Amazon US to Require Prepaid Return Labels Starting December 18
Amazon US will require third-party sellers to provide prepaid shipping labels for returns of seller-fulfilled orders, with sellers required to upload a label or issue a refund within 7 calendar days.
What are the key facts?
- 1Amazon US will implement prepaid return-label requirements starting December 18, 2026
- 2Applicable returns must include a prepaid return shipping label
- 3Some products, including heavy and oversized items, are temporarily exempt
- 4Missing the deadline may trigger an automatic refund at the seller’s cost
What happened?
Amazon recently posted a notice in Seller Central announcing changes to return processing requirements for third-party seller-fulfilled orders on Amazon US. Starting December 18, 2026, except for temporarily exempt products such as heavy and oversized items, all orders fulfilled directly by third-party sellers must include a prepaid return shipping label when a buyer initiates a return. Sellers may no longer provide only a standard address label that lists the return address and requires the buyer to pay the shipping cost. After receiving a return request, sellers must upload a compliant prepaid label within 7 calendar days or issue the buyer a full refund directly. If the deadline is missed, an automatic refund may be triggered, with the related costs charged to the seller. The policy primarily affects FBM sellers, overseas-warehouse sellers fulfilling orders themselves, and cross-border sellers whose return addresses are outside the US. Sellers of apparel, shoes and boots, home goods, and other high-return-rate products will also be affected. Sellers should verify return addresses, product weights, and dimensions in advance, and recalculate return shipping costs and refund-related losses.
What does this mean for cross-border sellers?
Starting December 18, 2026, FBM sellers, overseas-warehouse sellers fulfilling orders themselves, and sellers with return addresses outside the US must handle prepaid return labels, except for temporarily exempt products such as heavy and oversized items. Sellers must upload a label or issue a full refund within 7 calendar days of receiving a return request. Recalculate shipping and refund-related losses for high-return-rate categories.
What should sellers do now?
- 1This week, enter the weights and dimensions for apparel, shoes and boots, and home-goods listings fulfilled through US FBM and overseas warehouses; recalculate prepaid return-label costs and create a table showing costs by category and SKU.Dimensional weight
- 2This week, use the profit calculator to estimate return shipping costs, refund-related losses, and current prices for key SKUs in high-return-rate categories on Amazon US; create an SKU gross-margin comparison table and flag products with insufficient margins.Profit calculator