In the US, Amazon are making significant investments in their fulfillment and transportation capabilities to make Prime faster, transitioning from a Two-Day to a One-Day delivery program. Now they have announced that to continue to improve the Amazon Prime experience for customers, they want to ensure US Seller Fulfilled Prime meets customers’ expectations and that means shipping six days a week with delivery faster than ever before.
Even before COVID-19, fewer than 16% of US Seller Fulfilled Prime orders met the Prime Two-Day delivery promise, in large part because many sellers do not operate on weekends. As a result, Amazon are making the following changes to this program in the US and if you want to remain part of the US Seller Fulfilled Prime program then you’ll be expected to comply:
- 1st February 2021 US Seller Fulfilled Prime Saturday Pickups & Delivery
From the 1st of February next year, sellers will be required to use shipping methods that support Saturday delivery and pick-ups to provide customers with a more consistent delivery experience throughout the week.
- 1st February 2021 US Seller Fulfilled Prime Targets
Also from the 1st of February next year, US Seller Fulfilled Prime sellers will be required to meet targets for one- and two-day delivery promises. These delivery promise metrics measure the percentage of customer page views that displayed a one or two-day delivery promise when your SFP offer was the featured offer, regardless of whether a purchase was made. Amazon say that the delivery speed targets ensure that customers have a consistent experience regardless of who fulfills their Prime order.
- 1st February 2021 US Seller Fulfilled Prime nationwide delivery coverage
Again from the 1st of February next year, SFP sellers will be required to have nationwide delivery coverage for all standard size delivery products. You can see which of your products are standard size or oversize on the Manage SFP page.
To help merchants meet the targets for one- and two-day delivery promises, Amazon are launching a new dashboard that measures the quoted delivery speed of SFP offers. The new dashboard monitors two new metrics: Percent of One-Day or less Detail Page Views and Percent of Two-Day or less Detail Page Views.
“We recognize these changes are meaningful. We want to make sure you have plenty of time to determine how these changes affect your business and to make any adjustments you may need, which is why these new requirements will not take effect for more than five months. While the current performance of the program is not meeting customer expectations, these changes will help deliver an experience our Prime customers expect, including fast delivery. We will continue innovating with tools and offerings that help make SFP more compelling to you and our shared customers. You and SFP are important to Amazon and our customers, and to help you navigate these changes, we have launched a guide in Seller Central.”
– Amazon.com
What impact could similar measures in the UK mean?
Whilst all of this news applies to Amazon SFP merchants in the US, the one thing to watch for in the UK will be a requirement to ship on Saturdays via a courier that also delivers on weekends. Generally merchants in the UK won’t have to be so concerned over nationwide shipping and one-day delivery as that’s pretty much the norm for UK ecommerce already.
