Amazon will require professional sellers to maintain a Business Hour Delivery Rate of 90% or higher on seller-fulfilled orders starting September 30 in the U.S., U.K., and Germany, meaning packages must reach Amazon Business customers during their operating hours. Sellers whose rate stays below 90% by October 30 risk having their offers deactivated for Amazon Business customers, though FBA and retail offers are unaffected.
The metric has existed for a couple of years, but until now, it was informational only, with Amazon telling sellers it carried no penalty. Now Amazon writes:
“For Amazon Business customers, receiving shipments during operating hours is essential to packages getting received securely and on time, with fewer re-delivery attempts. […] If your Business Hour Delivery Rate is below 90% on September 30, we’ll notify you and provide recommendations on how to improve. If your rate doesn’t improve by October 30, your seller-fulfilled offers may be deactivated for Amazon Business customers.”
The big problem for sellers is that they don’t control when UPS, FedEx, or USPS actually attempt a delivery. Even if they hand off the package on time, they’re at the mercy of the carrier to deliver on the expected date and within business hours.
Sellers on Amazon’s forums have expressed their frustration with the change:
- “This is EXTORTION!! If they don’t eliminate this OTD rate… it’ll be the death of all of us 3rd party sellers on Amazon. We can’t control this metric, it’s the shipper’s performance, and they hold us accountable.”
- “What in the holy #*@! I can NOT believe they went through with mandating this garbage metric. Looks like the end for most of us non FBA sellers.”
- “How in the heck do I make sure the carrier delivers during business hours for my $7-$15 items shipped via Ground Advantage? It is not like I can assign a shipping method to a certain customer.”
- “Amazon’s own carrier fails in this department miserably… they are constantly trying to deliver our orders after the business hours. Do they punish themselves for that? I don’t think so.”
- “This is the first step in Amazon making this broken metric a requirement. It will NOT apply to FBA… We are not in charge of shipping companies, and can’t be held responsible for their performance.”
Is this basically Amazon’s way of pushing everyone to FBA, as that’s the only exception to falling below that 90% threshold?
The running theory on seller forums is that the change is designed to make self-fulfillment impossible, forcing them to move to FBA, where Amazon collects the fees. Amazon representatives suggest tools like Automated Handling Time, Shipping Settings Automation, and Amazon Buy Shipping to ease the pressure of the new requirement, but those are the same tools sellers say they already use while sitting below 90%.
Setting unrealistic delivery guidelines that exempt your own fulfillment service from having to hit the same metrics feels a bit “anti-competitivey” if you ask me, but Amazon certainly didn’t ask me.
