Get the latest insights right in your inbox
Resource | Blog
Amazon Accelerate 2025: Key Fulfillment Changes to Prepare for Volatile Holiday Demand
SUMMARY
Prepare for the most unpredictable Q4 yet. Explore Amazon’s new fulfillment tools to prevent stockouts, streamline returns, and reach shoppers across multiple channels.
Rachel Horner
Speed, accuracy, and control have never been more critical for merchants, especially with Q4 just around the corner. Ongoing tariff uncertainty adds another layer of complexity: although recent court rulings have affected certain tariffs, Deloitte forecasts that average tariff rates will remain elevated throughout 2026. These persistent tariffs, combined with unpredictable consumer behavior—driven by panic buying and shifting priorities—make this holiday season exceptionally volatile.
Amazon is ensuring its fulfillment network is ready to keep pace with what could be the most unpredictable holiday season yet. At this year’s Amazon Accelerate, the company unveiled updates designed to give sellers greater autonomy, smarter tools, and faster, more reliable ways to move products from manufacturer to customer both on Amazon and across other sales channels.
From ending FBA commingling to AI-driven inventory planning and expanded multi-channel fulfillment, our team at Accelerate saw firsthand how Amazon is redefining how brands manage inventory, returns, and cross-platform operations. Below, we highlight the key fulfillment updates from Accelerate that will shape your supply chain in 2026 and help you stay ahead during the holiday rush.
Multichannel Pricing Solution
Power Your Brand with Future-Ready Technology for Amazon and Beyond
Fulfillment Gets an Upgrade
The End of FBA Comingling
Amazon is officially phasing out FBA commingling later this year, shifting orders to ship directly from each seller’s own inventory. What may seem like a small operational change actually signals a broader strategic shift in how Amazon manages its marketplace and relationships with brands.
Commingling—once a convenient way to pool identical items from multiple sellers—helped speed fulfillment and conserve warehouse space. But it came at a cost: increased risk of counterfeit or expired products entering the system and significant operational burden for sellers tasked with re-stickering items.
The decision reflects both operational and strategic realities. Amazon’s fulfillment network has matured, capable of positioning inventory closer to buyers and tracking units individually, which diminishes the need for pooled inventory. At the same time, more sellers are brand owners who prioritize control over product quality, and consumer trust increasingly depends on consistency and authenticity.
The big takeaway: This change reinforces a core trend at Amazon: prioritizing brand integrity and reducing friction for legitimate sellers while tightening oversight of resellers. For private labels and brands, it’s also a reminder to integrate identifiers like the FNSKU into packaging and leverage every visual element to protect listings and strengthen your brand presence.
Rethinking Returns
The holiday season often brings a spike in returns, which can erode margins and overwhelm operations. To help sellers hold onto more revenue, Amazon is introducing a unified returns system backed by three practical tools, perfectly timed for the post-holiday return spike:
- Replacement parts: Send the missing piece instead of swapping out the entire product.
- Direct-to-seller chat: Give customers quick answers on setup or troubleshooting before they request a refund. In trials, over half of potential returns were avoided.
- Partial refunds: Offer a small credit for minor defects without requiring the item back, preserving both the sale and the relationship.
By treating returns as preventable events rather than an unavoidable cost, sellers can reduce refund volume, protect margins, and better manage the post-holiday returns surge—keeping operations smooth when demand is highest and shoppers are most active.
Harness AI-Powered Pricing Optimization to Protect Inventory and Avoid Fees
Feedvisor’s pricing optimization technology uses real-time inventory data to keep your stock healthy. Start your free 14-day trial and see it in action.
Expanded Multi-Channel Fulfillment
Amazon is extending Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) to support merchant sales on Walmart, Shopify, and Shein, offering faster delivery and seamless cross-platform operations.
Where Amazon once prioritized keeping buyers within its own ecosystem (through initiatives like Amazon Haul) this update signals a shift toward collaboration. Amazon is recognizing that empowering sellers to succeed beyond its platform strengthens the broader e-commerce ecosystem and your brand’s reach.
Plus, with consumers seeking more value and deals this year, shoppers are diversifying where they buy, making it more important than ever for brands to meet them wherever they are. Sellers can now leverage Amazon’s fulfillment network to provide reliable, efficient service across multiple marketplaces just in time for the holidays.
Smarter Inventory Decisions with AI
Amazon also unveiled an AI-driven inventory planning feature that flags which SKUs would benefit most from FBA and prepares them for peak periods, critical during Q4, when demand is unpredictable and stockouts can quickly erode sales.
What it delivers:
- Sales protection by anticipating and preventing stockouts.
- Cost control by steering clear of long-term storage fees.
- A clearer roadmap for high-volume events like Prime Day and Black Friday.
In short, it gives sellers the visibility and foresight needed to navigate the ups and downs of Q4, minimize lost sales, and maximize revenue during the most critical shopping season of the year.
EasyShip: A New Fulfillment Option for FBM
Launching in 2026, Amazon EasyShip aims to give FBM sellers Prime-like delivery speeds without shifting entirely to FBA.
The program automates many manual processes, taps into Amazon’s carrier network for lower rates, and makes FBM offers more competitive. For brands that value control but want FBA-level reliability, this could be a game-changer.
Final Thoughts
Amazon’s 2025 updates make one thing clear: the platform is equipping sellers with smarter AI, faster fulfillment, and more actionable insights than ever before. But knowing the updates is only the first step—turning these tools into real growth, margin protection, and operational efficiency requires strategy, time, and expertise.
Putting these insights into action is easier with Feedvisor. With AI-powered pricing and advertising, Feedvisor helps merchants leverage Amazon’s new capabilities—optimizing performance, protecting profits, and scaling with confidence. See it for yourself with a free, 14-day trial.
