Valid Tracking Rate FAQ

Providing valid tracking numbers with all you shipments has a number of benefits:

• Fewer customer contacts: Providing tracking numbers can help reduce the amount of time you spend answering shipping related questions.
• Decreased order defects: The Order Defect Rate for untracked shipments is 1.7 times greater than the rate for tracked shipments.
• Protection from A-to-z Guarantee claims: Without tracking, you will automatically lose any A-to-z Guarantee claims that are filed for ‘Order not received’. Tracking helps you represent yourself against these claims and may prevent loss.
• Improved seller feedback ratings: Customers tell us that being able to track their packages is one of the main reasons to leave a positive feedback.
• Reduced lost shipment costs: Tracking can significantly reduce the costs associated with a lost shipment. If a package is lost in transit, you can use tracking to find out where it was lost and then determine responsibility.
• Improved conversion: When you use tracking on 98% of your shipments and your on-time delivery rate is 97%, you become eligible to reduce handling and transit promise times. This is proven to increase conversion and revenue.

Amazon will validate tracking details (including carrier name and tracking ID) for all seller-fulfilled packages and show warnings for invalid tracking details. However, this change will not apply to items excluded from the VTR calculation.

You will need to provide the following information when confirming a shipment:

• The name of the carrier
• The specific delivery service used for all merchant fulfilled orders
• The tracking ID for merchant fulfilled orders that are shipped with a tracking method

Amazon requires the following for packages shipped directly to customers through Amazon.com from China:

• All packages with a value below 5 USD (including shipping fee) must use a carrier that has their shipping serviced integrated with Amazon, and which has trackable ship methods that provide at least one physical scan* by the carrier.
• All packages with a value equal to or above 5 USD (including shipping fee) must use an integrated carrier and a fully trackable ship method that can provide at least two physical scans (including a delivery scan or delivery attempt).
• The list of integrated carriers used for fulfilling orders that are shipped from China can be found on our Valid tracking rate help page.

* A physical scan is a scan the carrier performs to show the package is in transit.

You can submit a plan of action by writing to op-pso-vtr-appeals@amazon.com. If your plan of action is approved, your seller-fulfilled listings in the affected product category will be restored.

In order to share the carrier name and delivery service with us, follow the below steps:

• Select the carrier name from the drop-down list.
• Select relevant delivery service from drop-down list.

The list of carriers integrated with Amazon for domestic shipments in the US can be found on our Valid tracking rate help page.

Make sure you are using the carrier USPS and exempted shipping service "USPS Standard Mail envelopes” or “USPS First Class Mail envelopes" from the drop down in the shipping service field in the confirm shipment page on Seller Central.

If you confirm shipments via bulk upload, you need to manually enter the exact shipping service "USPS Standard Mail envelopes” or “USPS First Class Mail envelopes" in the ship-method field.

Even though you can see tracking in the carrier website, it does not necessarily mean that your tracking is valid. Please ensure that you have confirmed or updated the tracking information for your order before it is delivered to the customer. If the tracking ID is not updated before the package is delivered, this is a poor customer experience and will result in invalid tracking. Make sure to confirm or update the tracking information before the package is delivered.

Carrier Name

• Use a carrier that is integrated with Amazon.
• If you confirmed your shipment from Manage your order, check that you selected a carrier from the drop down menu in the Manage Orders page.

• If you confirm your shipments via Bulk upload feeds, we recommend that you follow the instructions on the Confirm multiple shipments with feeds Help page.
• Check that you entered the carrier name and shipping service correctly. If the carrier name or shipping service is misspelled, or contains any extra words, the tracking will be marked as invalid.
• Check that the carrier name you entered is associated with the tracking number you entered. For example, if you use DHL to ship a package, but enter "FedEx" as the carrier name, the tracking will be marked as invalid.
• Do not enter Chinese or special characters.

Tracking number

• Enter the tracking ID correctly.
• Do not leave the tracking information blank.
• Do not enter special characters, such as punctuation, which our system cannot recognize in the tracking information. This includes misspelled carrier name or shipping services.
• Do not enter Chinese or special characters.

Shipment confirmation and Update

Make sure to confirm or update the tracking information as soon as the package is handed over to the carrier, before the package is delivered to the customer. Please note, it takes up to 72 hours for the report and metric to reflect changes.

When our system does not receive updates from the carrier, the tracking information you entered for an order, "No” will display in column I (‘Has Valid Tracking Number‘) for that order in the defect report, it might be because:

• The tracking number you provided is incorrect or had Chinese or special characters.
• Your tracking number is correct, but it is not associated with the carrier you specified. For example, if you use UPS to ship a package but enter "USPS" as the carrier name, the tracking information will be marked as unconfirmed.
• You provided tracking ID that does not show at least one carrier scan.
• You used an unsupported carrier whose name is not available in the ‘drop down’ menu in Confirm Shipment page and is not considered to meet the VTR exemption criteria. As a result, we cannot verify the tracking status and therefore the shipment does not count towards your valid tracking rate metric.
• You confirmed or updated tracking information after the order was delivered, or after the ship by date, meaning it was not useful to the customer.

Ensure you have entered the carrier and tracking ID for your package correctly. You can change, re-enter, and update the tracking information under Manage Orders until the order is delivered. Your metrics will reflect this change within 72 hours.

When our system does not receive updates from the carrier, the tracking information you entered for an order, "No” will display in column I ('has Valid Tracking Number') for that order in the defect report. This can happen, if:

• You left the tracking information field blank.
• You entered special characters (such as punctuation) that our system cannot recognize in the tracking information.
• You confirmed shipment after delivery.
• We did not receive information from an integrated carrier.
• You used an unsupported carrier.

The Valid Tracking Rate metric is recorded for the category of an item at the time an order is placed. If your item was previously listed in a category at the time an order was placed, then you will have a Valid Tracking Rate metric in that category even if the item is now listed under a different category.

You should engage directly with your carrier to try to find a resolution with them. You should also review your labels to ensure that you are using the right delivery method and that labels are being printed correctly.

In addition, you can consider using Buy Shipping, which allows you to buy shipping labels through the seller central interface. When using Buy Shipping, the carrier, shipping service and tracking ID are automatically provided by the carrier to Amazon, and all tracking IDs received by Amazon through Buy Shipping are considered valid.

Using non-integrated carriers will negatively impact your VTR metrics. As such, we recommend using carriers that are Amazon integrated. You can also purchase tracked shipping labels directly from Amazon.

For more information on purchasing shipping from Amazon, go to Buy shipping services and print labels.

If you are an international seller with access to a carrier that is integrated with Amazon (such as China Post), you will need to use that supported carrier.

If canceled orders are showing up in your report, it is because you confirmed shipment before you delivered the package to the carrier. An order is not considered a cancellation when you have confirmed shipment because the customer’s credit card is charged. To cancel this kind of order, you are actually refunding the customer. To prevent this, we recommend that you confirm shipment only after the carrier has received the package.

For the majority of carriers, shipment tracking is already built into the cost to ship, including USPS First Class and Media Mail. If you purchase shipping through Amazon's Buy Shipping service, tracking is also added free of charge.

While you're required to provide valid tracking for 95% of US shipments, we encourage you to provide tracking numbers on all of your seller-fulfilled shipments. Tracking can significantly reduce the costs associated with customer contacts, A-to-z Guarantee claims, and lost shipments.

You can edit order tracking information before the order is delivered to the customer .

1. Go to Orders, then Manage Orders.
2. Enter the Order ID into the Advanced Search.
3. Once you find the correct order, click Edit Shipment and provide the revised tracking information.
4. Click Re-confirm the shipment.

You will not be able to confirm shipments if you enter an incorrect tracking ID at the time of confirming shipping for that order. With the new validation feature, an error message will be displayed and you will be prompted to correct the tracking ID.

It is the seller’s responsibility to ensure that the order is delivered to the customer. When the tracking information is incorrect, the customer is unable to track the shipment using the tracking ID provided by the carrier. In this case, we recommend that you to use a different carrier that shares correct tracking details for your orders.

When tracking numbers are added or edited, it may take up to 72 hours for the changes to reflect in your metric and report.

No, in order for your heavy/bulky products to be exempted, you must use one of theAmazon integrated carriers.

If you are a seller in the United States and you are shipping from China, these packages will be considered as well, so please use carriers that can be tracked.

Amazon requires the following for packages shipped directly to customers through Amazon.com from China:

• All packages with a value below 5 USD (including shipping fee) must use an integrated carrier and trackable ship method that provides at least one carrier scan*.
• All packages with a value equal to or above 5 USD (including shipping fee) must use an integrated carrier and fully trackable ship method that can provide at least two carrier scans (including a delivery scan or delivery attempt).

* A carrier scan is a scan the carrier performs to show the package is in transit.