As of November 8, 2026, Amazon's extended holiday return policy is in force: items bought between 1 November and 31 December 2026 can be returned until 31 January 2027, Apple products until 15 January, and the extension applies automatically to FBA and merchant-fulfilled orders with no seller opt-in. In the UK and most of the European stores the purchase window runs to 25 December with a 31 January deadline, Spain extends to 6 February, and some German, Italian and French categories close on 15 January. For anyone running a discount through the peak, the practical consequence is simple: the promotion ends in December, but its cost keeps arriving until February.
What the two calendars actually say
The two changes are usually reported as one story about seller support, and they are not. The returns change moves revenue, because a refund in January reverses a sale that was booked in November. The inbound change moves cost, because it decides whether inventory arrives in time to be sold at all. Reading them together is what makes the January plan possible: the same 15 extra days that rescue a delayed ocean shipment also push stock into a month when returns are already competing for warehouse space.
Why a January deadline lands in a promotion
A discount is priced on an expected return rate. When the return window stretches past the promotional period, the expected rate changes without the discount changing, and the gap shows up as margin that disappears after the campaign report has been closed.
| Market | Purchase window | Return deadline | Watch-out |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 1 Nov to 31 Dec 2026 | 31 Jan 2027 (Apple 15 Jan) | Refund reverses November revenue |
| United Kingdom | 1 Nov to 25 Dec 2026 | 31 Jan 2027 or delivery plus 30 days | Late orders can extend into February |
| Germany, Italy, France | 1 Nov to 25 Dec 2026 | 31 Jan 2027, some categories 15 Jan | Category pages differ from the headline date |
| Spain | 1 Nov 2026 to 6 Jan 2027 | 6 Feb 2027 | Longest window in the bloc |
| Poland, Sweden, Netherlands | 1 Nov to 25 Dec 2026 | 31 Jan 2027 | Same headline, different delivery tails |
An illustrative calculation shows the size of the problem. If 4% of a GBP 50,000 November-to-December FBA month comes back in January as refunded units, that is about GBP 2,000 of revenue reversing after peak fulfilment fees and Q4 storage have already been paid on the outbound shipment. Recovering half of those units as sellable stock turns a write-off into a re-listing, and that difference is usually larger than the discount that generated the sale.
The fee tail runs longer than the window
Peak fulfilment fees run to 14 January 2027, Q4 storage for standard-size stock in the UK has commonly sat around GBP 1.51 per cubic foot per month between October and December, and the AWD storage waiver ends on 31 December 2026. That means January is simultaneously the month when returns peak and the month when storage stops being free. A seller who planned December sell-through and treated January as empty has planned for the wrong month.
Inbound slack and the January squeeze
The 45-day arrival window and the 90-day auto-closure window give sellers room to absorb ocean delays, port congestion and customs holds without losing the shipment. The catch is that the same flexibility encourages later shipping, and later shipping lands inventory in the weeks when fulfilment centres are prioritising customer orders over inbound. Sellers who use the full extension and then discover that receiving is slow have converted a shipping problem into an availability problem.
Restock, do not just refund
Returned units do not return to sellable inventory on their own. They need inspection, grading, repacking and relabelling before they can be listed again, and in the European network that work is the seller's responsibility. A simple checklist applied to every recovered unit, covering condition, packaging, labelling and any category-specific requirement, is the difference between a 50% recovery rate and a pile of unsellable stock that gets disposed of in February.
What to change in the promo plan
Three changes are worth making before the next campaign closes. First, price the discount against a return rate measured on the extended window rather than the standard 30 days, because the extended window is the one customers will use. Second, hold back labelled reserve stock outside the fulfilment centre so a returned unit can be replaced without waiting for a removal order and a new inbound slot. Third, report the campaign in February as well as in December, since the December number is the one that looks good and the February number is the one that is true.
None of this requires new tools. It requires treating the return calendar as part of the promotional calendar rather than as an after-sales detail, and accepting that a discount sold in November is not fully priced until the last eligible parcel comes back.
FAQ
Does the extended window apply to every order?
It applies automatically to eligible items bought in the stated purchase window, across FBA and merchant-fulfilled orders. Category exclusions and standard return conditions still apply, and some German, Italian and French categories close earlier.
Why does a January deadline matter for a November discount?
Because the refund reverses revenue booked in November while the discount has already been funded. A return rate measured on the standard 30-day window understates the cost of a promotion that runs into the extended window.
What changed for FBA inbound?
For multi-destination shipments created between 1 August and 30 November 2026, the arrival deadline moved from 30 to 45 days and the automatic closure window to 90 days, with eligible defect fees waived or refunded through reimbursement reports.
What is the biggest January risk?
Storage and recovery. Peak fees run to 14 January, Q4 storage is charged at holiday rates and the AWD waiver ends on 31 December, so returns arrive exactly when space is most expensive and least available.
