Amazon have just announced that they are extending account protection for an additional two weeks. The pause on account suspensions for order performance issues was initially set to end on May 15th and included the Late Shipment Rate, Cancellation Rate, and Order Defect Rate performance metrics. This decision was made after sellers were facing fulfilment difficulties in order to protect their account health.
From the 1st of June Amazon are planning to restart tracking and enforcing selling accounts with high cancellation rate, late shipment rate, or order defect rate per their established order performance standards, so ensure you are fully prepared for this to avoid any issues. Any order performance defects showing in your Account Health page from prior to June 1 will not be used to evaluate your account health.
Only time will tell how much COVID-19 will continue to affect merchants from early June and how accessible the vital features keeping sellers on their feet will be but Amazon have provided some recommendations to help keep your account from incurring order defects:
- Closely monitor your inventory levels and make sure your listings accurately reflect available inventory.
- Ensure your default ship settings match your current fulfilment capabilities.
- Monitor customer inquiries received via Buyer-Seller Messaging and respond quickly – at most and within 48 hours.
