Amazon.com is now holding refunds paid from sellers for two hours after they have been actioned, to give the seller time to check and correct them if needed.

It announced yesterday that it is doing this because of the complexity of some transactions, and for instances when a seller only intends to partly refund the total cost of a transaction.

It told sellers in its announcement: "Now, when you generate a refund, it will sit in Pending status for up to two hours. This additional buffer gives you time to correct refund mistakes."

In addition, Amazon will now only notify a buyer once the refund has been released, so they will not know whether an amendment has been made while the payment was pending.

Ina Steiner, of ecommercebytes.com, though, believes there may be an ulterior motive in Amazon's actions: "While this is seemingly a positive for Amazon's third-party sellers, the new policy also benefits Amazon.com," she wrote.

"The company is notorious for trying to minimise contact with customers, and with the new two-hour window, fewer sellers will have to contact Seller Support about refund mistakes."

Once the refund has been released, at the end of the two-hour window, Amazon said sellers would no longer be able to cancel it.