Amazon hits pause on controversial change to its advertising payment system that had caused a seller revolt

“We recently let a small number of advertisers know that we’d be updating their available payment methods to pay with their seller or vendor account balance or Pay by Invoice,” Amazon wrote in a message to advertisers posted Tuesday on the Amazon Ads blog. “Based on feedback we heard, we’re deferring this change until August 1, 2026 to give this group of advertisers more time to prepare.”

In its message to advertisers, Amazon added that the majority of advertisers already use account balance payments. Pay by Invoice, the alternative option, allows advertisers to receive a monthly bill due within 30 days.

The decision follows mounting frustration among sellers, many of whom argued the move would effectively force them to front ad spend using operating capital tied up in their Amazon accounts, Modern Retail previously reported. The new policy hit some sellers at the same time as changes to seller payouts, a new fuel surcharge and higher fulfillment costs.

The pause signals Amazon is at least temporarily backing off a policy that had sparked coordinated pushback from its seller community. Some Amazon sellers called for a one-day boycott of the company’s advertising platform, urging merchants to turn off their ads on April 15, when the policy was originally set to go into effect.

“[Amazon] essentially rolled out three fees within a month,” Eugene Khayman, the co-founder of Million Dollar Sellers, a private group for Amazon merchants that was organizing the ad boycott, previously told Modern Retail.

The update applies only to advertisers who were directly contacted, according to Amazon’s message to advertisers.

This isn’t the first time Amazon has delayed a controversial policy following seller backlash. In 2024, Amazon delayed the rollout of a controversial inventory fee after the announcement sparked widespread concern and outrage.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.