Amazon continues to refine its India marketplace policies every year, and 2025 has brought changes that affect fees, fulfillment, advertising, and how sellers are measured on performance. Whether you’re an established seller or just launching your first listing, here’s what has changed and how to adapt.
Fee Structure Changes
Amazon has adjusted referral fee slabs across several categories and introduced more granular weight-based fulfillment tiers. Sellers who haven’t reviewed their pricing since last year may be absorbing costs they don’t need to. It’s worth recalculating margins category by category rather than assuming last year’s numbers still hold.
FBA Updates
Fulfilled by Amazon has seen updates to storage fee calculations and inbound placement fees, with new inventory-performance-based incentives for sellers who maintain healthy sell-through rates. Poor inventory planning is now penalized faster than before, so demand forecasting has become more important for maintaining margins.
Inventory Performance Index (IPI)
Sellers with strong IPI scores continue to receive storage cost advantages, making it worthwhile to regularly clear aging inventory rather than letting it sit and accumulate long-term storage fees.
Sponsored Products Ads
The advertising console now offers more granular targeting and automated bidding rules that adjust in near real-time based on conversion signals. Sellers running Sponsored Products campaigns should revisit their negative keyword lists regularly, since broader automated targeting can occasionally pull in less relevant search terms.
Brand Registry Enhancements
Brand Registry now includes stronger counterfeit detection tools and expanded A+ Content options, giving registered brands more ways to differentiate their listings visually. If you haven’t enrolled your trademark yet, this remains one of the highest-leverage steps for protecting your listings from hijackers.
Global Selling Expansion
Global Selling has simplified account setup for Indian sellers wanting to list on Amazon’s US, UK, and Middle East marketplaces, with more streamlined tax and compliance documentation. This has made cross-border expansion realistic for smaller sellers who previously found the paperwork too complex to justify the opportunity.
Listing Requirements
Updated listing quality requirements now weigh image compliance, bullet point structure, and backend search terms more heavily in search ranking. Sellers should audit older listings against current image and content guidelines, since standards that were acceptable two years ago may now be flagged or suppressed in search.
Easy Ship Improvements
Easy Ship pickup windows have become more flexible in many pin codes, and tracking visibility for both sellers and customers has improved. This has reduced the volume of “where is my order” support tickets for sellers who rely on Easy Ship instead of Amazon-fulfilled inventory.
Returns Policy Changes
Return windows and eligibility rules have been refined by category, with electronics and apparel seeing the most notable adjustments. Sellers should build the current return rate into their pricing rather than treating returns as a rare exception, particularly in categories prone to sizing or compatibility issues.
Performance Metrics
Amazon has tightened the thresholds for order defect rate, late dispatch rate, and cancellation rate that determine account health. Falling below the new thresholds can now trigger warnings faster, so proactive monitoring of your seller dashboard on a weekly basis is more important than it used to be.
Amazon Launchpad
The Launchpad program for new and innovative brands has expanded its category eligibility, giving early-stage sellers access to premium placement and marketing support that would otherwise be difficult to earn. If you sell a genuinely novel product, applying for Launchpad can meaningfully accelerate discovery.
How This Compares to Other Marketplaces
If you also sell on other Indian marketplaces, it’s worth comparing these changes against what’s happening on other platforms and tools you rely on for content and operations, since keeping listing quality consistent across channels tends to compound your ranking benefits everywhere.
Final Thoughts
None of these individual updates is dramatic on its own, but together they reward sellers who actively manage fees, inventory health, and listing quality rather than setting up a listing once and leaving it untouched. Building a quarterly review habit around these metrics will keep your account healthy as Amazon continues to iterate.
Preparing for Festive Season Sales
Amazon’s major sale events remain some of the highest-volume periods of the year, and sellers who plan inventory and pricing well in advance consistently outperform those who scramble at the last minute. Confirm FBA inbound shipments arrive with enough buffer time before the event, since warehouse congestion tends to spike right before major sales.
Advertising Budget Planning
Increase Sponsored Products budgets gradually in the two weeks leading up to a major sale rather than switching on a large budget overnight, since the algorithm needs time to optimize delivery against your new spend level.
Common Mistakes New Sellers Make
New sellers frequently underprice their first listings to chase early sales velocity, only to find margins too thin to sustain advertising spend later. Another common mistake is neglecting backend search terms and bullet point structure, which has a real impact on organic visibility even before any advertising is involved.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I review my Amazon fee structure?
At minimum quarterly, and always immediately after Amazon announces a fee change for your category, since referral and fulfillment fee adjustments can shift your margins meaningfully.
Is Brand Registry worth it for a small seller?
Yes, in most cases. Even small sellers benefit from the counterfeit protection and A+ Content access, and the trademark requirement is more accessible than many new sellers assume.
What’s the fastest way to improve my performance metrics?
Focus first on reducing late dispatch and cancellation rates, since these are usually the most controllable factors and have an outsized effect on account health scores.
Building a Repricing Routine
Set aside time weekly to review pricing against competitors rather than relying solely on automated repricing tools, since automated rules can occasionally race to the bottom in highly competitive categories without a human check on overall margin health.
Documenting Your SOPs
As your catalog grows, write down standard operating procedures for listing creation, pricing review, and inventory replenishment. This makes it far easier to bring on a virtual assistant or new team member without every process living only in your head.