Amazon alerts its sellers every Holiday season that they may or may not meet the criteria to sell toys during Q4. Sellers will receive this email in August, and Amazon continuously sends it to notify its sellers.
Unfortunately, this makes tons of sellers panic because selling toys around the holiday season is crucial for their business.
However, it’s important to note that in the 2019 email, Amazon made it clear that selling toys on Amazon FBA is still possible, stating, “Orders that use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) will not be subject to the holiday selling requirements.”
However, if you are considering Merchant Fulfillment when it comes to toys in Q4, you will have to meet certain criteria. In Q4, it may be important for you to do both FBA and Merchant Fulfillment so that you can sell items late into the season, particularly in December, when it’s too late to ship items directly to the Amazon warehouse.
Why Does Amazon Have the Toys Requirement?
In Q4, with the holiday season in full swing, things can get hectic. Amazon wants to ensure that those who want to merchant fulfill toys are already a successful Amazon seller. They don’t want to have unhappy customers because it can cause a huge problem during the busiest time of the year.
Your Ability to Sell Toys During Q4
If you sell toys on Amazon FBA and don’t fulfill orders yourself, then you are free to sell during Q4 with no requirements necessary. The following guidelines are put in place for merchant fulfilling sellers:
- Your first Amazon sale must be before September, but it does not need to be specific to the Toys and Games category.
- You have processed and shipped at least 25 seller-fulfilled orders between the months of August and October.
Both of these criteria are very reachable.
What You Need to Remember
Amazon will send an email at the beginning of August regarding toy sales in Q4, but the guidelines will generally remain the same. Here’s what you should remember when selling toys on Amazon FBA.
Amazon’s restrictions only apply from November through January. All other times of the year, you can sell toys on Amazon freely.
The restrictions only apply to items in the Toys and Games category, so you can still merchant fulfill other items in different categories.
Even if you don’t meet the criteria, you can still sell items through the FBA program in Q4.
More Qualifiers for Selling Toys On Amazon in Q4
There are a few other requirements that you’ll have to meet if you are fulfilling orders yourself in Q4 in order to sell toys on Amazon. These include:
- Your pre-fulfillment cancellation rate should be 1.75% or lower.
- Your late shipment rate cannot be greater than 4%
- Your order defect rate cannot exceed 1%
You can check these rates in the Performance section of Seller Central in your Amazon account. Amazon will provide you with the final notification about your eligibility before November 1st.
