Fast and accurate delivery is essential for customers according to Amazon, and often determines where they choose to shop… and for Amazon they want customers shopping with them! The best way to ensure reliable on-time delivery for customers on Amazon, is to set accurate handling and transit times and to choose reliable carriers. To help reduce late deliveries, Amazon are introducing an on-time delivery rate (OTDR) policy.
Don’t stress too much…. even if you’re not meeting the Amazon on-time delivery rate they’re going to give you five months to get back on track!
Starting from the 16th of September 2025, you’ll be expected to maintain a minimum 90% OTDR without promise extensions when fulfilling Fulfilled by Merchant orders on Amazon.co.uk. OTDR measures the percentage of your Fulfilled by Merchant units that are delivered on or before the “Deliver by” date.
Depending on your OTDR performance level, you may face actions ranging from temporary deactivation of individual listings to restrictions on your ability to list Fulfilled by Merchant products. Amazon will publish the updated OTDR metric on Account Health Dashboard starting from the 16th of September 2025.
Starting from the 16th of October 2025, Amazon will send out informative warnings with your current OTDR and, if you’re below the minimum requirement, recommendations on how to improve. No enforcement measures will be taken before the 2nd of February 2026.
To improve your OTDR, you can set accurate Prime delivery promises by adjusting your handling time and transit time settings and by choosing reliable carriers.
Alternatively, you can get help managing your delivery dates by using the following tools which can offer accurate promises and reduce late deliveries:
- Modify handling time with automated handling time which sets handling times at SKU level based on how long it usually takes you to process and handover a specific product to carriers.
- Shipping Settings Automation (SSA) sets transit times based on up-to-date carrier delivery performance from your warehouse locations to different customer destinations.
- Buy Shipping helps you choose a shipping label for a service that can meet the Prime delivery promise to the customer.
When you use all of these tools to fulfil an order or set a 0- or 1-day handling time in combination with SSA and Buy shipping, those orders will not have a negative impact on your OTDR. You’ll still be expected to ship on time and meet the account-level requirement for late dispatch rate.
Effective as of the 19th of January 2026, Amazon are making changes to shipping settings to provide customers with accurate and fast Prime delivery promises. The maximum transit times available in standard domestic shipping templates for the UK mainland will change from 5 days to 4 days based on observed actual carrier transit times. Non-mainland and certain remote areas will be excluded from this change.
