# Amazon Brand Guide

> One useful Amazon tip every morning, plus the official updates that matter to brand owners. Listings, ads, reviews, pricing, FBA and Brand Registry, written by people who read the fine print. Sources are official Amazon pages only (Seller Central News, Amazon Ads, About Amazon). Published daily at 7 a.m. Eastern; latest update Oct 23, 2026, 4:30 PM ET.

Amazon Brand Guide is a free daily brief for brand owners who sell on Amazon. Each issue picks one move worth making this week and explains it in plain English, then rounds up the official updates that change how you sell.

Publisher: XENA Intelligence Inc. (https://xenaintelligence.com/). Amazon Brand Guide is published by XENA Intelligence, the Louisville company behind SearchPanel, which checks how AI assistants from ChatGPT to Amazon Rufus describe each of your products. They track what the machines say about you; we write down what Amazon says to you.

Citing us: link the issue permalink. Figures on the site are Amazon's own; the source link sits under each one.

## Latest issue
- [Five days to the inbound cutoff. Pick favorites.](https://amazonbrandguide.com/issues/2026-10-23/): FBA inventory on Amazon-optimized splits must arrive by Oct 28 for Black Friday 2026. How to triage SKUs, plus peak fees, deal costs and new Amazon tools.
- [Full text of the latest issue as Markdown](https://amazonbrandguide.com/llms-full.txt)

## Key takeaways today
- FBA stock on Amazon-optimized shipment splits must arrive by October 28 to count for Black Friday. Ship your top sellers first.
- Peak fulfillment fees run October 15 to January 14: $0.32 more per unit on average, plus the 3.5% surcharge. Price deals at peak rates.
- Alexa for Shopping rewards listings that clearly explain the product. Rewrite keyword-stuffed bullets as checkable claims.
- Review Requests ads open in US beta in late October for products with fewer than 1,000 ratings and reviews.

## Answers
- [When is the FBA inventory deadline for Black Friday 2026?](https://amazonbrandguide.com/issues/2026-10-23/#q-1): Amazon asks for FBA inventory to arrive by October 28, 2026 if you use Amazon-optimized shipment splits, and by October 21 if you chose minimal shipment splits. AWD inventory for Black Friday Week had to arrive by October 14. Arrive means at Amazon, not shipped from your factory or waiting at the port.
- [When do Amazon's 2026 holiday peak fulfillment fees apply?](https://amazonbrandguide.com/issues/2026-10-23/#q-2): From October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027, for FBA, Remote Fulfillment, Multi-Channel Fulfillment and Buy with Prime. Amazon puts the average increase at $0.32 per unit, the same as last year, and the 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge still applies on top.
- [How much does a Black Friday deal cost on Amazon?](https://amazonbrandguide.com/issues/2026-10-23/#q-3): For Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday, Best Deals, Lightning Deals and Prime Exclusive Price Discounts carry the same fees as Prime Day: $100 upfront per promotion plus 1.5% of promotional sales, with the variable part capped at $5,000. Submissions for 2026 closed on October 20.
- [Is Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) worth it for Q4?](https://amazonbrandguide.com/issues/2026-10-23/#q-4): Amazon reports that sellers who enrolled in AWD in Q4 2025 saw shipped units rise by 13% or more and out-of-stock days fall by 30% or more. If you use AWD with auto-replenishment, storage stays at off-peak rates through October 31, 2026, so moving stock forward now costs less.
- [How should I write Amazon listings for Alexa for Shopping?](https://amazonbrandguide.com/issues/2026-10-23/#q-5): Write for a shopper asking questions, not for a keyword index. Alexa for Shopping, which absorbed Rufus, answers questions right in Amazon's search bar, and Amazon says the shift rewards sellers who clearly explain what a product does. Use plain, checkable claims: size, material, who it's for and the problem it solves.
- [What are Amazon Review Requests ads?](https://amazonbrandguide.com/issues/2026-10-23/#q-6): Review Requests is an Amazon Ads format that shows verified recent buyers a one-click prompt to rate a product they bought. It opens in US beta in late October 2026, only for products with fewer than 1,000 ratings and reviews, and campaigns pause automatically once a product crosses that line.
- [Does a flagged listing stay live under Amazon's Listing Protection?](https://amazonbrandguide.com/issues/2026-10-23/#q-7): In most cases, yes. With Listing Protection, a flagged listing usually stays active while Amazon reviews it and you fix or dispute the issue. It is for Account Health Assurance sellers, reaching all of them in the US by the end of 2026 and worldwide in 2027. AHA sellers also get Seller Challenge.

## Archive
- [No. 001, Oct 23, 2026: Five days to the inbound cutoff. Pick favorites.](https://amazonbrandguide.com/issues/2026-10-23/)

## Optional
- [All issues as structured JSON](https://amazonbrandguide.com/tips.json)
- [RSS feed](https://amazonbrandguide.com/feed.xml)
- [Sitemap](https://amazonbrandguide.com/sitemap.xml)