Lightning Deals Overview

A Lightning Deal is a time-bound, promotional offer in which an item is featured for several hours on the Today's Deals page.

When shopping online, customers often explore a wide range of promotional offerings. For a promotion to be effective:

• The customer must know about it.
• The promotion must offer favorable value to positively influence the customer's choice.

Eligibility & Requirements

To give customers the best possible shopping experience, only products that meet certain criteria will be eligible for Lightning Deals. Approval is required to list a product using a Lightning Deal promotion, and Amazon reserves the right to reject or discontinue any proposed Lightning Deal.

Customers love Lightning Deals with exceptional value, and Amazon limits Lightning Deal approval to only those deals that meet certain criteria, including but not limited to the following:

• Product star rating: To help ensure that the best possible products are featured, Lightning Deals may have minimum rating requirements. Deal recommendations factor in the number of available reviews and a product’s overall rating. Products with low ratings generally do not qualify for Lightning Deals.
• Variation Availability: When applying to create a Lightning Deal for a product with more than one variation, include as many variations as possible in your deal. In general, proposed Lightning Deals with fewer than 80% of product variations (e.g. size, color, style, etc) included will be rejected. In the deal creation process, you may be informed if additional variations are required.
• Product Eligibility: To help ensure a great customer experience, not all products are eligible for inclusion in Lightning Deals. Products in certain categories and products that are offensive or otherwise inappropriate are not eligible and will not be seen as a recommended deal. The following is a non-exhaustive list of certain product types that are not eligible for inclusion in Lightning Deals: e-cigarettes, alcohol, adult products, medical devices and medicines, and baby formula.
• Fulfillment: In general, Lightning Deals must be Prime eligible. FBA or MFN Prime fulfillment are generally required.

You may submit Lightning Deals for approval using the steps listed below. Some suggested deals may be rejected upon submission because they fail to meet certain minimum criteria. If your suggested deal is successfully submitted, it will be queued for Amazon review. Any applicable fees* will be charged to your account only after your approved Lightning Deal has commenced.

Create a Lightning Deal

To create a Lightning Deal in Seller Central:

1. Select Advertising, click Lightning Deals, then select the Create option.
2. You have two options to create a deal based on recommended product:
   • Select from top deal Recommendations directly from the Create page.
   • Search all deal recommendations using the Search my inventory You can search by keyword (i.e. a keyword from the item title) or SKU.

   Deal recommendations appear based on several factors, such as sales and customer browsing trends. At this time, only deal recommendations are potentially eligible for Lightning Deals. Do not contact Seller Support to apply for a Lightning Deal that does not show up on your recommendation list.

3. Once you have identified the product you would like to include in a Lightning Deal, click Edit. A popup will appear, allowing you to edit the following deal parameters:
   • Deal Quantity: Use the minimum suggested unit quantity available for the proposed deal price or increase the deal quantity to make more units available. Ensure that you have the proposed deal quantity on hand at least 7 days prior to the date the deal is scheduled to run. If you do not have sufficient inventory by this time, your proposed deal will be cancelled.
   • Deal Price: Use the maximum allowable deal price or decrease the deal price to increase your proposed deal’s attractiveness.
     Note: Sellers have to ensure compliance with applicable pricing laws including price floors.
   • Deal Image: Use the existing ASIN image or change the image to an alternative image.
   • Deal Schedule: Amazon occassionally runs merchandsing campaigns on Deal Days (e.g., Prime Day or Cyber Monday). Select an available Deal Day for your proposed Lightning Deal or select a calendar week. If you select a calendar week, Amazon will notify you about the date and time your deal is scheduled to run within two weeks of the proposed deal week. Lightning Deals generally run for approximately 4 to 6 hours (as determined by Amazon).
4. Once you select your desired deal parameters, click Submit to submit your deal for review.

What actions are needed after creating a Lightning Deal?

After you create a Lightning Deal, make sure:

• Have sufficient inventory available (in FBA fulfillment centers or available for sale via MFN Prime) to meet the deal quantity you committed to sell. Ensure you have additional inventory on hand to fulfill post-deal sales if the demand for the deal product continues after the deal is over.
  Note: Amazon may cancel your deal if your available inventory does not meet the committed quantity before it is scheduled to run.
• Monitor the status of your deals using the Lightning Deals dashboard. You can view deal statuses in either the Needs action or Upcoming and active tab.
• Verify the specific date and time of your Lightning Deal. During deal creation, you can select the week you want your deal to run – you will not be able to select the date or time. If your deal is approved, Amazon selects the specific date and time for your deal in order to ensure that the deals submitted for the week are spread out judiciously across the days of the week and provide the best variety of deals for the customer. If you are unsatisfied with the date and time selected for your deal, you may cancel the deal using the Lighting Deals dashboard.

Cancel a Lightning Deal

You may cancel a proposed Lightning Deal using the Lightning Deals dashboard at any time until 24 hours before the deal’s scheduled start time. If your deal is canceled, your account will not be charged for that deal.

If you would like to cancel the deal less than 24 hours prior to the deal’s scheduled start time, Seller Support may be able to assist with your request. If you repeatedly contact Seller Support to cancel Lightning Deals, you may be excluded from submitting future Lightning Deals.

On what basis can my deal be rejected or cancelled?

Amazon may reject, cancel or not feature a deal that doesn’t meet the following price criteria: The promotional price must be lower than the original price, to ensure customer trust on the offer being a deal. Amazon may also consider review ratings and image quality in its deal criteria.