Welcome back to Seller Snacks, your weekly buffet of ecommerce goodness.
🎒 New: Back‑to‑School Sourcing Guide for OA Sellers
Back‑to‑School isn’t just ‘another busy season.’ It’s a 60–90 day stress test of how good your sourcing system really is.
Every year, newer OA sellers chase whatever looks hot in late July and August. The ones who stick around map the season in advance, prep their tools, and let a simple sourcing system do the heavy lifting.
That’s exactly what we packed into our free Back‑to‑School Sourcing Guide for Amazon OA sellers:
- A 4‑phase BTS calendar so you know when to prep, when to buy, and when to slow‑roll
- Keepa setups using Monthly Sold (Last Known / Peak) so you can spot real demand, not just noise
- Category + “adjacent” product ideas so you’re not stuck chasing the same obvious backpacks as everyone else
- A BTS keyword list you can plug straight into Keepa today
- A quick tools section to speed up the workflow you already have
If you want Back‑to‑School to feel like an extra gear on a stable machine instead of a 60‑day gamble, start with the guide, then layer your own sourcing on top.
Grab the free Back‑to‑School Sourcing Guide
🍔 This Week in Seller Snacks:
🎒 New: Back‑to‑School Sourcing Guide for OA Sellers (Free)
🗓 Prime Day 2026: Buyers Are Showing Up (and Spending)
🚀 Prime Day’s 4‑Day Rhythm: What To Expect This Year
🤿 FBA Lead List Highlight: Best Mars 44 Lead & Last Week’s Mars 44 List Results
🎓 Learning Resources for OA Sellers
🗞️ Essential Amazon Seller Update: CSBA Gets More Seller‑Friendly
⚡ Quick Clicks — Worth a Glance
Let’s eat!
🗓 Prime Day 2026: Buyers Are Showing Up (and Spending)
Prime Day 2026 is set for June 23–26, and shoppers are a lot less nervous than the headlines make it sound.
According to new survey data, 55% of Americans plan to participate in this year’s Prime Day, up from 45% who actually bought last year. Nearly half of them (46%) expect to spend about the same as they did in 2025, and another 20% plan to spend more.
Most Prime Day shoppers are aiming to keep their tab reasonable: 59% expect to spend up to $200, with the most common range sitting at $100–$199 (22%). That’s “real money, but not reckless” territory.
What are they buying?
- Apparel(41%)
- Electronics (38%)
- Beauty (26%)
- And in a nod to tighter budgets, 22% are planning to grab groceries and household essentials too.
Layer on one more twist: 59%of Americans say they’ll actively look for “Made in USA” products during Prime Day, and the same share say they’re willing to pay more for them. Patriotic sentiment plus deal hunger is a powerful combo.
What this means for OA sellers:
- You should expect a real demand bump during Prime Week, not a shrug.
- Practical, everyday inventory (consumables, household, repeat‑buy categories) is likely to pull more weight than one‑off punts in other categories.
- If you’ve got SKUs that quietly check the “Made in USA” box, this is the week to make sure those listings are clean, in‑stock, and priced to move.
And remember: for OA sellers, Prime Week is still primarily a sourcing window. The nice part this year is you get to hunt deals in an environment where buyers are clearly planning to show up and spend.
Use the week to both:
- Buy smarter (with a sourcing system you can reuse), and
- Watch which of your current SKUs catch the wave so you know what to double down on into the summer months and Back‑to‑School season
🚀 Prime Day’s 4‑Day Rhythm: What To Expect This Year
Prime Day 2026 will follow the same four‑day format as last year, and shopper behavior in 2025 gave us a pretty good preview of how that usually plays out.
Jon Derkits (author of the Best@Amazon newsletter) pulled post‑event data (from ad-attributed sales) from record-breaking Prime Day 2025 ($24.1 billion in online spend) and mapped how shoppers actually moved through the week.
Here’s what he found:
Day 1 was the big pop– about 34% of ad‑attributed sales landed on Day 1, then volume tailed off in the middle and rebounded on Day 4 as shoppers finally checked out and wrapped up their carts.
The middle of the event was quieter.– day 2 accounted for roughly 23% of sales and Day 3 about 19%, as the initial frenzy cooled and people took a breather.
Day 4 bounced back –the final day picked back up to around 23% of total sales, as shoppers came back to empty saved‑for‑later lists and finalize what stayed in the cart.
Day 0 was sneaky‑strong– according to Jon’s data, the day before Prime Day (July 7) actually generated about 4% more orders than official Day 1. Clicks during the build‑up averaged around 61% higher than during the event itself. Shoppers were clearly warming up early.
Evenings did most of the work– day 1 had solid volume throughout, with clear evening peaks on Eastern and Pacific time. Days 2–4 were quieter in the mornings and then spiked hard around 6 p.m. PST, when people sat down to actually buy.
For OA sellers, this isn’t a script your account has to follow. Prime Day looks different when you’re doing online arbitrage vs. running headline deals and big PPC pushes.
The value here is simply knowing the overall rhythm most shoppers followed last year: early warm‑up, a big first‑day pop, a softer middle, a late push on the final day, and a lot of the action stacked into evenings. If your own sales and Keepa charts wiggle around Prime Week, you can read them against that backdrop instead of guessing what’s actually happening.
🤿 FBA Lead List Highlight: Best Mars 44 Lead & Last Week’s Mars 44 List Results
Here’s one of our favorite Mars 44 finds from last week:
YETI Rambler Bottle, Tropical Pink, 46 oz
- Source: Dick’s Sporting Goods
- Buy: $55.00
- Sell on Amazon: $140.00
- Net profit (est.): $57.60
- ROI (est.): 104.73%
- Estimated demand: ~394 sales/month
- Eligibility: YETI is on our auto‑ungate‑friendly brand list
Why we liked it (and what Keepa was telling us):
- Steady pricing:The Buy Box has been living around this price, not spiking once and crashing.
- Real volume:The sales‑rank / “bought in past month” data backs up those ~394 sales/month at today’s price, not just at some lower number from months ago.
- Seasonal boost, not dependency:Summer demand gives it a lift, but the chart shows this isn’t a one‑week novelty play. That matters when you’re parking capital.
- Higher odds you can sell it: Because YETI is on our auto‑ungate‑friendly list, we sourced it with newer and mid‑tier accounts in mind, not just mega‑seasoned sellers.
We build our Mars 44 list around leads like this: solid demand, healthy margin, eligibility‑first sourcing, and a Keepa chart that looks like a solid OA play, not a lottery ticket.
Last week’s Mars 44 numbers across our daily lists (6/8-6/12):
🔍 Unique leads:50
💰 Avg net profit per lead:$14.46
📈 Avg ROI:84.30%
🏷️ Avg 90‑day rank:152,976
If you had bought:
💰 1x of each lead → $764.93 in projected profit
💰 5x of each lead → $3,824.65 in projected profit
💰 10x of each lead → $7,649.30 in projected profit
Mars 44 is where most OA sellers start if they want 10+ vetted OA leads like the YETI bottle, Monday–Friday, with this kind of Keepa work and eligibility screening already baked in.
🎓 Learning Resources for OA Sellers
The Best OA Sellers Don’t Forecast – They Plan for Three Outcomes
Why guessing a single “expected” outcome is dangerous in 2026 for online arbitrage. This piece shows how to run every buy through a simple three‑outcome lens (base, upside, downside) so surprises hurt less and good weeks compound faster.
👉 Read the three‑outcome planning guide
A 60‑Second Seasonal Demand Checklist for Amazon OA Sellers
Before you load up on a seasonal SKU, run this quick Keepa‑based checklist: demand, pricing, competition, and downside if velocity gets cut in half. It’s built for exactly what’s coming with Prime Week and Back‑to‑School.
👉 Read the 60‑second seasonal demand checklist
Prime Day 2026 OA Sourcing Prep Checklist
A short, practical checklist to get your tax‑exempt accounts, ungates, capital, and buy list ready for June 23–26 so Prime Week feels like a planned sourcing sprint, not a last‑minute scramble.
👉 Read the Prime Day 2026 OA sourcing prep checklist
🗞️ Essential Amazon Seller Update: CSBA Gets More Seller‑Friendly
Amazon just rolled out a batch of changes to Customer Service by Amazon (CSBA), the optional paid service where Amazon handles customer inquiries and returns for your seller‑fulfilled orders.
Here’s what’s new and why it matters:
1. Fewer “refund without return” surprises
Refund‑less returns are now limited to:
- Packages not received by the promised date
- Damaged or defective non‑returnable items
- Products that are unsafe to return
That means fewer automatic giveaways and less time fighting for your money with SAFE‑T claims.
2. Automatic reimbursements on delivery‑related claims
If you use Amazon Buy Shipping or Veeqo with claims‑protected labels, Amazon will now auto‑reimburse SAFE‑T claims tied to delivery issues. “Goodwill” refunds they issue on your behalf are also reimbursed automatically.
3. Easier (and cheaper) to qualify for free CSBA
- CSBA is free for the first 90 days.
- After that, it stays free if you keep Contacts per Unit (CPU) below 3%.
- The 95% Valid Tracking Rate requirement is gone, making it easier to qualify.
- Have fewer than 30 orders per quarter?CSBA is free with no extra conditions.
4. All customer contacts in one place
When CSBA needs your input, you’ll now see alerts via Buyer‑Seller Messages, so FBA, FBM, and SFP contacts all show up in a single inbox.
5. Better insights with Gen‑AI
CSBA now uses AI to:
- Auto‑tag contact reasons with more specific detail
- Monitor CPU daily
- Surface patterns between customer issues and your fulfillment data via a CSBA insights dashboard
If you’re doing FBM as a late‑game lever (especially around Prime Week and Back‑to‑School), CSBA just got a bit more attractive: more protection on refunds, less back‑and‑forth on claims, and clearer visibility into where your customer experience is breaking.
👉 Read the official announcement here
⚡ Quick Clicks — Worth a Glance
Amazon Barcode Label Requirements (Refresher)
Clear rundown on FBA barcode types, when you need them, and how to avoid label‑related inbound headaches.
👉Skim the barcode requirements
What to Do if Your Amazon Account Is Put on Hold
Straightforward guide on common “account on hold” reasons and how to respond without making things worse.
👉 Read the account‑on‑hold playbook
🎭 Meme of the Week
Amazon selling is serious… until you see this week’s meme.
Follow us for more sourcing memes + weekly drops
🤝 Want to Partner With Us?
Are you an Amazon‑focused creator, software/tool, or expert with real value for OA sellers?
We partner with a small number of people and products to:
- Feature your best content in our newsletter and blog
- Offer exclusive deals or trials to our email list
- Co‑create trainings that help OA sellers scale smarter
If you’ve got a win‑win idea for our community of Amazon OA sellers:
📩 Email hello@fbaleadlist.com with “Partnership” in the subject.