Overview

Amazon has introduced a mandatory budget field for every new Percentage Off or Buy One Get One (BOGO) promotion created in Seller Central. The change, effective immediately, forces sellers to declare a spending limit before a promotion can be activated. This new control aims to give sellers clearer cost visibility, but also places full responsibility for any overspend on the seller’s shoulders.

Key Points

• Budget now required — All fresh Percentage Off and BOGO promotions must include a budget figure; the field can no longer be left blank.
• Two budget options — Sellers may choose a dollar‑based cap or a cap expressed as the maximum number of qualifying orders.
• Existing promotions unchanged — Promotions that were live before the rollout keep operating without a retroactive budget requirement.
• Automatic pause at 80 % — Amazon will automatically deactivate a promotion once redemption usage reaches 80 % of the declared budget.
• 20 % buffer for pending claims — The remaining 20 % of the budget is reserved to cover redemptions that were claimed before the automatic pause but have not yet been processed.
• Budget is a planning tool, not a hard stop — Amazon does not assume liability for costs that exceed the seller‑set limit; overspend can still occur if redemption spikes before the 80 % trigger fires.

How the Budget System Works

1. Set the budget during creation — When building a new Percentage Off or BOGO deal, the seller selects either a total dollar amount (e.g., $5,000) or a maximum order count (e.g., 300 qualifying orders) in a newly required field.
2. Live monitoring of redemptions — After the promotion goes live, Amazon tracks each redemption in real time and deducts the corresponding value from the budget.
3. Trigger at 80 % usage — Once the system records that 80 % of the budget has been consumed, it automatically suspends the promotion to prevent further claims.
4. Reserve the final 20 % — The remaining budget portion stays untouched to honor any redemption requests that were made before the suspension but have not yet been finalized in the system.