Amazon's New Policy for Self-Fulfillment Sellers: Shipping Too Fast May Lead to Platform Takeover

According to foreign media reports, Amazon recently announced adjustments to the handling time rules for sellers using self-fulfillment. These rules will officially take effect on June 29th and apply only to Professional Selling Plan sellers (handmade category products are exempt, and the platform is currently evaluating exemption requests for print-on-demand products).

The rules require sellers to ensure that the handling time set for each self-fulfilled SKU matches the actual processing duration. There are two compliance paths: The first is to enable the automatic handling time feature. The platform will automatically set the handling time for corresponding SKUs based on the seller's recent shipping history, while also providing protection against late shipment rate penalties. The second option is for sellers to manually set the handling time for each SKU. The platform will monitor this on a 30-day cycle. If the actual shipping time for a specific SKU is consistently at least one day faster than the set time, the SKU will be flagged. Sellers have 30 days to make adjustments. If accurate handling times are not submitted by the deadline, the platform will take over managing the handling time for those SKUs, while providing 180 days of protection against late shipment rate penalties.

E-commerce platforms typically calculate the estimated delivery date based on the seller's set handling time and display it to consumers. Public data shows that for every one-day reduction in the promised delivery time, corresponding sales increase by an average of 5%. In the past, many sellers would intentionally set longer handling times. This practice not only lowers consumer expectations, leading to a better delivery experience when items arrive early, but also creates a buffer for operational anomalies, avoiding negative impacts on the on-time delivery rate metric if actual shipping is delayed.

Amazon's latest rules have sparked extensive discussion among sellers since their announcement. Some sellers mentioned in related discussion threads that this rule could force sellers to deliberately delay shipping, which contradicts the platform's original intent. Another seller noted in discussions that they would subsequently set the handling time to one week and only ship the product on the latest possible shipping date to avoid triggering the rule by shipping early. Some sellers also pointed out that their stores occasionally face inventory shortages requiring several days for restocking, making it impractical to be penalized for shipping ahead of schedule.