Back in November we wrote that 95% of all packages sent would have to be sent via a tracked method when sold on Amazon.com. This is according Amazon.com’s new Valid Tracking Rate Policy. We wrote a followup post in December with information via Royal Mail that this wasn’t going to be the case for UK sellers.
We’ve heard from Tamebay reader Fergus who says “I then kind of ignored it as a result of that but notice that this is affecting us. I’ve not had a response from Amazon on it yet, but a look around the web seems that other people are in the same boat and our Valid Tracking Rate metric is not good“.
Amazon.com told Fergus “All seller are required to provide valid tracking numbers for 95% of their U.S. shipments. That is items shipped to U.S or within U.S from any part of the world requires valid tracking. Sellers need not provide tracking for freight shipments or for small items, such as screen protectors, greeting cards, and so on, that are shipped in Standard Mail envelopes or First Class Mail envelopes“.
The approved carriers are UPS, UPSMI, USPS, DHL, DHL Global Mail, FedEx, FedEx Smartpost, OnTrac, Newgistics, Canada Post, Lasership, EMS, and EUB.
This suggests that UK merchants listing on Amazon.com DO need to ship with tracking and preferably one from the approved list above for which Amazon.com support tracking information for verification.
Finally Amazon added “Please note that if you have enough proof to confirm that the order is delivered within the Estimated Delivery Date (screenshot of the delivered status or the tracking URL which confirms the delivered status) then you may contact our Performance Team at [email protected] so that they will make a note of it“.
I can’t see too many sellers who have time to screenshot tracking confirmation for each item that they sell in order to email it to Amazon seller support!
How are your Amazon.com metrics? Have you found a suitable tracking solution for shipping to the US from the UK that meets Amazon.com’s Valid Tracking Rate metric requirements?
6 Responses
I am with Fergus, after reading Tambay’s post I didn’t look at couriers again. However I did double check in February just to make sure. I spoke with Seller Support who double checked with his team leader and they said ‘With regards to your question about the Valid tracking rate, If you are shipping from UK using your Amazon.com account it will not affect your Valid tracking rate.’ I made sure my question was understood and that they followed up with an email.
They did also say ‘The notification about required tracking was sent to all sellers, though enforcement is actually launching in phases. Phased enforcement takes into consideration variables such as where you are shipping from and what type of products are being shipped. While tracking may eventually be required for all sellers, at this time it is not required for you. Please keep in mind that this requirement may be relevant to you at a future point in time, in which case we will notify you ahead of any policy changes. ‘
we got this response when questioning Amazon RE UK sellers and tracking??
Greetings from Amazon Seller Support,
Thank you for contacting,
We have reviewed your e-mail and understand your concern regarding providing tracking number/information for orders.
We would like to inform you that tracking information is not required for feeds or Manage Orders, but, based on buyer feedback, we highly encourage providing tracking information. Buyers prefer to track their orders, but we realize that not all shipping methods support tracking.
Hope this addresses your concern.
In case of any further assistance kindly revert to us. We will be more than glad to assist you.
Valuable sellers like you are the building blocks of Amazon and we strive to put our hundred percent to resolve your issues and delight you.
Have a Great Day!
I sell on Amazon.com and am based in Israel – customer support told me it did not apply to me and I am under no obligation to send with tracking – which would be a big expense for me.
We also got a response from Amazon stating that is not required for international sellers for the moment, but that it may apply sometime in the future.
I am a UK seller and we actually went down the route of trying to supply tracking information to our US account. We then found out later that whilst they say they support USPS, it is not an option that we can choose and therefore we are unable to provide tracking information not so have decided to give up chasing the perfection that Amazon crave.
Back in Nov when this thread started and our service was mentioned here on Tamebay as a solution based on it being a recognised Amazon US domestic tracked product (UPS MI), the requirement for .com was “a couple of months ahead” and most of the merchants who contacted us back then had a view to “get Xmas out of the way first”.
In that time and given that we are now past the Feb date that was given, here at eTail USA we have still not actually heard anything definitive about this matter, either from our own customers or from Amazon themselves.
It appears that is is possible to continue to sell there without tracking but that tracking is clearly “preferred” not just by Amazon as the selling venue but also the ever-more-demanding US purchaser.
That said, we believe here that this is the case at all marketplace venues these days, not just Amazon.com.