Welcome to Part II of Avoiding Amazon Suspensions! Today, we’re going to talk about your SHIPPING PERFORMANCE!
Did you know that up and until a few years ago, adding tracking information was optional? Not only is it MANDATORY, Starting April 5th, you now will need to add the CARRIER name in the carrier-code field to the tracking information. By May 3, Amazon will be validating all tracking numbers on seller-fulfilled orders. These type of suspensions are the easiest to avoid if you carefully monitor your metrics. But what metrics should you be looking for?
Your shipping performance is based upon the past 30 days of shipping orders to your customers (and of course, we’re talking FBM, not FBA):
Target: under 4%
Target: under 2.5%
Target: over 95%
Late Shipment Rate – Target of under 4%
Do you use software to confirm orders? Although this will streamline your process, always check for malfunctions, errors and glitches. If you use software to confirm orders, also manually check that the orders are confirmed and shipped on a daily basis. If you find you’re overwhelmed with orders, add an extra day (or 2) of handling time to your dashboard. You’re always better off adding the day, rather than getting orders out late. Your best strategy to avoiding Amazon Suspensions? Get your orders out on time!
Pre-fulfillment Cancellation Rate – Target of under 20.5%
Inventory:
Keep an eye on your stock levels and inventory on a daily basis. Make sure to only list items which are in stock, and ready to be shipped. If you see that an item is about to go out of stock, remove it from your inventory until it becomes available again. If you use software to automate your inventory, set your thresholds to have a few units always available for returns or misdeliveries!!
Sourcing:
Don’t assume that items will be available to “purchase” once an order has been received. Any type of delay or stock out from the supplier can cause an excessive amount of cancellations, leading to potential violations!
Peak Shopping Seasons
Keep in mind that buyers are purchasing a larger volume of items more frequently, so think ahead, look at last year’s metrics, try to forecast the sales so you have the inventory available for rapid shipping.
Are you a dropshipper?
Keep your eye on inventory and stock availably. If you consistently have challenges with your supplier, it may be time to switch to a different drop shipping company. Or, want o make sure that you don’t cancel orders? Stock the items in your warehouse or switch to an FBA model.
Valid Tracking Rates – target of over 95%
1. Order confirmation – don’t confirm orders until they’ve shipped. Amazon bots carefully monitor the confirm date, ship date, and valid tracking submission date for each order. Many sellers think that they can confirm all of their orders on time, and ship the items several days later.
2. Tracking information – if the order has been shipped and confirmed, enter the tracking information – and don’t forget to follow up with a manual scan to ensure that the correct information has been submitted.
Valid Tracking Rates – target of over 95%
- Monitor your metrics
- Check your software
- Address all policy notices immediately