🔁 Returnuary Hits Harder in 2026

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This week: Q1 2026 is coming in hot: rising FBA fees, Amazon’s new payout delays, a sharper return surge, and a shifting landscape for seller tools. This week’s issue shows you what’s ahead, and how to protect your margins before the squeeze hits.

Also, want a Q4 edge that actually holds up in Returnuary?

Our lead lists focus on practical, low-return products that protect your margins when January hits back.

Last week’s results across our lead lists:

🔍 Unique Top Leads: 248
💰 Avg. Net Profit: $12.12
📈 Avg. ROI: 85.84%
🏷️ Avg. 90 Day Rank: 157,486
💸 Total Profit (all lists, buying 1 unit per lead): $3,077.47
💸 Avg Profit (all lists, buying 1 unit per lead): $615.49

We keep the circle tight to protect everyone’s ROI, and our cutoff points for our Premium lists ($185/mo), and our Elite lists ($349/mo) are nearing. Lock in your place before capacity hits zero.

On Today's Menu:

• 🔁 “Returnuary Strikes Back”: Why This Year’s Return Surge Will Hurt Even More

• 🍪 Snack-Sized Survey - Which Category Do You Think Will Perform the Best this Black Friday?

• 💻 Amazon’s New API Fees = More Than Higher Software Bills

• 🎓 This Week in FBA Lead List Academy

• 🗞️ Essential Amazon Seller Updates

• ⚡ Quick Clicks — Headlines Worth a Glance

• 🎭 Meme of the Week

Let’s eat!

🔁 “Returnuary Strikes Back”: Why This Year’s Return Surge Will Hurt Even More

Returnuary already hits hard, but Returnuary 2026 is shaping up to be the most painful one yet.

Not only will January bring its usual return surge, but FBA fee increases kick in mid-January, raising the cost of every returned unit. And just as sellers begin to recover, Amazon’s new DD+7 payout delay hits in March, tightening cashflow right after the most return-heavy period of the year.

⚠️What this means for your business in early 2026:

You’re facing a new mix of cashflow strain, higher costs, and operational friction that didn’t exist last year, including:

• Delayed payouts meet heavy refunds: DD+7 stretches disbursements right when January refunds hit hardest

• FBA fee hikes magnify every mistake: Higher pick/pack, storage, and return fees squeeze margins on all returned units

• More “customer damaged” inventory coming back unsellable

• Prep-sensitive categories like beauty, toys, and electronics spike when customers return items opened or used

• ASIN volatility increases: Q4 tankers come back at prices you can’t resell for

• Reimbursement delays get worse: mismatched return codes take longer to resolve under the new payout rhythm

➡️ How smart sellers are preparing:

Even though Returnuary 2026 will hit harder, there are proactive moves that protect your margins, stabilize cashflow, and reduce operational drag. Here are the three highest-impact ones:

Solution 1: Reduce returns through smarter sourcing

💡 Quick tip: One of the smartest ways to soften Returnuary’s impact is by shifting more of your Q4 sourcing into practical, low-return categories — the durable, repeat-use items shoppers keep rather than return. Think consumables, household essentials, tools, kitchen staples, and everyday-use items.

🛒 Our lead lists lean heavily into these practical, low-return categories.

We focus on leads that:

• Are durable, everyday-use products shoppers keep rather than return

• Have stable, year-round demand instead of hype-driven volatility

• Have low-return category profiles like consumables, household goods, tools, and kitchen staples

• Have consistent sales velocity (top 1.5% rank targets)

• Have strong margins that hold up even after January adjustments

• Offer safe sourcing with clean IP checks, stable pricing, and no cliffs

You get 10+ expert-reviewed OA leads Monday–Friday, built for sellers who want protective, predictable flips heading into Returnuary and Q1.

Seat-capped to prevent saturation. One flip can cover the entire month.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“My experience with lead lists always turned into a dumpster fire until I subscribed to FBA Lead Lists. I have more than tripled my revenue and profits!”  -Ken

Premium lists ($185/mo) • Elite lists ($349/mo)
No long-term commitments. Totally risk-free.

Solution 2: Strengthen your cashflow foundation before DD+7 hits

💳 Cashflow will be your biggest challenge in Q1 2026

Between January’s return surge, rising FBA fees on January 15, and Amazon’s new DD+7 payout delays hitting in March, OA sellers will feel the tightest cashflow squeeze they’ve ever experienced.

And when you’re operating on thin ROI cycles, even a single delayed payout can stall your ability to restock.

That’s why we recommend building true business credit – not personal credit cards disguised as “business” products, but actual credit lines and vendor accounts that increase your buying power without touching your personal profile.

🧱 Build Business Credit helps sellers:

• Establish business credit the right way, from foundational accounts to Tier 1–4 vendors

• Unlock funding sources that grow with your Amazon revenue

• Separate personal and business credit for safer scaling

• Create cashflow buffers so returns, payout delays, and fee spikes don’t freeze your operations

• Position your online arbitrage business to keep buying inventory even when Amazon slows your cashflow

If January is going to hit harder than ever, strengthening your financial foundation now is the smartest insurance policy you can put in place.

👉 Free Download: Get The Simple Step-by-Step Guide to Building Business Credit Without a Personal Guarantee –  the fastest way to protect your cashflow before Returnuary and DD+7 hit.

Download it here → Build-BusinessCredit.com

Solution 3: Recover more value from the returns you can’t avoid

🛡️ Even with perfect sourcing, returns are coming, and how you handle them determines how much money you keep.

This Returnuary, clean operations matter more than ever.

That’s why we recommend Axiom Prep Center for sellers who want pro-level returns management, especially in categories where “customer damaged” is common.

Axiom Prep helps you:

• Recover revenue from returned units rather than skipping them entirely. Their advanced process evaluates, photographs, documents and routes returned items with precision.

• File optimized reimbursement claims for damages, return fraud, and customer-switched products using their proprietary Returns Management System (RMS).

• Reintroduce returned or refurbished inventory through resale paths or alternative marketplaces instead of simply disposing of it for pennies.

• Avoid the typical pitfalls of DIY returns operations – no high overhead, no guesswork, no lost value from inefficient processes.

OA sellers who use Axiom consistently recover more value with far less operational drag, making it the obvious choice over DIY returns or low-yield liquidation paths.

👉 Get a Free Returns Consultation: See exactly where you're losing money in your returns process and how Axiom can help you recover it.

📖 Related read: Check out our thread on X on how you can use Amazon’s new partial refunds to protect your profits this Q4.  Learn how to reclaim margins when those inevitable returns hit.

📌 The Bottom Line: How Sellers Come Out Ahead

Returnuary isn’t something you can avoid, but you can blunt the damage. Smarter sourcing, stronger cashflow, and cleaner returns operations turn a brutal January into a survivable one. The sellers who prepare now won’t just protect their margins… they’ll come out ahead while everyone else scrambles.

💻 Amazon’s New API Fees = More Than Higher Software Bills

Amazon’s upcoming API fee isn’t just something software tools will pass down to you – it fundamentally changes the economics of the entire seller-tool ecosystem. Smaller tools may shrink features or shut down, bigger ones may gate data behind higher tiers, and the next generation of innovation could slow to a crawl.

That means sellers who rely on accurate repricing, forecasting, sourcing, or inventory tools could see worse data, slower updates, or fewer competitive options… all while Amazon continues tightening its grip on the “software layer” sellers depend on.

💡 Quick tip: Now’s a good time to audit your tool stack. Make sure you’re not overpaying for tools that will soon raise prices or downgrade features, and keep an eye on alternatives, because the landscape is about to shift fast.

🎓 This Week in FBA Lead List Academy

• ⚡The Black Friday Pricing Move Few Sellers Know: use the yo-yo repricing strategy to win the Amazon buy box and protect your margins during BFCM

• 💰The Q4 Stacking System Top Sellers Won’t Talk About: the aggressive discount strategy that turns normal OA leads into hidden gold

• 📊 Track What Keepa Can’t: your most profitable insights come from data points software doesn’t capture; turn those observations into smarter decisions and higher long-term profit

• 💡7 Random Tips to Level Up Your Q4 Game: real-world lessons from our experiences – simple, proven, and worth saving for later

🗞️ Essential Amazon Seller Updates

• 🚀 Seller Challenge Gets a Boost
  Amazon is expanding Seller Challenge for sellers enrolled in Account Health Assurance, giving you up to three listing-level policy reviews every 180 days.

• 💹 New Profit Analytics Tool Unlocked
  Amazon’s new Profit Analytics tool gives sellers a centralized way to track fees, costs, and profitability across their entire catalog – from ASIN-level performance to advertising, refunds, and returns.

• 🔄 New Returns & Recovery Dashboard Debuts
  Amazon launched a unified Returns & Recovery: Insights and Opportunities dashboard that gives sellers a clearer view of return trends, ASIN-level insights, and recommended actions to reduce returns.

⚡ Quick Clicks — Headlines Worth a Glance

• USPS wants to make more fee increases: postmaster wants price caps lifted

• FBA order fulfillment delays hurt: understand what’s causing them to minimize its effects

• How ecommerce fraud & Amazon seller chargebacks eat into your margins: if you’re not paying attention, it can make your business go under

🎭 Meme of the Week

Because Amazon selling is serious business… but not too serious.
Want more sourcing memes, weekly drops, and a few laughs between IP claims?
👉Follow us on X (@FBALeadList)

Last week, our lead lists delivered:

🔍 Unique Top Leads: 248
💰 Avg. Net Profit: $12.12
📈 Avg. ROI: 85.84%
🏷️ Avg. 90 Day Rank: 157,486
💸 Total Profit (all lists, buying 1 unit per lead): $3,077.47

This is what you could’ve pocketed buying just one unit per lead from our daily lists last week:

• We deliver 10+ expert-vetted OA leads to your inbox Monday - Friday

• IP/brand/price-cliff filtered,  top 1.5% sales rank targets, 85% avg ROI, $14 avg net profit/unit

• Built for speed so you turn inventory fast = optimized cash flow

• Lists are seat-capped to avoid saturation.

• One flip can cover your monthly subscription

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Better and more cost-effective than any VA I have hired on my own. This has been a real game-changer for me, and I really do appreciate the hard work everyone puts into making this happen.” - Ken

Premium lists ($185/mo) • Elite lists ($349/mo)

85% avg ROI, $14+ avg profit/unit | Seat-capped to prevent saturation. | One flip can cover your month’s subscription. | No long-term commitments, cancel anytime

🤝 Let's Partner Up

Are you an influencer, content creator, or Amazon expert with value to share? We’re always looking for new ways to grow together.

Here’s what we’re excited to explore:

• Sharing your content in our newsletter or socials

• Offering exclusive deals to our subscribers

• Co-creating content that helps sellers scale smarter

Got an idea for a win-win partnership?

📩 Email us at [email protected] — let’s build something great together.

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