Marketplace owners write the rules. Amazon’s sellers are finding that out firsthand, as new policies ban advertisers from charging ad costs to credit cards as a primary payment mechanism.
Instead, Amazon will automatically pull those costs from sellers’ sales proceeds. Credit or debit cards will be used only as a backup if seller proceeds fall short. The new card rules, which were originally set to go into effect April 15, have since been pushed back to Aug. 1 after sellers complained. However, the underlying shift to deducting ad costs from proceeds is seen as inevitable, and its implementation could threaten the working capital structure many depend on.
The new rules effectively reroute payment flows from a credit-based system to an account-to-account (A2A) mechanism. For large enterprises with diversified balance sheets, the shift may register as a marginal operational tweak. But for the small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that form the backbone of Amazon’s marketplace, the implications are more profound.
At its core, the change removes two financial tools that sellers have come to rely on: float and rewards. Credit cards, often viewed as mundane transactional instruments, serve a more strategic purpose for these firms. They provide a grace period between incurring expenses and settling them, smoothing cash flow and enabling reinvestment into inventory, marketing and operations. Rewards, whether cash back or points, also function as a modest but meaningful rebate on costs.
By bypassing cards entirely, Amazon is effectively reclaiming that value for itself while shifting the burden of liquidity management back onto sellers.
Read more: Mid-Tier Retailers Caught Between Amazon and Walmart
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Unpacking Amazon’s New Card Rules
Amazon’s decision underscores a larger shift in how marketplaces are positioning themselves. Increasingly, they are not just platforms for transactions but orchestrators of financial flows. By controlling how money moves within their ecosystems, they gain leverage over participants’ liquidity, risk exposure and ultimately, their viability.
Amazon’s new card rules serve as a reminder that the financial underpinnings of marketplace participation are as important as the mechanics of selling. They highlight the need for businesses to diversify their financial tools and remain vigilant about changes that could impact liquidity.
For sellers, the challenge lies in the asymmetry of power. Participation in a dominant marketplace often requires adherence to its evolving rules, even when those rules introduce new constraints. The result is a form of financial dependency in which the platform’s decisions can reshape the contours of a business overnight.
Crucially, the ad billing change didn’t happen in isolation, and came on the heels of Amazon’s new DD+7 (delivery date plus seven days) payouts that took effect in March, and a new 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge that is reportedly being implemented due to the impact of the ongoing Middle East conflict on energy prices.
The episode also reveals a broader truth about the evolving role of credit cards in business operations. Far from being mere payment tools, cards have become a form of strategic infrastructure. They enable businesses to manage cash flow, access short-term financing, and optimize expenses in ways that are deeply integrated into their operational models.
Among the key takeaways from “SMB Growth Monitor: Small Businesses, Big Credit Needs,” a PYMNTS Intelligence collaboration with i2c, was the fact that 53% of business credit card use is preplanned, suggesting that SMB card spending is often deliberate and tied to business operations rather than impulse purchases.
See also: Amazon and Walmart Push AI Deeper Into the Shopping Aisle
Marketplaces Become Financial Gatekeepers
At a more technical level, Amazon’s shift can be viewed through the lens of interchange fees. When a transaction is processed via a credit card, the merchant, or in this case, Amazon as the billing entity, pays a fee to the card issuer and network. These fees, typically a few percentage points of the transaction value, represent a significant cost at scale.
By moving to an A2A model, Amazon sidesteps these fees entirely. Payments are effectively internal transfers within its ecosystem, executed without the involvement of card networks. The savings are substantial, particularly given the volume of advertising spend flowing through the platform.
From Amazon’s perspective, the logic is straightforward: reduce transaction costs, improve margins and streamline payment flows. From the seller’s perspective, however, the calculus is less favorable. The cost savings achieved by Amazon come at the expense of the financial flexibility that cards provide.
Looking ahead, Amazon’s move may foreshadow a broader transition toward A2A payments as a foundation for “agentic commerce,” an emerging future in which automated systems handle transactions on behalf of businesses and consumers. In such a world, efficiency and cost minimization become paramount, and traditional intermediaries like card networks may play a reduced role.
For small and medium-sized sellers, the stakes are high. Access to working capital is a critical determinant of growth and survival. When that access is constrained, even temporarily, the effects can cascade through inventory management, marketing and customer fulfillment.
The Growth Corporates Working Capital Index by PYMNTS Intelligence and Visa shows that 85% of middle market firms are using working capital solutions.
Whether this model becomes the norm remains to be seen. What is clear is that payment mechanisms are no longer a peripheral concern; they are central to the dynamics of modern commerce. For now, the lesson is both simple and complex: in the world of digital marketplaces, the rules of payment are the rules of power.
