Oct 31
last day at the off-peak monthly AWD storage rate, 2026
$0.32
average peak increase per unit, October 15 2026 to January 14 2027
3.5%
fuel and logistics surcharge applied on top of peak fees
Key takeaways
- AWD inventory on automatic replenishment keeps the off-peak monthly storage rate only through October 31, 2026.
- Holiday peak fulfilment fees run October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027 at last year's rates.
- Peak increases average $0.32 per unit, with a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge applied on top.
- Removals are not an escape route: Amazon says the process takes 90 days or more, plus about two weeks of carrier time.
- The Black Friday FBA inbound cutoffs were October 21 for minimal splits and October 28 for Amazon-optimized splits.
If you send inventory through AWD into FBA, Amazon AWD automatic replenishment is about to change date, not rate. Amazon's holiday post says that with automatic replenishment enabled you keep paying the off-peak monthly storage rate through October 31, 2026. That is this Saturday. From November 1 the concession is over.
What exactly ends on October 31
Nothing about your inventory changes. The pallets sit where they sat, the ASINs are the same, the replenishment keeps running. What ends is the off-peak monthly storage rate being applied to that inventory while peak season is already underway everywhere else.
That gap existed because peak started earlier than the concession did. Holiday peak fulfilment fees apply from October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027, at the same rates as last year, with peak increases averaging $0.32 per unit and a 3.5% fuel and logistics related surcharge on top of them. Between October 15 and October 31, AWD inventory on automatic replenishment was the one place still billed at off-peak storage. That overlap closes on Saturday.
Why this is a decision and not a notification
The instinct when a storage rate rises is to move units. In the last week of October that instinct is wrong, and the dates say why.
Amazon's own removals guide states that the FBA removal process can take 90 days or more to complete, plus roughly two weeks for the carrier. A removal order placed to dodge a rate that applies on November 1 does not take the unit out of the network before November 1. It takes it out in February, after you have paid the peak rate anyway and after the selling season you were holding the stock for.
Inbound is closed too. The Black Friday and Cyber Monday receive-by dates were October 14 for AWD shipments, October 21 for FBA with minimal shipment splits and October 28 for FBA with Amazon-optimized splits. The first two have passed. So the stock that will serve this peak is the stock already in the network, and the question is not how to move it but how much of it you meant to be there.
What to look at this week
Three numbers, and none of them require a tool you do not have.
How much of your AWD inventory is actually on automatic replenishment. That setting is what tied the off-peak rate to those units. It is also what decides how much of this rate change you absorb on November 1 rather than reading about.
Your storage cost per unit against days of cover. A SKU with ninety days of cover going into a peak window is paying peak storage on inventory that will still be there in February. That is the line where a removal planned for January, not today, starts making sense.
Which SKUs you would rather hold than discount. Peak storage plus the $0.32 average peak fulfilment increase plus the 3.5% surcharge is the real carrying cost of holding through Q4. Compare it against the margin you would give up to move the units now, and the answer is usually clearer than it feels.
The part that is easy to misread
This is a rate the calendar changes, not a penalty. Amazon said there are no new eligibility requirements for holiday 2026 and no new fee types, and the peak rates match last year. The cost increase comes from the date, and the date was published in advance.
What that leaves is a planning job. The detail of how storage is calculated sits in how Amazon FBA storage fees work, the peak schedule itself in Amazon's holiday peak fulfilment fees for 2026, the surcharge that stacks on top in the FBA fuel and logistics surcharge, and what AWD actually is in AWD bulk storage in Europe.
Four days is not enough to move inventory. It is enough to know what the November bill is going to say.
Sources
- Amazon Seller Central: Holiday 2026, same fees, same eligibility, earlier deadlines sellercentral.amazon.com
- Amazon Seller Central: BFCM 2026, Your Essential Prep Checklist sellercentral.amazon.com
- Amazon Seller Central: FBA Inventory Removals, A Comprehensive Guide sellercentral.amazon.com
Hey! I'm Amara
Press at SellerKey.co
☕ Espresso. Never a latte macchiato.
I cover Amazon fee and policy changes: what changed, when it applies and where Amazon published it.
