Amazon provides the estimated delivery time to buyers on the product detail and checkout pages. We base this estimate on the time between when the buyer places an order until the delivery reaches the buyer's address.
Handling time (also known as production time or lead time to ship) is the time between when the buyer places the order until you hand the order over to your carrier. Handling time is part of the delivery promise calculation displayed on the offer listing and checkout page.
In Seller Central, you can set your handling time in two ways:
Default handling time is the handling time set at an account level and applies to all your products unless you set a handling time specifically for an ASIN, in which case it will override the account level handling time for that specific ASIN. You can set the default handling time for your account to either Same-day, 1 business day or 2 business days. This does not affect products that have a product level handling time set).
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. All orders received after the order cut-off time must be shipped and confirmed during the next day after the order was received.
For example, a seller that has a Same-day handling time with an order cut off time of 12 p.m., and receives an order on Monday, 11 a.m. That order will need to be shipped on Monday, which is the same day the order was received. If an order is received Monday, 4 p.m., that order will need to be shipped by Tuesday, the next day it was received.
To update the default handling time on Seller Central, follow the below steps:
If you expect to take longer than the defined default handling time to ship specific products, you can set longer handling times for these products.
There are three ways you can modify the handling time in bulk:
Customers love faster deliveries and are more likely to buy products that have faster estimated delivery times. Products with faster estimated delivery times are also more likely to be featured offers on product detail pages. Setting faster and more accurate handling times also helps improve the delivery experience for your customers.
Expected ship date for your seller fulfilled orders is calculated based on order date + handling time. For example, if your default handling time is 1 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 date to meet the late shipment rate (LSR) 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 impact your late shipment rate, use Order handling capacity to protect against shipping late. For more details, go to Late shipment rate.
To set same-day handling time you have two options, you can either set same-day handling time as your account default handling time, or you can opt-in for same-day handling time for specific shipping templates. This provides you with additional flexibility to set same day handling time for some or all of your products. Same-day handling time set on your shipping templates only applies to Standard and Expedited shipping options and is only available to sellers that meet the required high delivery performance standard. To learn more, go to Same-day handling time.
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 order cut-off time on the same day they receive the order.
Amazon generates handling time recommendations for products where we see a gap between your configured handling time, your actual handling time for that product, and your handling time of similar products on Amazon. For products where you have demonstrated 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 refreshed monthly and are based on the prior month’s handling time to ensure the recommendations are reflective of your most recent capabilities to handle products for delivery.
We encourage you to regularly monitor and update your handling time recommendations. Setting accurate handling times will support the estimated delivery dates to customers.
To view and configure your recommended handling times: