Manage your handling time

Amazon provides the estimated delivery time to customers on the offer listing and checkout pages. We base this estimate on the time between when the buyer places an order and when the delivery reaches the customer's address. There are two parts to that calculation, handling time and transit time. This help page discusses handling time.

Types of handling time

Handling time, also known as production time or lead time to ship, is the time between when the customer places the order up to when you hand over the order to a carrier. Handling time is part of the delivery date calculation displayed to customers on the offer listing and checkout page.

There are three ways to set your handling time:

• Automated handling time (Amazon managed handling time for each SKU)
• SKU-specific handling time (Seller set for each SKU)
• Default handling time (Seller set for the account)

When a product has a SKU-specific handling time, it will override the default handling time.

When a seller enables automated handling time, it will override Default and SKU-specific handling time, unless there isn’t enough shipping history to do so, or an override exception is approved. See more details in the sections below on the history needed by AHT and override exceptions.

Automated handling time (AHT)

AHT automatically sets your handling time and Order Handling Capacity for you based on your historic performance per SKU. AHT helps reduce unnecessarily long handling times (known as a handling time gap) that make your delivery dates less appealing to customers, and also to increase the handling time for products that take longer to handle than what you have manually set, which could lead to late shipments. AHT sets more accurate handling times per SKU based on how long it historically takes you to pass each SKU to carriers, removing your need to estimate and manually configure handling times. Additionally, with AHT enabled, because Amazon is making calculations which affect your ship-by dates, your seller-fulfilled listings will not be deactivated if your Late Shipment Rate (LSR) does not meet the LSR Policy requirement.

When AHT is enabled, it will override both your SKU-specific handling time and your default handling time. For any new SKU, until there are enough historical shipments for automated handling time (AHT) to learn from and set an accurate handling time, your manually set SKU-specific handling time will be used, or the automated default handling time if there is no SKU-specific handling time for that SKU. This helps ensure all of your listings have an achievable handling time from the moment you list a new product.

For certain product types, such as custom, heavy and bulky, handmade, perishable, or media SKUs, you can request an exception to manually set a SKU-specific handling time that will override what AHT has configured. To request an exception of your handling time, please contact Selling Partner Support and ask them to create a ticket for you to have a handling time exception. We recommend doing this for SKUs where your handling time may be very unpredictable and using your history may be inaccurate.

AHT will also set your Order Handling Capacity for you based on your fulfillment history, and you can also choose to update this setting manually in your Shipping Settings. Your Order Handling Capacity is the limit for how many orders you can ship in a day, and once this limit is reached you will receive an extra day of handling time to ship that order. For example, if you normally ship 100 orders in a day, and AHT sets your Order Handling Capacity to 100, once you receive the 101^st order, all subsequent orders will have 1 more day to handle. This will help you if there are order surges caused by peak demand.

To enable AHT, take the following steps:

1. On Seller Central, go to Settings, select Shipping settings, and then select General shipping settings.
2. Scroll down to Handling time and click Edit.
3. Select Automated handling time and click Save.
4. Optionally, you can also enter your order handling capacity and click Save. For more information, go to Modify order handling capacity. This will allow you to set a limit for how many orders you can handle within your default handling time. Order handling capacity is applied when you receive too many orders by adding one additional day of handling time for all orders above your set capacity. For more information on order handling capacity, go to Shipping settings.

As of September 25, 2024, if you have a handling time gap of two days or more between your set handling time and your actual handling time, AHT will be automatically enabled for you and you will not be able to turn it off. AHT will set a more accurate handling time for you, which makes your delivery date more appealing to buyers and typically increases sales. Your handling time gap is calculated over 30 days of shipments, using shipments from the last 40 days, and excluding the most recent 10 days. To see your handling time gap, review your Fulfillment Insight dashboard.

SKU-specific handling time

SKU-specific handling time allows you to set a unique handling time (faster or slower) than your default handling time. If you set a SKU-specific handling time for a product, that setting will override both the default handling time, but if you have AHT enabled, AHT will automatically set a SKU-specific handling time that will override your manually set SKU-specific handling time. If you have a handling time exemption for the particular SKU, only your SKU-specific handling time will be used.

To set or update SKU-specific handling time for each product, one at a time:

• In Seller Central, go to Inventory and select Manage all inventory. Locate the SKU and click Edit, select Offer, and then select Handling time.

To set or update SKU-specific handling time in bulk, you have three options:

• Using Inventory Loader:
  
  1. On the Inventory file templates, style guides, and browse tree guides page, navigate to the Choose a file template section and download your Inventory Loader file.
  2. Read through the instructions in the Data definitions tab in the Inventory Loader file.
  3. In the Template tab, fill all the required fields (one SKU per row).
  4. Save the file in text-tab-delimited format (.xls or .tsv).
  5. Upload the file through Catalog, select Add products via upload, and then select Upload your spreadsheet.

• Using Price and Quantity file:
  
  1. From Inventory file templates, style guides, and browse tree guides page, navigate to the Choose a file template section and download your Price and Quantity file.
  2. Read through the instructions in the Data Definitions tab in the Price and Quantity file.
  3. In the Template tab, fill all the required fields (one SKU per row).
  4. Save the file in text-tab-delimited format (.xls or .tsv).
  5. Upload the file through Catalog, select Add products via upload, and then select Upload your spreadsheet.

• Using Listing Loader:
  
  1. From Upload inventory using the Listing Loader page, download your Listing Loader file.
  2. Read through the instructions in the Data Definitions tab in the Listing Loader file.
  3. In the Template tab, fill all the required fields (one SKU per row).
  4. Save the file in text-tab-delimited format (.xls or .tsv).
  5. Upload the file through Catalog, select Add products via upload, and then select Upload your spreadsheet.

Default handling time

Default handling time is set for all products on your account, and applies to all of your products that do not have an SKU-specific handling time. If you have AHT enabled, default handling time will be used for SKUs that don’t have a shipping history. You can set your default handling time for your account to either same-day or one-day.

• If you set your default handling time to one-day, you will need to ship the product on the next business day after the order is received.
• If you set your default handling time to same-day, you will also need to configure your order-cut off time in your General Shipping Settings, which by default is set to 2:00 p.m. local time of the location of your default location. If an order is placed prior to your order-cut off time, you need to ship it on the same day the order was received. If an order is placed after your order cut-off time, you have until the next business day to ship it.

Take the following steps to update default handling time:

1. On Seller Central, go to Settings, select Shipping settings, and then select General shipping settings.
2. Scroll down to Handling time and click Edit.
3. Select Same day (0 day) or 1-day and click Save.
4. Optionally, you can also enter your order handling capacity and click Save. This will allow you to set a limit for how many orders you can handle within your default handling time, and protect yourself against Late shipment rate. Order handling capacity is applied when you receive a large number of orders by adding one additional day of handling time for all orders above your set capacity.

Configure handling time for same-day orders

To set same-day handling time, you can either set same-day handling time as your account default handling time, or you can update your SKU-specific handling time by setting your handling time to 0 on the Manage all inventory page or via the Feed file in Seller Central. This provides you with additional flexibility to set same-day handling time for some or all of your products.

Additionally, you can configure same-day handling time on your shipping templates for your standard and expedited shipping options. However, this feature is only available to sellers who meet the required high-delivery performance standard. For more information, go to Same-day handling time FAQ.

For same-day handling time, all orders received before the order cut-off time must be shipped and confirmed the same business day you receive the order to avoid late shipments. All orders received after the order cut-off time must be shipped and confirmed during the following business day after the order was received. If you enable same-day handling time, you will also need to configure your order-cut off time in your General Shipping Settings, which by default is set to 2:00 p.m. local time of the location of your default location.

For example, if you have same-day handling time with an order cut-off time of 12 p.m. and you receive an order on Monday at 11 a.m., that order must be shipped and confirmed on the same day the order was received. If an order is received on Monday at 4 p.m., which is after the cut-off time, that order must be shipped by Tuesday.

Impact on account performance

The expected ship date for your seller-fulfilled orders is calculated based on the order date plus the handling time. For example, if your default handling time is one day, the expected ship date for orders placed before midnight will be the next business day. For same-day handling time, all orders received before the order cut-off time must be shipped and confirmed during the day the order was received to avoid late shipments. With same-day handling time, all orders received after the order cut-off time must be shipped and confirmed during the next day after the order was received.

It is important to confirm the shipment of orders by the expected ship by date to meet the Late shipment rate requirements for your account. If you ship the product on time but do not confirm it by the ship by date, it will be considered a late shipment. Not shipping on time may affect your LSR. Refer to the Modify order handling capacity to learn how to protect yourself against order surges.

Seller Fulfilled Prime and Premium Shipping orders

Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) and Premium Shipping (same-day delivery, next-day delivery, and two-day delivery) requires sellers to ship all orders received before the order cut-off time during the same business day the order was received to avoid late shipments. With same-day handling time, all orders received after the order cut-off time must be shipped and confirmed during the next business day after the order was received.

Handling time settings

On this page you will see recommendations from Amazon for the ideal handling time to set to match your actual handling time per SKU. You can choose to manually adjust your SKU handling time with these recommendations, or to enable automated handling time (AHT), in which case all recommendations will be applied.

Amazon generates handling time recommendations for all your products that have enough shipping history. For products where you have shown capabilities to handle them faster than your ASIN-specific handling time currently configured, we will recommend adjustments to set a shorter handling time. For products where your handling time is slower than your configured handling time, we will recommend adjustments to set a longer handling time. The recommendations are updated regularly and are based on your recent handling time per SKU to ensure the recommendations reflect your most recent capabilities to handle products for delivery.

Unless you enable AHT, we encourage you to monitor and update your handling time configuration accordingly. Setting accurate handling times will change the delivery dates that customers see, and more accurate handling times are typically shorter, which results in more sales. To view the recommended handling times on Seller Central, follow these steps:

1. On Seller Central, go to Inventory, and then click Manage seller-fulfilled products.
2. Select the Handling time settings tab to view all the products that have recommended handling times.
3. Check back regularly to view updated handling time recommendations.

If you prefer to have your handling time automatically updated to the most recent Amazon recommended value, we recommend enabling automated handling time, which will configure your handling time per SKU based the Amazon recommended handling time and on your historic performance. Additionally, with AHT enabled, your seller-fulfilled listings will not be deactivated if your late shipment rate (LSR) does not meet the LSR Policy requirement.

The handling time settings page shows which handling time value is used to calculate the ship by date of your SKU, and the source of how the handling time was assigned. The source has the following options:

• Amazon managed (AHT): This value is displayed when the AHT recommendation is applied to the SKU. If there isn’t sufficient history, your SKU-specific handling time will be used instead, and if there isn’t a SKU-specific handling time, the default handling time is used.
• Seller set: This value is displayed when the SKU-specific handling time is applied, if there is no SKU-specific handling time, the default handling time is used.
• Seller override to AHT: This value is displayed if you requested an exemption for the handling time of that SKU.