Amazon launched its Multi-Channel Fulfillment 2026 Preferred Pricing program on January 15, 2026, offering sellers discounts on outbound fulfillment fees alongside FBA credits per unit shipped. The structure looks generous on paper - up to 15% off outbound fees plus $1 back for every MCF unit dispatched. But the program contains a hard financial ceiling that fundamentally changes the math for sellers moving serious volume, and the mechanics are more layered than the headline numbers suggest.

According to Amazon's official documentation published on Seller Central, the program splits into two enrollment paths with different durations, eligibility criteria, and benefit structures. What both tracks share is a credit cap that cuts the effective savings rate in half for high-volume operators before the year is out.

The two-track enrollment structure

The 6-month path targets new MCF users and established FBA sellers who have yet to scale significantly on MCF. Three conditions can qualify a seller for automatic enrollment: being enrolled in the MCF New Seller Incentive (NSI) program with at least 100 MCF units shipped on or after October 15, 2025; having started using an MCF API integration on or after October 15, 2025; or being an established FBA seller who shipped 5,800 or more FBA units in the past 12 weeks while shipping fewer than 1,200 MCF units in that same window. According to the documentation, sellers meeting either of the first two criteria are enrolled automatically - no action required. Those qualifying through the FBA seller route must opt in via invitation.

The benefits for the 6-month track are flat: 15% off MCF outbound fulfillment fees, and $1 in FBA credit for every MCF unit shipped, covering the first 50,000 MCF units shipped. Credits land in the seller's Seller Central payable account and apply toward FBA fees, deposited weekly with a maximum seven-business-day lag after each shipment. At 50,000 units, a seller on the 6-month program reaches the credit ceiling. Every unit shipped after that point receives only the 15% percentage discount.

The 12-month track operates on a tiered, volume-based system recalculated weekly. According to the documentation, Amazon calculates the total units shipped over a rolling 12-week period, looking back from one week before the calculation date. A Saturday-to-Friday weekly cycle governs the math. Based on that rolling window, the following discount tiers apply for the following week's shipments:

  • Over 19,001 units: 15% MCF discount plus $1 FBA credit per MCF unit
  • 13,001 to 19,000 units: 12% MCF discount plus $0.75 FBA credit per MCF unit
  • 7,001 to 13,000 units: 8% MCF discount plus $0.50 FBA credit per MCF unit
  • 1,200 to 7,000 units: 5% MCF discount plus $0.25 FBA credit per MCF unit
  • Below 1,200 units: no discount or credit

Benefits on the 12-month track apply until either 100,000 MCF units have been shipped since enrollment, or 12 months from enrollment, whichever comes first. The weekly recalculation means a seller's tier can shift upward or downward depending on recent shipping activity. Drop below 1,200 units in any trailing 12-week window and both the discount and credit disappear entirely for the following week.

Sellers qualifying for both tracks - that is, those who first meet the 6-month criteria and later grow into the 12-month volume threshold - start on the 6-month program and transition to the 12-month structure once they meet the volume requirements, according to the documentation.

The credit cap and its consequences

Both programs share a credit ceiling. The 6-month track caps FBA credits at $50,000 total or 50,000 units. The 12-month track caps credits at 100,000 units or 12 months - but the dollar exposure is effectively similar at the top tier, since 100,000 units at $1 per unit equals $100,000 in credits before the ceiling, while the cap referenced in the LinkedIn analysis by Vanessa Hung, CEO of Online Seller Solutions, is $50,000.

According to Hung's analysis published on LinkedIn, sellers treating the program as a stacked infinite discount are making a financial planning error. "The FBA credit has a hard cap at $50,000. The percentage discount does not," she wrote in her post dated approximately two weeks before publication of this article. "For high-volume operators, the credit runs out quickly while the discount keeps compounding."

The implication is structural. A seller shipping 50,000 MCF units in a single period at the top tier exhausts the credit entirely, leaving only the 15% discount on every subsequent unit. A seller shipping 10,000 units gets both the full $1 credit and the 15% discount on every single shipment - meaning their effective cost reduction per unit is higher than that of the higher-volume operator. The program is designed, according to Hung, "to reward adoption, not scale."

This distinction matters significantly when building a cost model. At roughly 4,200 MCF units shipped per month, a seller at the top tier hits the $50,000 credit threshold at around month 12. For sellers shipping at higher rates, the credit exhausts earlier. Once exhausted, the marginal benefit per unit drops to the percentage discount alone. A P&L built on the assumption that both benefits persist throughout the year will overstate savings in the second half of the program period.

Enrollment mechanics and timing

According to Amazon's documentation, enrollment opened on January 15, 2026. Additional sellers can become eligible on a weekly basis as their rolling MCF, FBA, or combined unit totals shift. Sellers invited to join have 30 days to enroll from the invitation date.

Eligible sellers receive an email notification confirming eligibility. They can also verify status on the Your Incentives page in Seller Central, where active enrollment shows as "Active" for either the 6-month or 12-month program. It may take up to 24 hours from enrollment for the system to reflect the change, and a further 24-hour window passes before discount activation begins.

Sellers who ship more than 23,000 MCF units in the past 12 weeks exceed the published eligibility thresholds entirely. According to the documentation, those operators should "contact your MCF account manager or fill out this Contact us form to discuss custom pricing contracts available for sellers shipping at above the eligibility threshold."

What qualifies as an eligible API integration

For the API-based automatic enrollment path, the documentation specifies that eligible integrations include direct integrations with major eCommerce providers like Shopify, third-party app integrations, and custom APIs built through Selling Partner APIs. The key threshold is shipping a unit using an API for the first time, rather than simply connecting an integration. Sellers uncertain about their API eligibility can check the MCF Integration page referenced in the documentation or contact Selling Partner Support.

Credit mechanics and verification

FBA credits are deposited directly into the Seller Central payable account. They are not issued as cash or promotional balances - they apply automatically toward FBA fees. According to the documentation, sellers can view credits by navigating to Payments in Seller Central, opening the Transaction View, and looking under the "Other" category. Credits for each week's MCF shipments post within seven business days of shipment. Sellers without a Seller Central payable account will not receive the credits, according to the terms.

For the 15% discount on outbound fees, the documentation states that the percentage applies to both Standard and Expedited click-to-delivery speed pricing in effect at the time of shipment. The applicable rates are published on the 2026 Fulfillment Fees for Multi-Channel Fulfillment Orders help page. Earned discounts are visible through Seller Central by navigating to Orders and selecting Order Reports.

Marketing and retail media context

The MCF Preferred Pricing program arrives as Amazon has been systematically expanding the reach and commercial utility of its fulfillment network beyond its own marketplace. By September 2024, Amazon MCF already served over 200,000 U.S. merchants, recording a 70% year-over-year increase in total orders fulfilled. That growth reflected Amazon's push to position MCF as infrastructure for omnichannel retail, not merely as an overflow service for Amazon marketplace sellers.

Walmart formally permitted sellers to use Amazon MCF for Walmart orders starting May 16, 2025, a policy shift that opened a major cross-platform use case. The only condition was neutral packaging without Amazon or Walmart branding. That policy change effectively turned MCF into a logistics option for competing marketplaces, accelerating Amazon's interest in pricing the service competitively.

In October 2024, Google Merchant Center announced an integration with Amazon MCF that allowed merchants to display accurate delivery speed estimates from MCF directly in Shopping ads. The integration automated shipping policy creation in Merchant Center for MCF merchants. Data cited in Google's announcement pointed to a potential 1.9% to 7.2% increase in conversions on Google Shopping ads for U.S. merchants displaying fast, free shipping information - a direct incentive for smaller sellers to route fulfillment through MCF and surface that speed in paid placements.

By June 2025, Amazon extended MCF fast badges to Google Shopping ads, TikTok ads, and product detail pages, enabling real-time delivery estimates to appear at point of advertising contact. Sellers using MCF could display Prime-speed delivery claims in paid placements on competing platforms, directly influencing conversion rates without routing orders through Amazon's marketplace.

This advertising dimension makes the 2026 Preferred Pricing structure particularly relevant for marketing teams managing off-Amazon performance campaigns. A seller running Google Shopping or TikTok ads who uses MCF for fulfillment receives a direct cost subsidy from the Preferred Pricing program on every unit that converts. During the period when both the percentage discount and the FBA credit are active, the effective fulfillment cost reduction enhances the unit economics of paid acquisition. Once the credit expires, the cost structure shifts, which should be reflected in target ROAS or ACOS calculations for off-platform campaigns.

Amazon sellers reported sales declines of 60% to 80% year-over-year across marketplace forums between May and August 2025, a period when platform fee structures and competitive pressures compressed margins significantly. The Preferred Pricing program, while narrowly scoped to MCF outbound fees, represents one of the few structural cost reductions Amazon has offered sellers in a period otherwise characterized by new FBA removal billing changes taking effect February 15, 2026, mandatory prepaid return labels from February 8, 2026, and API access fees from January 31, 2026.

Verifying the numbers: a worked example from the documentation

Amazon's documentation provides an explicit worked example. A seller enrolled in the 12-month program on February 5, 2026 would have their benefits for the week of February 7-13 determined by units shipped during the 12-week period from November 8, 2025 through January 30, 2026. If that seller shipped 20,000 units in that window and had not yet reached 100,000 MCF units since enrollment, they would receive the 15% discount and $1 credit per MCF unit for the week of February 7-13. A seller who shipped only 1,000 units in that same window would receive no discount or credit for that week. The calculation recurs every Saturday-to-Friday cycle.

The documentation note regarding the $50,000 credit cap comes specifically from Vanessa Hung's analysis, which cites the 6-month program structure. The 12-month program documentation describes benefits applying to the first 100,000 MCF units shipped, which at the top-tier $1 credit rate would equal $100,000 in credits before the ceiling. However, Hung's observation that the credit is "frontloaded" - rewarding early adoption rather than sustained high volume - holds structurally for both tracks. The percentage discount continues indefinitely within the program period; the credit does not.

The program, structured to lower the barrier for FBA sellers testing MCF and for new API integrators, appears calibrated to expand MCF's installed base in 2026, particularly among sellers already inside the FBA ecosystem who have not yet routed off-Amazon orders through Amazon's network.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Amazon, operating through its Seller Central platform, and third-party sellers using Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) in the United States. Vanessa Hung, CEO of Online Seller Solutions, provided independent analysis of the program's financial mechanics via LinkedIn.

What: Amazon launched the MCF 2026 Preferred Pricing program, offering two enrollment tracks - a 6-month flat benefit of 15% off outbound fulfillment fees plus $1 FBA credit per unit, and a 12-month tiered program with discounts and credits scaling with rolling 12-week unit volume up to a maximum of 15% and $1 respectively. Both tracks include a credit ceiling: 50,000 units on the 6-month track and 100,000 units on the 12-month track. The percentage discount continues after the credit is exhausted; the per-unit FBA credit does not.

When: The program launched on January 15, 2026. Eligibility criteria include shipping activity from as far back as October 15, 2025 for the API and NSI-based automatic enrollment paths. Benefits are calculated on a rolling weekly cycle with a one-week lookback lag.

Where: The program applies to Amazon MCF fulfillment in the United States, accessible through Seller Central's Your Incentives page.

Why: Amazon structured the program to accelerate adoption of MCF among established FBA sellers who have not yet used the service for off-Amazon orders, and to onboard new API-integrated MCF users. The credit - frontloaded and capped - incentivizes initial adoption. The uncapped percentage discount supports sustained use. The commercial context includes Amazon's broader push to position MCF as fulfillment infrastructure for omnichannel retail, including Walmart marketplace orders, Google Shopping, and TikTok advertising integrations.

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