Starting June 29, Amazon will require seller-fulfilled SKUs to have accurate handling times, and will take over managing those settings for sellers whose items consistently ship at least a day faster than stated. Sellers can either enable Automated Handling Time, which sets times based on recent shipping history, or keep manual SKU-level times that Amazon monitors over 30 days, flagging mismatches. Amazon, which uses handling time to calculate the delivery dates shoppers see, says every one-day improvement in promised delivery lifts sales about 5%. But the change drew protest from sellers who pad their handling times on purpose to manage buyer expectations and avoid late-delivery penalties, with several saying they'll now simply hold shipments until the last allowed day rather than risk being flagged for shipping early. The policy applies only to professional-plan sellers and excludes handmade goods.
