, Amazon eliminated the overage fee for storage effective July 1, 2024. This means if any merchant’s on-hand inventory exceeds their capacity limit, they will not incur the overage fee.
Last year, Amazon hosted a Black Friday event starting on Nov. 17 that lasted 11 days, resulting in the sale of more than 1 billion items on the marketplace, including 500 million items from independent sellers.
The company has not indicated when this extended holiday sale would return in 2024.
Amazon has continuously improved its delivery capabilities across its network over the past year, making a major rural push in 2024 a year after regionalizing its fulfillment network into eight distinct hubs. A Wall Street Journal report said Amazon has set a target to deliver to roughly 90 percent of U.S. consumers.