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Are you wondering what the difference is between the merchant release date and the offer release date?

The merchant release date is the date the product was initially released. This can be left blank for most products, however if the date should be provided, please ensure it meets the requested formatting of MM-DD-YYYY and not YYYY-MM-DD.

The offer release start date is the first day you can start delivering your product to customers. Once the item is live in Amazon's store, customers can start placing orders for it beginning on this date.

These two dates are important for setting up pre-orders and making sure customers can get the new product as soon as it's available. The merchant release date kicks off the pre-order window, while the offer release start date marks the official launch when customers can start placing orders.

For instructions on how to set up pre-order products, check out List a pre-ordered or back-ordered product. Ensure that you can guarantee that your products will arrive to you before the pre-order or back order date you provide, as your metrics will be effected if you are not able to ship on the date that you specified.

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