Amazon has set out in a single support page what brands may and may not put in their Amazon Brand Stores during peak shopping events, and the first item on the prohibited list is Amazon's own vocabulary. The Amazon Ads Support Center article, titled "Create compliant Brand Store content for peak events" and filed under Building campaigns, carries an update date of November 13, 2026. "Amazon trademarks, products, and services aren't allowed anywhere in your Store," the page states. "Your Store is rejected if it references Prime Day or other Amazon trademarks."

In Short

An updated Amazon Ads support page sets out the rules for Brand Store content during Prime Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, banning its own trademarks, urgency phrases, specific prices and superlatives, and routing every promotional message through one tool, the Featured Deals widget. The rules hit every brand that builds a Store on Amazon, and they extend to page names, navigation tabs and text printed inside hero images. Black Friday and Cyber Monday Stores must run on the dates Amazon announces for each marketplace, be submitted at least 48 hours ahead, and survive a review that the page says can take up to three business days.

What the page covers

The page is short on preamble. Its subtitle reads: "Remove prohibited event references, promote deals with approved Store tools, and submit your Store for review." What follows is a consolidated statement of Amazon's peak-event Store rules, published as Black Friday approaches.

According to Amazon, "These rules apply to every Store, for every event. The rules cover text, images, page names, navigation tabs, and text inside images." That last category matters more than it might appear. A hero image designed by an agency months earlier can carry a "Prime Day" banner that is easy to overlook when the text on a page is being edited. The page acknowledges as much in a closing note: "If your Store is rejected again, read the new rejection reason. It often points to content you missed, such as text inside a hero image."

Trademarks before, during and after

The trademark rule has no time limit and no exceptions. The page's wording is: "You can't use Amazon trademarks in your Store before, during, or after an event, and Advertiser Support can't make exceptions. Amazon trademarks include Prime, Prime Day, Prime Video, Amazon Music, and their associated Amazon logos."

So a brand cannot run a "Prime Day Deals" tab in June, nor keep it up afterwards as a record of what was on offer. What, then, does a brand call its Prime Day sale? Amazon supplies the answer in a table further down the page. Prime Day is Amazon's own event, sold under its own brand, and the brands whose products fill its deal pages are told to describe it without naming it.

Five categories of banned wording

Beyond trademarks, the page states that "The following wording isn't allowed," and lists five categories. The table below reproduces the page's categories and examples verbatim.

Banned category (page wording) Examples the page gives
"Urgency or time limits" "Today only," "Hurry"
"Specific prices or savings" "Save 50% on Product," "$20 off Product"
"Price claims that compare, mislead, or can't be proven" "Best possible price," "Unbeatable price," "Price advantage"
"Superlatives" "Save big," "Huge savings," "Incredible price"
"'Free' or similar wording" Banned "unless the offer is available to all customers and shows all eligibility conditions"

Taken together, these exclude most of the language retailers have traditionally used to sell a discount. A brand cannot tell shoppers how much they will save, cannot say the saving is large, cannot say the price beats anyone else's, and cannot tell them to act quickly.

One tool for every promotional message

What remains is a single permitted channel. According to Amazon, "Promotional messaging is only allowed with the Featured Deals widget."

The page sets out exactly where that widget goes: "On every deals page, put the Featured Deals widget directly under the header, with nothing in between. If you have a product grid, add a text tile between the Featured Deals widget and the product grid." The text tile has its own constraints. It "must tell shoppers that the products below aren't deals, and use general wording to describe them. Don't use the word 'offer' in the text tile." A further line requires brands to "Give your deals page an appropriate title," though the page does not define what qualifies.

The widget itself needs at least 4 products, and according to the page, "The widget shows only products with active deals."

The logic of the design is visible in the sequence. Prices and savings on Amazon are subject to the company's own validation, and the widget, which shows only products with active deals, is tied to that deal data. Copy written by brands carries no such link. By confining price talk to a component fed by Amazon's systems, the rules remove the possibility of a Store banner promising a discount that a product detail page does not deliver. The page itself does not state this rationale; it is PPC Land's reading of how the rules fit together.

That reading fits a broader pattern. Amazon tightened its pricing rules earlier this year, when List Price rules required a recent outside retailer price or Featured Offer price from April 23, 2026, with discounts needing to be at least 5% off the relevant reference price and validated every 24 hours. A Store headline reading "Save 50%" would sit entirely outside that validation regime.

The Prime Day substitution table

The page includes an event selector with two tabs, Prime Day and Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Under "Not allowed," the Prime Day tab lists:

  • "The terms 'Prime,' 'Prime Day,' or 'Prime Time,' including in phrases like 'Prime Day Deals' or 'Prime Day savings'"
  • "The Prime Day logo"
  • "Imagery or colors that mimic Prime Day branding when used with Prime Day wording"
  • "Page names or navigation tabs that reference the event, such as 'Prime Day Deals'"
  • "Hero images with 'Prime Day' text overlays"

The color rule is conditional. Imagery or colors that resemble Prime Day branding are prohibited "when used with Prime Day wording," which suggests the colors alone are not the problem. The step-by-step instructions on the same page are blunter, telling brands to remove "any imagery in Prime Day colors" without the qualifier.

Under "Allowed," Amazon offers replacement wording "when you replace prohibited wording." The table is reproduced below.

Instead of Approved alternatives, according to the page
"Prime Day" or "Prime Day Deals" "Shop our best deals," "Featured offers," "Exclusive savings," "Deals," "Explore our savings," "Explore our discounts," "[Product Name] savings," "Holiday special"
A "Prime Day Deals" page or tab "Our best offers," "Shop and save"
Deal callouts brands write themselves The Featured Deals widget

The page gives a worked example: "Your hero image says 'Shop our best deals' and your deals tab is named 'Our best offers.' Both are compliant."

Two details in the table deserve attention. "Featured offers" and "Our best offers" are approved for headings and tabs, while the word "offer" is banned inside the text tile that sits below the widget. The prohibition is specific to the tile, which exists to tell shoppers that the products beneath it are not deals. Second, "Exclusive savings" and "Shop our best deals" are on the approved list while "Huge savings" and "Save big" are on the banned list. The line Amazon has drawn appears to separate descriptions of a category from claims about the size of a discount, though the page does not explain it in those terms.

"Holiday special" also appears as an approved substitute for "Prime Day," an event that Amazon moved to June for 2026 across 26 countries.

The procedure, step by step

The page's section "Remove prohibited references and resubmit your Store" sets out nine steps "to build event content that passes review, or to fix a rejected Store page." As the documentation describes them:

  1. In the navigation side menu, the advertiser clicks Brand Content.
  2. The advertiser clicks Stores.
  3. The advertiser selects the Store to update, then clicks Edit Brand Store.
  4. Every page in the Store is reviewed, "including hero images, page and tab names, and body text."
  5. Each Prime Day reference is removed, "including the Prime Day logo and any imagery in Prime Day colors."
  6. Removed wording is replaced with a compliant alternative from the table in the Prime Day tab.
  7. To show products with active promotions, the Featured Deals widget is added as the first section of the page:
    • a. On the page where deals should appear, the advertiser clicks Add New Section.
    • b. The advertiser selects Featured Deals and adds at least 4 products. The widget shows only products with active deals.
    • c. Setup of the widget is covered in a separate help article, Content tiles on Stores.
  8. If the Store references Black Friday or Cyber Monday, or deals content should be live only during the event, a deals version of the Store is scheduled for the event dates. The page instructs: "Wait until Amazon announces the dates before you schedule." Then:
    • a. In the Version drop-down, the advertiser clicks Create new version.
    • b. The new version is edited with compliant wording.
    • c. The advertiser clicks Submit for publishing.
    • d. Start and end dates that match the event are chosen. The page's wording: "For Black Friday and Cyber Monday, use the start and end dates Amazon announces for your marketplace. Your sales event can start no more than 7 days before the event and must be removed or updated within 24 hours after it ends, unless the event lasts longer, such as Cyber Week."
    • e. The advertiser clicks Submit "at least 48 hours before your start date." According to the page, "Your current Store returns automatically when the event ends."
    • f. Further detail is in a separate help article, Create and schedule Store versions.
  9. If no version was scheduled in step 8, the advertiser clicks Submit for publishing, then Submit.

Review status, according to the page, appears "in the status bar in Store builder," and an approved Store "goes live right away or on its scheduled date." The same versioning approach applies to Prime Day: "To show your deals content only during Prime Day, schedule a deals version of your Store for the event dates. Your regular Store returns automatically when the event ends."

Dates set by Amazon

For Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the page is unequivocal: "For Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM), schedule your Store with the start and end dates that Amazon announces for your marketplace. BFCM Stores scheduled outside these dates are rejected."

Amazon's US event this year is longer than seven days. Black Friday Week runs from November 19 to 30, according to Amazon, with Black Friday on November 27 and Cyber Monday on November 30, dates PPC Land reported when Amazon closed Black Friday deal submissions for sellers on October 20. The page names Cyber Week as an example of a longer event. An illustration of the scheduling dialog on the page shows an end date of November 30, 2026, at 11:51 a.m. Pacific time, matching Cyber Monday, though it is presented as an illustration rather than an instruction.

Review times and the 48-hour rule

Moderation is the constraint most likely to bite. According to the page, "Moderation usually takes 24 hours but can take up to 3 business days, so plan ahead for event deadlines." The submission dialog pictured on the same page gives a shorter figure, reading "This can take up to 24 hours," and the body text's three-business-day ceiling is the one that governs worst-case planning.

The table below sets the page's timing rules against the US calendar. Rows marked as PPC Land calculations apply the page's figures to Amazon's announced dates; Amazon has not published them.

Item Date or figure Basis
Featured Deals widget minimum 4 products Support page
Earliest start of a sales event No more than 7 days before the event Support page
Removal or update after the event Within 24 hours after it ends, unless the event lasts longer Support page
Minimum submission lead time At least 48 hours before the start date Support page
Typical moderation time 24 hours Support page
Maximum moderation time Up to 3 business days Support page
US Black Friday Week Thursday, November 19 to Monday, November 30, 2026 Amazon announcement, November 10, 2026
Latest submission for a November 19 start Tuesday, November 17, 2026 PPC Land calculation (48 hours before start)
End of a 3-business-day review begun November 17 Friday, November 20, 2026 PPC Land calculation
7 days before Black Friday (November 27) Friday, November 20, 2026 PPC Land calculation

The arithmetic shows the gap. A deals version submitted at the 48-hour minimum for a November 19 start could still be under review on November 20, a day after the event opens. The minimum submission window and the maximum review time are not aligned, and the page leaves the difference for brands to absorb.

The same calendar squeezes other parts of the business. PPC Land reported in July that Amazon held its 2026 holiday promotion fees at $100 per promotion plus 1.5% of sales, capped at $5,000, and set peak fulfillment fees from October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027. Store content now has its own deadline on top of inventory and deal deadlines. Amazon groups these peak periods under the label high velocity events, and the support page applies one set of Store rules to all of them.

Why Brand Stores matter to advertisers

Brand Stores are multi-page brand destinations inside Amazon. They serve as landing pages for Sponsored Brands campaigns and as a showcase for a brand's catalogue. Their commercial weight has grown over the past year, and Amazon has tied their measurement more closely to sales.

In December 2025, Amazon shifted Brand Store quality ratings away from dwell time and toward sales attributed to Store visits within 14 days, citing 39% more sales for high-quality Stores than medium-quality ones. In January 2026, Amazon added section-level performance data to Store insights across 29 countries, showing renders, viewable impressions, clicks and click-through rate for each section of a page. A month later, the Brand Stores API left beta, letting brands and agencies update Store content and submit it for moderation programmatically.

Amazon has also linked Stores to its ad formats. In November 2025, Amazon added a Brand Store page views metric for Sponsored Brands, and in May 2026 it introduced Brand Gallery, a reserve share of voice format with a Brand Store call to action. Amazon's 2025 data, cited in that coverage, said shoppers spend 1.5 times more per order and buy 12% more units when Sponsored Brands campaigns land on a Brand Store.

That is the context in which rejection carries a cost beyond the Store itself. If a brand's Sponsored Brands traffic lands on a Store page that is stuck in review or still showing last week's content, the paid clicks arrive at a destination that is out of step with the event. A rejection reason pointing to text in a hero image, followed by a second review of up to three business days, can consume a sizeable share of a 12-day Black Friday Week.

A familiar regulatory vocabulary

The banned wording maps closely onto practices consumer regulators have pursued. Australia's competition regulator, the ACCC, opened its 2025 Black Friday sweep with countdown timers, store-wide sales with exclusions, "up to X% off" claims and strikethrough pricing among its targets. In September 2026, the ACCC fined James Lane and Vuly a combined $59,400 over sales that ran past their advertised end dates, including a Click Frenzy banner whose countdown timer reset.

Amazon's support page makes no reference to any regulator, and there is no indication it was written in response to one. But the overlap is plain. "Today only" and "Hurry" are urgency claims. "Best possible price" and "Price advantage" are comparative claims that require proof. A reference price is what makes a "Save 50%" claim meaningful, and Amazon's rules move every such claim off brand-written copy and into a widget the platform controls.

What the page does not say

The page does not say what changed on November 13, 2026, when the rules first applied, or whether the seven-day limit runs from the first day of an announced event or from Black Friday itself. It does not list which deal types, such as a lightning deal or a coupon, count as an "active deal" for the widget, and it lists "Understand the AI experience on Brand Stores (beta)" among related topics without saying how that feature interacts with the wording rules.

The page closes with its own summary: "Before your next peak event, build your deals version with compliant wording, add the Featured Deals widget, and schedule your deals version for the event dates."

Key facts

  • Source document: "Create compliant Brand Store content for peak events," Amazon Ads Support Center, section Building campaigns
  • Date: "Updated on Nov 13, 2026"; no first-publication date or change log on the page
  • Source URL: published on the Amazon Ads Support Center (advertising.amazon.com/help); the article's own address is not printed on the page
  • Scope: "every Store, for every event"; covers text, images, page names, navigation tabs and text inside images
  • Amazon trademarks named: Prime, Prime Day, Prime Video, Amazon Music and associated Amazon logos; Prime Day tab also names "Prime Time"
  • Banned wording categories: urgency or time limits; specific prices or savings; unprovable or comparative price claims; superlatives; "Free" unless available to all customers with all eligibility conditions shown
  • Only permitted promotional channel: Featured Deals widget, placed directly under the header, minimum 4 products, active deals only
  • Store tools named: Brand Content menu, Stores, Edit Brand Store, Store builder, Add New Section, Version drop-down, Create new version, Submit for publishing
  • Timing rules: sales event starts no more than 7 days before the event; removed or updated within 24 hours after it ends unless the event lasts longer (example: Cyber Week); submission at least 48 hours before start; moderation usually 24 hours, up to 3 business days
  • BFCM scheduling: dates Amazon announces per marketplace; Stores scheduled outside them are rejected
  • Related help articles referenced: Content tiles on Stores; Create and schedule Store versions; Brand Store - All Deals page; Understand the AI experience on Brand Stores (beta)
  • US 2026 event dates (Amazon announcement, November 10, 2026): Black Friday Week November 19 to 30; Black Friday November 27; Cyber Monday November 30

Timeline

Summary

Who: Amazon, through its Amazon Ads Support Center, and every brand that builds an Amazon Brand Store, including the agencies that design Store pages and run Sponsored Brands campaigns pointing to them.

What: A support page titled "Create compliant Brand Store content for peak events" bans Amazon trademarks such as Prime, Prime Day, Prime Video and Amazon Music from Stores at all times, along with urgency phrases, specific prices or savings, unprovable price claims, superlatives and unconditional "free" claims. Promotional messaging is allowed only through the Featured Deals widget, which must sit directly under the header with at least 4 products. Black Friday and Cyber Monday Stores must use Amazon's announced dates, start no more than 7 days before the event, come down within 24 hours of its end, and be submitted at least 48 hours ahead. Review usually takes 24 hours but can take up to 3 business days.

When: The page shows an update date of November 13, 2026. It does not say when the rules were first introduced. Amazon's US Black Friday Week runs from November 19 to 30, 2026.

Where: The rules apply to every Brand Store, for every event, across text, images, page names, navigation tabs and text inside images. Black Friday and Cyber Monday dates are set per marketplace.

Why: Brand Stores serve as landing pages for Sponsored Brands traffic, and Amazon now rates them on attributed sales. A Store rejected during a peak event can miss part of that event, and the page's own figures show that a submission made at the 48-hour minimum could still be under review after a Black Friday Week launch.