On August 1, many Amazon sellers logged into their seller dashboards and discovered that the payment method for their advertising invoices had changed.
Previously, advertising fees were charged to credit cards, with the amount deducted on the billing date, allowing for an interest-free grace period of 30 to 60 days. Now, the system has been changed to direct deduction from the seller’s balance—as soon as an ad goes live, the money is immediately deducted from the seller’s balance, with absolutely no grace period.
The official explanation is that it is to ”optimize the payment experience.”
But for small and medium-sized sellers, this isn’t optimization—it’s a loss of traffic. ——
I. What Does the End of the 60-Day Payment Term Mean?
Let's do the math.
Let's say your monthly advertising budget is $5,000.Under the old model,You have 30 to 60 days to pay back the $5,000 on your credit card; by that time, your payment will have already been received, so your cash flow will be manageable.
Under the new model,Starting August 1, this $5,000 will be deducted from your seller balance as soon as you earn it. This means Amazon takes the money right away, and your available funds will be reduced by $5,000 immediately.
If you're running multiple websites at the same time and your advertising costs double to $10,000, your working capital will instantly be tied up by $10,000.
For small and medium-sized sellers with monthly sales of $30,000 to $50,000, that $10,000 might be the entire cost of a restock. Their ads are running, but they can’t ship the goods—because their money is tied up in advertising fees.
Amazon's payment cycle is 14 days, but when you factor in the held amount, it may actually take more than 20 days for the funds to clear. During those 20 days, your ad fees are deducted daily, but you don't receive payment for your inventory.
The risk of a cash flow crisis stems from this kind of“Time Mismatch”It began. ——
II. Who Has Been Hit the Hardest?
Category 1: Small and medium-sized sellers who use cash flow from sales to fund their inventory on a rolling basis.
The business model for these sellers is as follows: ship a batch of goods → sell them → receive payment → use the proceeds to ship the next batch. Once advertising fees are deducted from their balance, the amount of money they receive decreases, and the budget for the next shipment shrinks. Their business keeps getting smaller—not because the market is weak, but because their cash flow is stifled.
Category 2: Sellers with slim profit margins who rely on advertising to drive sales volume.
ACOS has gone from 35% to 40%, and profit margins were already slim to begin with. The previous 60-day payment term was essentially an ”interest-free loan”; now that this “loan” is gone, it’s as if operating costs have suddenly increased by one yuan. Some SKUs may go from making a small profit to incurring a loss.
Category 3: Sellers who list products on multiple platforms simultaneously.
We’re running campaigns simultaneously in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, and ad fees for each region are being deducted from our balance. Previously, we managed this using three separate credit cards, but now funds are deducted instantly from a single pool. This has significantly reduced our flexibility in managing funds. ——
III. Is there anywhere where advertising costs aren't so outrageous?
Let me share a personal experience of ours.
We're currently running both Amazon andTakealot(South Africa's largest e-commerce platform). For the same Bluetooth headset, the CPC for core keywords on Amazon U.S. is $1.20 (approximately 8.5 yuan), while on Takealot, the CPC for similar keywords is less than 2 rand (approximately 0.8 yuan).
A 10-fold difference.
With a monthly advertising budget of 5,000 yuan, you might get 4,000 clicks on Amazon, but over 6,000 on Takealot.
Takealot offers three months of free monthly rent for new stores, plus 1,000 rand in advertising credit. ACOS typically ranges from 10% to 15%. Compared to Amazon’s ACOS, which often runs from 30% to 40%, the erosion of profits by advertising costs is on a completely different scale.
More importantly, competition for ads on Takealot is extremely low—Chinese sellers account for less than 5% of the platform. In most product categories, no one is bidding on ad slots at all, so you can secure ad placement simply by meeting the minimum bid. This ”advertising sweet spot” won’t last forever, but it’s still there for now. —
IV. This isn’t to say you should give up on Amazon; it’s a reminder to diversify your risks.
We’re not writing Amazon off. Amazon remains the world’s largest e-commerce platform, with the highest traffic potential and the most mature infrastructure. Many sellers are still making money on Amazon.
However, the new regulation announced on August 1 sends a clear signal: the platform is systematically optimizing its own cash flow at the expense of sellers' cash flow.
From adjustments to inventory setup fees to increased return processing fees, from warehousing surcharges to changes in advertising fee deductions—each of these may seem like a ”minor adjustment” on its own, but when taken together, they represent a steady erosion of sellers’ profits.
The smart move isn't to go all in on one platform and hope it works out for you, but to spread your bets.
Amazon is your core business, and Takealot is your growth engine. One focuses on scale, while the other focuses on profit. One faces intense competition but has high traffic, while the other has less competition but still has room to grow.
We have our own overseas warehouse in South Africa, and our team has been actively managing Takealot’s day-to-day operations (consulting + csdrcc12345). We don’t just talk the talk—we’re hands-on professionals who review data, adjust ads, and replenish inventory in the backend every day.
We’ve never worried about ad fees being deducted from our balance on Takealot—because the advertising costs there aren’t even worth worrying about. —
V. One Thing You Can Do Right Now
Open your Amazon Ads dashboard and check your ad spend for the past 30 days. Then multiply that number by 1.5—that’s the amount of working capital you may be overcommitting under the new model.
If that number makes you uncomfortable, maybe it's time to take a closer look at other platforms.
I'm not telling you to switch today; I'm just letting you know that you have other options.
If you have any questions about setting up a store, operations, or logistics on Takealot, feel free to reach out to us anytime. We don’t sell courses or push products on you—we just share the pitfalls we’ve encountered and the strategies that have worked for us.
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