Overview

On June 14 2023 Amazon announced that the Seller‑Fulfilled Prime (SFP) program would be re‑opened after a brief suspension, restoring the Prime badge for merchants who ship orders themselves. At the same time, Amazon disclosed a platform‑wide data outage that knocked out product‑research and keyword‑tracking feeds for third‑party tools such as Helium 10 for several hours. In addition, the marketplace placed a temporary hold on all seller disbursements, citing a payment‑processing glitch that left vendors without access to their earned funds. The convergence of these three events—program reinstatement, data blackout, and payout freeze—directly impacts inventory eligibility, real‑time performance monitoring, and cash‑flow planning for sellers who depend on Prime visibility and up‑to‑the‑minute analytics.

Key Points

• SFP program back online — Amazon resumed the Seller‑Fulfilled Prime service on June 14, enabling qualified merchants to once again display the Prime logo on self‑shipped listings and regain the associated search advantage.
• Analytics platforms offline — Helium 10, Jungle Scout, and similar services lost access to Amazon’s product and keyword data for roughly four hours, forcing sellers to operate without automated insights during that window.
• Disbursement hold — All seller accounts experienced a freeze on fund transfers, with Amazon indicating the issue affected every marketplace and would be resolved once the payment gateway was stabilized.
• Performance metrics temporarily distorted — The short‑lived SFP suspension caused a dip in on‑time‑shipping rates and order‑defect scores for sellers who were previously meeting the 99 % threshold, prompting a brief reset of those KPIs.
• Financing scramble — With cash flow interrupted, many merchants turned to short‑term credit options, such as revolving lines of credit or merchant cash‑advance products, to keep inventory purchases and advertising spend afloat.
• Long‑term margin implications — The ability to fulfill Prime orders without using FBA can reduce fulfillment fees by up to 30 % for high‑volume sellers, but the temporary payout delay offset some of those savings during the outage period.