On March 31, Amazon officially announced that it will tighten its reference price policy in two phases this year: starting from April 23, the strict implementation of the suggested retail price (List Price/struck - through price) new rules will begin, and on May 18, the calculation logic of the typical price (Typical Price/Was Price) will be adjusted.

1. Suggested Retail Price (List Price/Struck - through Price) New Rules

Effective Date: April 23, 2026

Rule Interpretation: List Price must be verifiable and cannot be filled in subjectively.

1. From "Can be filled" → "Must have basis"

List Price (struck - through price) is no longer something you can fill in at will. It must meet one of the following conditions:

Internal basis on the platform: The product has been actually sold at this price on Amazon (completed at the shopping cart price);

External basis: The same product has a real - time selling price on other platforms (such as the official website/retailers).

Previously, one could "arbitrarily mark the original price", but now the platform will strictly verify the real sales data and the transaction prices of buyers according to the price history chart, and no longer just trust the numbers filled in the background.

The purpose is to prevent sellers from artificially creating "high struck - through price + large discount" false preferential situations, which is equivalent to the Listing directly losing its "promotion attractiveness" for sellers.

2. Typical Price (Typical Price/Was Price) New Rules

Effective Date: May 18, 2026

Rule Interpretation: Frequent promotions will lower the typical price, and false discounts will become invalid.

Typical Price is the core benchmark for buyers to judge the strength of preferential treatment (such as "Was $29.99"). On the basis of the original "median price of non - promotional prices in the past 90 days", new important restrictive conditions have been added:

1. Incorporation of promotional prices into the mechanism

Old rule: Only non - promotional prices are calculated, and promotional prices such as LD/BD/coupons are not included in the typical price.

New rule: If within the past 90 days, more than 45 days (half) of the actual transaction prices are lower than the median non - promotional price, the system will force all prices (including promotional prices, coupon prices) to be included in the calculation, and recalculate the median of all actual paid prices as the new typical price.

2. Incorporation of hidden discounts

Discounts that are not explicitly promoted as "promotions" (such as private price reductions, unmarked full - reduction, long - term hidden preferences) are directly regarded as non - promotional prices and included in the typical price calculation.

For example:

Example ①: A pair of sports shoes has a non - promotional price of $89.99. In the past 90 days, it was sold at $89.99 for 60 days and at a promotional price of $74.99 for 30 days. Since the number of days lower than the median non - promotional price is less than 45 days, the promotional price is not included in the typical price, and the typical price is still $89.99.

Example ②: The same pair of sports shoes was sold at $89.99 for only 20 days and at a promotional price of $74.99 for 70 days in the past 90 days. Since the number of days lower than the median non - promotional price exceeds 45 days, the system will include the promotional price in the calculation, and the typical price becomes $74.99.

3. How should sellers respond?

1. List Price new rules (before April 23):

Immediately check and adjust the obviously over - high List Price to a reasonable range; for key links, a small number of real orders can be used to leave the transaction records of the target struck - through price; sellers with external channels such as independent websites and Walmart should not change the prices frequently when synchronizing prices. Later, do not fill in the List Price Arbitrarily for new products.

2. Was Price new rules (before May 18):

Ensure that within any 90 - day period, the number of promotional days is strictly controlled within 45 days; when reducing prices, try to use official promotional tools as much as possible to avoid being misjudged by the system as non - promotional price reductions and included in the typical price;

3. Long - term strategic adjustment direction

① Return to real pricing, reduce dependence on fictional discounts, and improve conversion through product strength and brand building;

② Establish a promotional calendar to control the proportion of promotional days below 50% to avoid triggering the Was Price reduction mechanism;

③ Sellers with conditions can establish brand official websites or enter other mainstream platforms to provide external price anchor points for List Price verification.

Finally:

Whether it is the List Price verification on April 23 or the Typical Price adjustment on May 18, there is only one core requirement, that is, the price must be real and the discount must be reasonable.

In the future, the platform's verification of prices will only become more and more strict, and the costs of false pricing and illegal promotion will also continue to increase. It is recommended that sellers operate compliantly!

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