Overview

Amazon is enforcing a stricter standard for which seller offers get to display the Prime badge. Going forward, only offers capable of delivering within two days will carry the badge. Offers that qualify for Prime but fall short of that speed threshold will instead show a "free delivery for Prime members" message — still communicating free shipping, but without the high-converting badge that shoppers have come to trust.

What's Changing

• Two-day cutoff enforced — The Prime badge now requires an estimated delivery speed of two days or faster, no exceptions
• Badge removal for slower offers — Eligible offers exceeding the two-day window lose the Prime badge entirely
• Replacement messaging — Affected listings will display "free delivery for Prime members" instead of the badge, preserving the free shipping benefit without the visual trust signal
• No search ranking impact — Amazon has stated that this change does not alter how products rank in customer search results

Why the Prime Badge Matters So Much

The Prime badge is arguably the single most powerful conversion lever available to Amazon sellers. Shoppers have been conditioned to treat it as a shorthand for fast, reliable, and hassle-free delivery. Listings that carry the badge consistently outperform non-Prime offers in both click-through rates and conversion rates. In competitive categories where multiple sellers offer similar products at similar prices, the badge often determines who wins the sale.

Losing it — even while technically still offering free Prime shipping — removes that instant visual trust signal. Buyers scanning search results or product pages may simply skip past offers without the familiar badge, especially when a competitor's listing displays it prominently. For sellers in crowded niches, this could translate directly into lower sales velocity.

Who Will Be Most Affected

Sellers with well-distributed FBA inventory across Amazon's fulfillment network should largely be unaffected, since Amazon's logistics can typically hit two-day delivery for most U.S. addresses. The sellers most at risk fall into a few specific groups.