How to Manage Holiday Settings in Seller Central for Accurate Delivery Dates
Amazon's Holiday Settings widget lets sellers control how public and custom holidays affect delivery date calculations. Sellers can override holidays to keep shipping or add custom non-operating days to extend delivery promises during closures.
Overview
Amazon Seller Central provides a Holiday Settings widget that lets merchants control how public and custom holidays affect their shipping and delivery promises. By default, Amazon treats public holidays as non-operating days, which pushes estimated ship-by and delivery dates to the next business day. Sellers who continue fulfilling orders on holidays can override these defaults to keep their delivery timelines tight and competitive.
Key Points / What Sellers Need to Know
- Public holidays extend delivery dates by default - Amazon pre-configures national holidays as non-operating days for all sellers in a given store, meaning ship-by and delivery dates automatically shift forward when they land on a holiday.
- You can override holidays to keep shipping on schedule - If your business operates on public holidays, you can mark those days as operating days so delivery promises remain unchanged.
- Custom holidays let you block specific dates - Sellers can create their own non-operating days for closures like company retreats, inventory counts, or local observances that Amazon doesn't account for.
- Changes take 15 minutes to 24 hours to go live - After saving holiday setting adjustments, there is a delay before the new configuration applies to incoming orders.
- US sellers have annual limits - You can designate a maximum of 30 holiday days per year and no more than 10 consecutive days off.
- Professional selling plan required - This feature is only available to sellers on a Professional selling plan.
How Holiday Settings Work
Amazon's system recognizes two types of holidays. The first category consists of Amazon-set holidays, which are predefined public holidays that apply to every seller in a marketplace. These automatically extend shipping and delivery windows by pushing dates past the holiday. The second category is seller-set holidays, which are custom non-operating days that individual merchants can create for their own accounts. Both types prevent the affected days from counting as operating days when Amazon calculates promised delivery dates. Importantly, sellers continue to receive orders on all holidays — the settings only affect how delivery timelines are calculated, not whether orders come in.
Analysis & Recommendations
Why This Matters
Incorrect holiday settings can lead to missed ship-by dates, hurting Late Shipment Rate and On-Time Delivery Rate. Properly configured holidays help sellers maintain account health while accurately setting customer expectations during closures.
Key Takeaways
- Public holidays automatically push ship-by and delivery dates forward unless overridden
- US sellers can set up to 30 holiday days per year with a 10-day consecutive maximum
- Holiday setting changes take 15 minutes to 24 hours to apply to new orders
- Overriding a holiday on a weekend makes it operational regardless of weekend settings
Recommended Actions
- →Review and customize your holiday calendar before peak seasons to ensure delivery promises align with your actual operating schedule
- →Verify that your carriers operate on any public holidays you override as operating days
- →Avoid changing holiday settings on days when you already have unshipped orders to prevent metric penalties
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