Key Takeaways
- The date is set: Prime Big Deal Days 2026 runs on Tuesday, October 6, and Wednesday, October 7. 48 hours, starting at 00:01 in Germany, where the event is called Prime Deal Days.
- Deal submission: by September 23 for amazon.de, just under two weeks before the event.
- Inventory: The amazon.de inbound deadline was September 9. Only plan deals on stock that is already received.
- PPC: Ramp up budgets from September 29, check them every two to three hours on the event days, reset from October 8.
- After that: Peak fee from October 15, inbound for Black Friday Week by October 21, event from November 19 to 30.
Amazon has confirmed the date: Prime Big Deal Days 2026 takes place on October 6 and 7, a Tuesday and Wednesday. The event runs for 48 hours and starts in Germany at 00:01 on October 6. For sellers this means the most important open deadline is not the event day but September 23, when deal submission for amazon.de closes.
Until the announcement, planning meant working with time windows. Now every step can be tied to a date. This article sorts out what is confirmed, which deadlines have already passed and what to get done, in which order, in the weeks before the event. Black Friday Week from November 19 to 30 belongs in the same plan, because stock, prices and PPC budgets of both events are connected.
The date: October 6 and 7, 2026
Prime Big Deal Days is Amazon's autumn event for Prime members, often referred to as the fall Prime Day. In Germany Amazon markets it as Prime Deal Days. In mid-September Amazon officially announced the key facts:
- Date: Tuesday, October 6, and Wednesday, October 7, 2026
- Duration: 48 hours, in Germany from 00:01 on October 6 to 23:59 on October 7
- Countries: 22, including Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom. Amazon notes that dates may vary by country, for Germany it is October 6 and 7
- Deals: according to Amazon more than one million in Germany, with new deals dropping three times a day
The pattern of previous years has held: first half of October, Tuesday and Wednesday, 48 hours.
- 2023: October 10 and 11
- 2024: October 8 and 9
- 2025: October 7 and 8
- 2026: October 6 and 7
For planning, the gap to Black Friday Week matters most. There are just over six weeks between the end of Prime Big Deal Days and November 19. That stretch includes the peak fulfilment fee from October 15 and the Black Friday Week inbound deadline on October 21, two dates you need to plan straight out of the October event.
The deadlines for both Q4 events
These dates apply to amazon.de, as of September 15, 2026:
Prime Big Deal Days (October 6 and 7)
- Deal submission: by September 23, 2026. The binding deadline is the one Seller Central shows for your marketplace under Advertising and Deals
- FBA inbound: September 9, 2026, passed
- Early-bird on the deal fee: August 5, 2026, passed
Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday (November 19 to 30)
- Event window: November 19 to 30, 2026 per the deal event selection in Seller Central. Black Friday falls on November 27, Cyber Monday on November 30
- FBA inbound: October 21, 2026
- Deal submission: November 18, 2026
- Early-bird on the deal fee: September 5, 2026, passed
English-language articles sometimes name different deadlines, for example staggered inbound dates up to September 16. Those apply to the US stores, for amazon.de the dates above count.
The most important open line in this list is September 23. Anything not submitted by then runs without a deal on the event days, no matter how well stock and campaigns are prepared.
Inventory: plan with what is already received
The inbound deadline for Prime Big Deal Days has passed. The question is no longer what you can still ship in, but how much available stock sits in the warehouse per deal ASIN. Without the Prime badge you drop out of the Prime Buy Box pool and lose visibility in search and on the product detail page, precisely in the days when traffic is most expensive.
- Count available stock, not inventory in transit: For deal planning, what counts is stock listed as available. Shipments still in transit or in receiving may arrive in time, but do not build your plan on them
- Forecast realistically: Average daily units of the last 30 days times a factor of 3 to 5 for the event days, plus a safety buffer. Prime Big Deal Days sits below Prime Day and Black Friday in volume, but a stock-out costs the same amount of ranking on any event day
- Fewer ASINs rather than empty shelves: If stock does not cover both event days, register fewer products. A deal that sells out on day one costs ranking on day two
- Keep an eye on the IPI score: A low score limits your storage capacity exactly when Black Friday replenishment needs to go in. Clear slow-moving inventory before October 21. Details in our IPI score guide
- Two events, one supply chain: The Black Friday Week inbound deadline on October 21 is exactly two weeks after the event. If October sells strongly, November replenishment has to be in the warehouse by then, so the reorder needs to go out before the event
Submitting deals: formats, costs and the 3.5-star bar
The fee structure on amazon.de has changed since the start of 2026, and that matters more for your calculation than the choice of deal format:
- Upfront fee: EUR 16 per promotion. The 30 percent early-bird discount has passed for both events
- Variable fee: 0.75 percent of promotional revenue, capped at EUR 1,000
- Fuel and logistics surcharge: 1.5 percent, still applies and belongs in both calculations
- Peak fulfilment fee: from October 15, 2026 through January 14, 2027, an average of EUR 0.27 extra per unit for small and standard parcels. The event days fall before that, so it generally does not apply to orders from October 6 and 7, but it does apply to Black Friday Week
The formats themselves stay familiar: Lightning Deals run for a few hours with high visibility on the deals page, Best Deals run across the whole event window and require at least 20 percent off the 30-day average price, and Prime Exclusive Discounts are visible to Prime members only and require at least 10 percent. One thing is new: Prime Exclusive Discounts now require a minimum rating of 3.5 stars. Products below that drop out of the format, which effectively dictates the ASIN selection.
Coupons remain the flexible tool alongside, with a lower entry bar and the green badge in search results. A full comparison of all formats is in our guide to deals, coupons and promotions.
The price effect between October and November
One detail from Amazon's Q4 announcement decides whether your October hurts your November: promotional prices from Prime Big Deal Days are not included in the 30-day and 60-day price history Amazon uses to calculate the maximum permitted deal price for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Amazon published this for the US marketplace, there is no separate statement for amazon.de so far.
With the confirmed date, a second argument applies regardless of marketplace: there are 43 days between October 7 and the start of Black Friday Week on November 19. A deal price from Prime Big Deal Days therefore falls outside any 30-day lookback, only a 60-day lookback still reaches back into October.
In practice: you can buy ranking and visibility in October without blocking your deal eligibility for the bigger event. Sellers who do not know this hold back in October out of caution and give away exactly the ranking head start that eases the CPC bill in November.
The reverse still applies: regular price reductions outside promotional windows do count towards price history. The weeks from October 20 are the critical ones, because they fall inside the 30-day lookback before Black Friday Week starts. Discounting continuously in that period lowers your own deal ceiling for November.
PPC across the Q4 stretch
Advertising costs rise in two waves in Q4, and the second is considerably more expensive than the first. With the date set, the budget logic can be tied to specific days instead of a single increase on the event day:
- By September 28: Clean up campaign structure and keyword sets while click prices are normal. Test new campaigns now, not in October at double the CPC
- From September 29: Raise daily budgets for top ASINs and lift bids on the highest-converting keywords. The goal is visibility before the event, not only during it
- October 6 and 7: Set budgets so no campaign runs out at midday, deals start at 00:01 in Germany. Check budget consumption every two to three hours. A budget-capped campaign no longer responds to bid increases, which is the most common avoidable mistake on event days
- Brand defence: Competitors bid harder on your brand keywords during both events. Ramp up defensive campaigns before October 6, not reactively
- From October 8: Actively reset bids and budgets. Leaving event settings in place means paying event prices for normal traffic for two weeks
How to steer budgets via TACoS rather than campaign-level ACoS is covered in our ACoS and TACoS guide. If you would rather hand the steering over for the whole Q4 stretch, our Amazon PPC agency page shows how we set that up.
Do not waste the phase between the events
There are just over six weeks between Prime Big Deal Days and Black Friday Week. That time is not downtime, it is the preparation for the main event:
- Retargeting: Visitors from the October event are a warm audience. Sponsored Display retargeting in the following weeks is much cheaper than new-customer traffic in November
- Collect reviews: Trigger the review request for all event orders after about five days. Building 30 reviews in October means entering November with better conversion
- Hold the ranking: The sales spike improves organic ranking. Keep the PPC budget slightly above normal for one to two weeks so the new position stabilises
- Evaluate the data: Which ASINs, keywords and deal formats carried the event? That analysis is the basis for the Black Friday submission, whose deadline is November 18
Common mistakes in Q4 preparation
- Underestimating the submission deadline: September 23 is just under two weeks before the event. Waiting until the end of September to pick ASINs means going into Prime Big Deal Days without deals
- Misjudging the peak fee: It generally plays no role for October deals, but from October 15 every unit costs EUR 0.27 more on average. On tightly calculated Black Friday deals that tips the margin negative
- Registering too many ASINs: Every promotion costs an upfront fee plus a variable fee. Deals on products without sales velocity or a review base burn budget without generating ranking
- Planning both events from one pot of stock: A strong October without replenishment planning leads to a stock-out in November, in the most expensive window of the year
- Editing listings during the event: Changing titles, images or A+ content on October 6 and 7 risks indexing and approval delays. Finish all changes by the end of September
- Switching back to normal after the October event: Retargeting and review building in the following weeks are the cheapest part of Black Friday preparation
Timeline: September to December 2026
- By September 23: Submit deals for Prime Big Deal Days on amazon.de
- By September 28: Clean up campaigns, check available stock per deal ASIN, finalise listings
- From September 29: Ramp up budgets and bids for top ASINs, activate brand defence campaigns
- October 6 and 7: Prime Big Deal Days, budget monitoring every two to three hours
- From October 8: Reset bids and budgets, start retargeting, trigger review requests
- From October 15: Peak fulfilment fee applies, recalculate Black Friday margins
- By October 21: FBA inbound for Black Friday Week
- By November 18: Final deadline for Black Friday deals
- November 19 to 30: Black Friday Week including Black Friday on the 27th and Cyber Monday on the 30th
- December: Manage remaining stock, normalise bids, document the analysis for 2027
Conclusion
With October 6 and 7, planning has a fixed target. The inbound deadline has passed, and three dates now decide the event: deal submission by September 23, the PPC ramp-up from September 29 and the reset from October 8. Sellers who plan both events as one stretch rather than two separate promotions use October as a ranking head start for November without blocking their deal prices.
The full preparation for the larger of the two events is in our Black Friday checklist. What preparation for a Prime event looks like in detail is covered in the Prime Day guide.
Sources
Frequently Asked Questions
When are Amazon Prime Big Deal Days 2026?
On Tuesday, October 6, and Wednesday, October 7, 2026. Amazon confirmed the date in mid-September. The event runs for 48 hours and starts in Germany at 00:01 on October 6, where it is marketed as Prime Deal Days. Only Prime members can take part, according to Amazon in 22 countries including Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Spain.
What is the deal submission deadline for Prime Big Deal Days?
For amazon.de the submission deadline is September 23, 2026. English-language sources sometimes name other dates, which apply to the US stores. The binding date is the one Seller Central shows for your marketplace under Advertising and Deals. The August 5 early-bird date, which saved 30 percent on the upfront promotion fee, has passed.
When does FBA inventory need to arrive for Prime Big Deal Days?
For amazon.de Amazon named September 9 as the inbound deadline for selling with the Prime badge during the event. That deadline has passed. Inventory still in transit may be received in time, but you should not count on it. Plan your deals around stock that is already available.
What does running a deal on amazon.de cost?
Each promotion carries a EUR 16 upfront fee plus a variable fee of 0.75 percent of promotional revenue, capped at EUR 1,000. On top of that come the discount itself and the 1.5 percent fuel and logistics surcharge. The peak fulfilment fee of EUR 0.27 per unit on average only applies from October 15, so it generally does not hit orders from the event days, but it does apply to Black Friday Week.
Are Prime Big Deal Days worth it when Black Friday follows six weeks later?
Yes, for two reasons. First, the October event lifts ranking and reviews before the most expensive traffic phase of the year starts in November. Second, an October deal does not block your November: according to Amazon's Q4 announcement for the US marketplace, promotional prices from Prime Big Deal Days are excluded from the 30-day and 60-day price history for Black Friday deals. And even without that rule, October 7 sits 43 days before Black Friday Week starts, outside any 30-day lookback.