Amazon holiday returns 2026: open until 31 January, what changes for sellers

Customers who buy on Amazon.it between 1 November and 25 December 2026 can return the product until 31 January 2027, or within 30 days of receipt if that date is later. For electronics, home, kitchen, toys, books, DIY and other categories the deadline is 15 January 2027, or 14 days from receipt. The rule covers both FBA orders and the ones you ship yourself, and there is nothing to switch on. So some of November's returns may reach you in January.

Amazon announced it on the Italian seller forum on 30 October, as in previous years. The extension applies in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, the UK, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Belgium and Ireland.

How long customers have to return

Germany and France also have the shorter deadline for some products, with the category list on each store's help pages. If you sell abroad, check the product's category country by country, because the Italian split may not match other markets. For the remaining countries the announcement gives only the longer deadline.

The clock runs from receipt, so orders from early November gain the most time. Three examples, worked out from Amazon's rule:

• Fashion, received on 3 November: without the extension the deadline would be 3 December, now it is 31 January. That is 59 extra days
• Electronics, received on 3 November: the deadline moves from 17 November to 15 January, again 59 extra days
• Fashion, bought on 24 December and received on 5 January: the 30 days end after 31 January, so the customer has until 4 February

The extension is Amazon's own commercial policy and comes on top of the 14-day statutory right of withdrawal, which stays in place. The usual eligibility criteria stay too: personalised products, for example, are refunded or replaced only if damaged, defective or significantly different from what was ordered. Under the same policy, a customer who withdraws within 14 days also gets the cheapest shipping cost back; after that, during the extended period, only the price of the item.

What changes in your numbers

The announcement says no action is required, and for your settings that holds. Five things change in your numbers:

• Q4 closes in February: the margin on November and December sales stays provisional until the last return window ends. If you sell in Spain, that is 6 February at the earliest
• Refunds land in a weaker month: in many categories January brings in less than the Christmas period, and it is often when new stock gets ordered from suppliers
• Stock comes back late: a unit returned in January could not be resold in December. Unsellable units, unless you decide what to do with them, sit in Amazon's warehouses at your expense
• Clothing and shoes pay an extra fee: every unit returned to a fulfilment centre is charged a returns processing fee of 50% of the fulfilment fee, unless Amazon is responsible for the return
• The ASIN's return rate can rise: it drives the high-return-rate fee and the "Frequently returned item" badge on the product page

What to check now

• Estimate returns per ASIN: take each product's return rate from previous years and apply it to November and December sales. For FBA the data is in the FBA customer returns report. Leave that amount out of the cash you count on for January orders
• Hold the reorder if you can: an order placed after 15 January or after 31 January, depending on the category, takes the units that came back sellable into account
• Fix listings before the peaks: customer-reported issues are in the Voice of the Customer dashboard. An unclear size chart or a misleading photo costs more when customers have until the end of January to send the product back
• See when your Christmas sales really start: Amazon says the extension is meant to get customers buying earlier. Compare your data from previous years and make sure stock and campaigns are ready by then

If you ship yourself

The policy also covers self-fulfilled orders, and the work stays with you. Returns within the policy are authorised automatically and you must refund within two working days of receiving them. If you do not, Amazon may refund the customer on your behalf and charge your account. So plan who receives and checks returns throughout January. Check your default return address too, along with product weights and dimensions, which are used to calculate the cost of the return label.

Two options for low-priced products

On a product worth a few euros, physically bringing it back can cost more than the goods. With FBA there are two optional programmes, which you switch on in your Fulfilment by Amazon settings:

• Returnless resolutions: the customer gets a refund and keeps the product. You can set a maximum price between €1 and €75 (the default is €10) or choose ASINs with a CSV file. They have recently become available in Italy, Germany, France, Spain and the UK, and apply only to returns created after you enable them (details)
• Partial refunds: the customer keeps the product and gets back the percentage you set. Since October you can choose which return reasons qualify, with different percentages (details)

Neither programme has a cost and the high-return-rate fee does not apply, but the return still counts towards the ASIN's return rate. With returnless resolutions you also give up inventory reimbursement. Amazon assesses each request and offers the option only to eligible customers, so some products may still come back.

Run the sums ASIN by ASIN: on one side, the value you recover when goods come back sellable; on the other, fees, storage and removal. If the second number is higher, avoiding the return makes sense. Returnless resolutions have no downloadable report yet, so you track the effect in the Return status column of the FBA customer returns page.

This is the general picture as of 2 November 2026, drawn from Amazon's public pages, not legal advice. If you want to estimate how January's returns will affect your catalogue, let's talk.