Amazon FBA Holiday Calendar: Q4 2026 to Q1 2027 Dates and Cutoffs

The Amazon FBA holiday calendar for the 2026 peak season, which runs into January 2027, is built around a handful of dates: inbound cutoffs, deal deadlines, peak fee windows and the shopping days themselves. This guide lists the ones confirmed from Amazon's July 7, 2026 announcement as reported by several trade sources, then shows how to work backward from them and plan the first quarter of 2027. Because these third-party summaries all point back to a Seller Central playbook, confirm every date in your own account before you ship.

Key dates at a glance

Date	What happens
June 23 to 26, 2026	Summer Prime Day event, reported by trade press
September 2, 9 or 16	Inbound cutoffs for Prime Big Deal Days (AWD, FBA minimal splits, FBA Amazon-optimized splits)
October 6 to 7, 2026	Prime Big Deal Days
October 14, 21 or 28	Inbound cutoffs for Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday (AWD, FBA minimal splits, FBA Amazon-optimized splits)
October 15, 2026	Holiday peak fulfillment fees begin
October 20, 2026	Originally reported deal submission deadline for Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday (later reports say Amazon extended it to November 13 for at least some deal types)
November 26, 2026	Thanksgiving
November 27, 2026	Black Friday
November 30, 2026	Cyber Monday
January 14, 2027	Holiday peak fulfillment fees end

Thanksgiving falls on November 26 in 2026, which puts Black Friday on November 27 and Cyber Monday on November 30. The exact dates of Amazon's own Black Friday Week promotion are announced closer to the event, so check Seller Central for them.

Inbound cutoffs: the dates that decide your sales

Amazon publishes separate arrival deadlines depending on how you split inventory across fulfillment centers.

Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday

• AWD inbound: October 14
• FBA with minimal shipment splits: October 21
• FBA with Amazon-optimized splits: October 28

Prime Big Deal Days (for reference)

• AWD inbound: September 2
• FBA with minimal splits: September 9
• FBA with Amazon-optimized splits: September 16

One source describes these as strong guidelines rather than hard rejections, while another calls them hard stops that can remove the Prime badge during the event. The safe reading is to treat them as hard. Late shipments also face limited delivery appointment windows once fulfillment centers shift toward order processing in November and December.

Check "checked in" status, not "shipped". Inventory counts only when it is received and available, so build in carrier and receiving delays on top of the printed date.

Peak fees: October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027

Holiday peak fulfillment fees apply from October 15, 2026 through January 14, 2027. Reported details from the announcement:

• The average per unit increase is about $0.32 over non-peak rates.
• A 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge applies on top.
• The fees cover FBA, Remote Fulfillment with FBA, Multi-Channel Fulfillment and Buy with Prime.

Your actual fee depends on size tier and weight, so pull your own rate card from Seller Central rather than relying on averages. Then rerun your margins for every ASIN. Products with thin margins and low prices are the ones that can flip negative during peak.

Working backward: a planning timeline

A usable plan starts months before the holidays. Treat the weeks below as a template and adjust for your lead times.

12 to 16 weeks before the cutoff

Place purchase orders. For ocean freight, one prep provider suggests ordering around mid-July to early August for an October 21 arrival, which is the author's estimate, not an Amazon date.

6 to 8 weeks before

Finish listing work, images and A+ Content. Confirm your inventory forecast against last year's sell-through, and check that storage limits and capacity will cover the extra units.

3 to 4 weeks before

Create inbound plans, print labels, finalize carrier bookings and book delivery appointments. Remove any stranded or aged inventory that will clog capacity.

During the event window

Watch in-stock rate, Buy Box ownership and ad budgets daily. Pause ads on any ASIN about to stock out, since paying for clicks you cannot fulfill hurts rank.

After the holidays

Returns spike in January, and peak fees end January 14, 2027. Plan removals or liquidations for slow movers, and schedule your Q1 restock using actual December velocity, not forecasts.

Q1 2027: what to plan now

The quarter after peak is where many sellers get hurt by overbuying. Start by setting a post-holiday sell-through target, then reorder against it. Watch for the end of the peak fee window on January 14, 2027, and review any storage fee changes that apply in the new year in Seller Central. You can find a running list of retail events in our Amazon sales calendar.

Deal deadlines for Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday

If you plan to run Lightning Deals or Best Deals, the reported window to submit for Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday opened July 8 and was originally set to close October 20, 2026. Later trade reports say Amazon moved the deadline to November 13, at least for Prime Exclusive Discounts, so check the Deals dashboard for your deal type. An early submission discount of $50 off the upfront fee applied for submissions made by September 5. Reported fees are $100 upfront per promotion plus a 1.5% variable fee on promotional sales, capped at $5,000. Because these were stated before the events, check the current deals page in Seller Central for what applies to your account.

One useful detail from the same announcement: October event prices, including Prime Big Deal Days, are reportedly excluded from the lookback Amazon uses to set Black Friday Week deal price ceilings, so an October deal does not automatically lower the maximum deal price you can use in November.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Planning around the shopping day. The real deadline is the inbound cutoff, weeks earlier.
• Ignoring peak fees in pricing. A 3.5% surcharge plus per unit increases can erase the margin on cheap items.
• Overbuying for January. Peak demand ends abruptly, and storage costs and aged inventory follow.
• Sending one giant shipment late. Splitting inbound across several smaller, earlier shipments reduces the risk of missing a window.
• Forgetting ads. Budget and bids should follow your stock position, not the other way around.

The GTM angle

Every date on this calendar is a trigger for outbound, because sellers feel pain at predictable times.

• Before cutoffs (July to September). Target sellers with services that save time: prep and 3PL providers, freight forwarders, inventory forecasting tools, inbound planning software. Subject lines like "Your October 21 FBA cutoff: freight plan" work because the deadline is real.
• Peak fee window (October onward). Offer margin audits, repricing tools and PPC help to sellers whose costs just rose.
• Deal deadlines. Agencies can sell deal setup and creative packages to brands that missed the early-submission discount.
• January. Pitch returns management, liquidation and inventory cleanup.

Segment by size: small sellers need simple, fixed price packages, while larger brands buy retainers. Use the Cruxfinder directory to find tools and agencies in this space, and see how our Amazon seller newsletter reaches this audience. Keep emails short, name the specific date, and offer one concrete deliverable.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the FBA cutoff for Black Friday 2026?

Per Amazon's reported guidance, inventory should arrive by October 14 for AWD, October 21 for FBA with minimal splits, or October 28 for FBA with Amazon-optimized splits. Confirm in Seller Central.

When are Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2026?

Black Friday is November 27, 2026 and Cyber Monday is November 30, 2026, based on Thanksgiving falling on November 26.

When do holiday peak FBA fees start and end?

Holiday peak fulfillment fees run from October 15, 2026 through January 14, 2027, with an average increase of about $0.32 per unit plus a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge, according to trade reports of Amazon's announcement.

Can I still send inventory after the cutoff?

You can usually still ship, but your inventory may not be available for the event, and delivery appointment windows get tighter in November and December. Treat the cutoffs as firm.

When do Prime Big Deal Days take place?

Amazon's fall event ran October 6 to 7, 2026. Expect Amazon to announce its 2027 dates later, so use the Seller Central playbook for the current schedule.

Takeaways

• Work backward from the inbound cutoffs, not the shopping days.
• Rerun margins with the October 15 to January 14 peak fees and surcharge.
• Plan the January 2027 returns and restock cycle before December ends.
• Treat each calendar date as a trigger if you sell to Amazon brands.
• Verify every date in Seller Central, since this guide relies on trade summaries.

Ready to book more meetings with Amazon sellers? See Cruxfinder's cold outbound service and the free GTM calculators.