Overview

Amazon has pushed back the start date for its revised Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) inventory reimbursement policy from March 10, 2025 to March 31, 2025. The three‑week extension is meant to give sellers extra time to review the new cost‑management tools in Seller Central and update their product cost data before the changes take effect. Sellers who rely on reimbursements for lost, damaged, or disposed inventory need to act now to avoid reduced payouts.

Key Points

• New effective date — The updated reimbursement rules will become mandatory on March 31, 2025, not March 10.
• Three‑week buffer — Sellers receive an additional 21 days to examine the policy and adjust their cost entries.
• Dedicated cost page — Amazon is launching a “Cost Management” screen in Seller Central where landed‑cost details can be entered and reviewed.
• Phased rollout — Access to the cost page will be granted gradually, with full availability expected by February 28, 2025.
• Reimbursement calculation shift — Future payouts will be based primarily on the cost figures sellers submit, rather than Amazon’s internal price estimates.

What's Changing

1. Effective date shift — The policy now activates on March 31, 2025; for example, a seller whose inventory was lost on April 5 will be reimbursed under the new formula, whereas a loss on March 5 would still follow the old method.
2. Cost‑submission requirement – Sellers must input the landed cost for each FBA SKU on the new Cost Management page; a seller of 500 SKUs will need to upload cost data for each item before the deadline to ensure accurate reimbursements.
3. Calculation methodology update – Amazon will use the seller‑provided cost as the baseline for reimbursement; if a seller reports a $12 landed cost for a product, the reimbursement for a lost unit will be calculated around $12, compared with the previous approach that might have used an estimated selling price of $15.
4. Tool access timeline – The Cost Management page will be visible to a subset of sellers in early January, expanding weekly; a seller who receives access on January 20 will have roughly five weeks to enter data before the February 28 cut‑off.