Prime Big Deal Days runs October 6-7. On October 15, US holiday peak fulfillment fees begin, with the 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge on top. Any coupon, discount or repricer rule you set for the event has to make money at both fee levels, and Amazon has not published which event-era discounts stay live afterwards.
Event dates and the peak fee period
Prime Big Deal Days starts at 12:01 a.m. PDT on October 6 and runs for two days.
Amazon's holiday announcement sets the peak period from October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027. It covers FBA, Remote Fulfillment with FBA, Multi-Channel Fulfillment and Buy with Prime. On average, peak rates are $0.32 per unit above non-peak, the same increase as last year, and Amazon states that the 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge applies on top of peak fees.
Amazon's original deadline for Prime Big Deal Days deal submissions was September 8. Extensions were reported later, so check Seller Central for the status of any event deal you submitted. Coupons, ongoing prices and repricer rules can still be changed, and those are what this checklist covers.
Fees follow the ship date, not the order date
FBA fees are charged when a unit leaves the fulfillment center. Supply Chain Dive, reading Amazon's help page, reports that products shipped on or after October 15 pay the peak charges. A deal-price order that ships October 9 pays non-peak rates. An identical order whose unit ships October 15 pays peak rates.
That report paraphrases a login-gated Amazon page. It does not cover edge cases, such as an order placed before October 15 that ships after it. Until Amazon says otherwise, treat any unit you expect to ship on or after October 15 as a peak-rate unit.
Why the $0.32 average is a poor planning number
Amazon's own example products, published by Supply Chain Dive, show how much fees differ by size tier:
- Small standard (a mobile phone case): $2.49 non-peak, $2.68 peak
- Large standard (a T-shirt): $6.14 non-peak, $6.53 peak
- Small bulky (a baby cot): $10.21 non-peak, $11.25 peak
- Extra large, 50-70 lb (a TV): $48.57 non-peak, $51.38 peak
Across these examples, increases run from $0.19 on the phone case to $2.81 on the TV. They are single products, not a rate card.
Eightx applied the surcharge to the full peak fee and got roughly $2.77, $6.76, $11.64 and $53.18 for the same four items. Eightx says plainly that these are its own model, not Amazon-published totals. Amazon has not published the exact surcharge calculation, and a Seller Central representative has said the surcharge stays in effect until further notice.
For a small standard item, the change is cents. For a bulky item priced on a thin event margin, it can be enough to turn each unit into a loss.
Step 1: rebuild breakeven per SKU at peak rates
Use each SKU's own peak fee, not the average. Amazon said in July that peak rates for FBA and Remote Fulfillment with FBA are available in the Revenue Calculator, the Profit Analytics dashboard and the Fee and Economics Preview Report. Check that your SKUs actually show a peak rate there before you build on the numbers. For more than a handful of SKUs, the report is the practical option because you can work on it in a spreadsheet.
Then rebuild breakeven with every cost the sale carries:
Breakeven = referral fee + (peak FBA fee × 1.035) + storage + ad cost per unit + COGS + inbound cost
Multiplying the whole peak fee by 1.035 matches the Eightx model. Treat it as the cautious assumption until Amazon publishes its method.
For SKUs in Best Deals, Lightning Deals or Prime Exclusive Price Discounts, add the deal fees: $100 upfront per promotion plus 1.5% of promotional sales, capped at $5,000. Spread the $100 across the units you realistically expect the deal to sell, so a low-volume deal carries its full share per unit.
Step 2: set one floor and use it everywhere
Your floor is peak breakeven plus the minimum margin you will accept. Enter that one number per SKU everywhere a price can drop: repricer minimums, coupon depth, Prime Exclusive Discount prices and scheduled sale prices. If those tools hold different floors, the lowest one is your real floor.
Repricers deserve the closest look. If a minimum was lowered for the event, or a rule matches the Buy Box with no minimum set, that rule can follow competitors below breakeven for as long as it is left running. Open each rule and confirm the minimum it holds. If you use Amazon's automated pricing, we found no Amazon guidance on whether Automate Pricing can enforce a margin floor, so confirm that in your own account.
If you would rather express the floor as a margin than a fixed price, GoSellerGo's GoPricer repricer has a minimum-margin floor setting.
Step 3: audit every discount before October 15
Amazon has not published which coupons and Prime Exclusive Discounts stay active after October 7, or exactly when event prices end. Confirm end dates yourself rather than assuming the event closes them. This audit assumes you run it after the event ends on October 7 and finish by October 14, the last day before peak fees apply. For each SKU:
- Coupons: in the Coupons dashboard, note each active or scheduled coupon, its end date and the price after discount.
- Deals and other promotions: confirm end dates for Prime Exclusive Discounts and any other promotion in the Deals dashboard.
- Repricer rules: record each SKU's current minimum and flag any rule with no minimum.
- Sale prices and scheduled price changes: find any that run past October 15.
- Compare each effective price with the floor from step 2. End, edit or raise anything below it.
Check the price after every discount you have running at once, not only each discount on its own.
Price Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday deals at peak rates
A deep October price should not cost you later deal eligibility. Amazon says Prime Big Deal Days promotional prices are excluded from the 30-day and 60-day lookback and won't affect the maximum deal price required for Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday deals. We have not reviewed Amazon's wider reference-price rules, so read this as a statement about deal eligibility only.
Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday deal submissions are open until October 20. Units sold in those deals will ship inside the peak window, so price them from your step 1 breakeven, deal fees included. For Prime badge eligibility, FBA inventory must arrive by October 28 on Amazon-optimized splits, or by October 21 on minimal splits.
What Amazon has not confirmed
- The final Prime Big Deal Days deal deadline, given reports of an extension.
- How the ship-date rule treats orders placed before October 15 that ship after it.
- Whether the 3.5% surcharge is calculated on the whole peak fee, as modeled above.
- A full peak rate card by size tier and weight band. Our sources show four examples; the complete table sits behind a login.
- Which coupons and Prime Exclusive Discounts remain live after the event.
- Whether Automate Pricing can enforce a minimum price or margin floor.
First step before the event opens
Download the Fee and Economics Preview Report before Prime Big Deal Days starts on October 6. Rebuild breakeven first for bulky SKUs and for any SKU with an active coupon or repricer rule, then put those floors into every pricing tool by October 14.