New business hour delivery requirement for seller-fulfilled shipments
For Amazon Business customers, receiving shipments during operating hours is essential to packages getting received securely and on time, with fewer re-delivery attempts. To help ensure reliable delivery within a business customer’s hours, we’re introducing a new Business Hour Delivery Rate requirement to seller-fulfilled shipments in our US store.
Starting September 30, 2026, you’ll need to maintain a Business Hour Delivery Rate of 90% or higher. This is measured using the existing Business Hour Delivery Rate metric, which tracks the percentage of your seller-fulfilled shipments delivered to Amazon Business customers within their operating hours over a rolling 14-day period.
If your Business Hour Delivery Rate is below 90% on September 30, we’ll notify you and provide recommendations on how to improve. If your rate doesn't improve by October 30, your seller-fulfilled offers may be deactivated for Amazon Business customers. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and retail offer eligibility will not be impacted.
Using reliable carriers and setting accurate handling and transit times is the best way to meet the requirement. You can also enable Automated Handling Time, Shipping Settings Automation, and Amazon Buy Shipping as shipments fulfilled using all three of these tools are guaranteed to meet the Business Hour Delivery Rate requirement.
To review your Business Hour Delivery Rate, go to Account Health.
For more information, go to the Business Hour Delivery Rate and the Frequently asked questions on BHDR help pages.
New business hour delivery requirement for seller-fulfilled shipments
For Amazon Business customers, receiving shipments during operating hours is essential to packages getting received securely and on time, with fewer re-delivery attempts. To help ensure reliable delivery within a business customer’s hours, we’re introducing a new Business Hour Delivery Rate requirement to seller-fulfilled shipments in our US store.
Starting September 30, 2026, you’ll need to maintain a Business Hour Delivery Rate of 90% or higher. This is measured using the existing Business Hour Delivery Rate metric, which tracks the percentage of your seller-fulfilled shipments delivered to Amazon Business customers within their operating hours over a rolling 14-day period.
If your Business Hour Delivery Rate is below 90% on September 30, we’ll notify you and provide recommendations on how to improve. If your rate doesn't improve by October 30, your seller-fulfilled offers may be deactivated for Amazon Business customers. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and retail offer eligibility will not be impacted.
Using reliable carriers and setting accurate handling and transit times is the best way to meet the requirement. You can also enable Automated Handling Time, Shipping Settings Automation, and Amazon Buy Shipping as shipments fulfilled using all three of these tools are guaranteed to meet the Business Hour Delivery Rate requirement.
To review your Business Hour Delivery Rate, go to Account Health.
For more information, go to the Business Hour Delivery Rate and the Frequently asked questions on BHDR help pages.
210 replies
Seller_ywc4Mu1IGbgcK
Another meaningless metric made to make us sellers hop and jump and follow that delivery truck to these businesses. Are you kidding me. The USPS, FED EX, UPS doesnt know what to do with mail?? And how can sellers really dictate when a delivery will be made but to jump on the conveyor belt and follow that package. I have never had a compliant from a business customer yet about delivery issues in the decades I have been on Amz. Amz. stop thinking about metrics, and do more thinking elsewhere.
Seller_k7RD9fUO8m14k
Thank you for the update on the new Business Hour Delivery Rate (BHDR) requirement starting September 30. I (and many other sellers) appreciate the goal of better B2B experiences, but I have some practical concerns about how this can realistically be achieved.
We already use the exact combination you recommend: Shipping Settings Automation (SSA) + Automated Handling Time + Amazon Buy Shipping, and we exclusively ship via UPS (including Ground options). Despite this, our current BHDR is only 83%.
My main questions are:
Carrier control: How are sellers held accountable for final delivery timing when we have no control over UPS (or any carrier) routing, especially during peak/holiday seasons when delays and schedule shifts are common? Once the package is handed off, the timing is entirely in the carrier’s hands.
Early-closing businesses: Many commercial customers now close at 3pm or 4pm (or have variable/earlier hours). How is Amazon or the carrier determining and accounting for these actual operating hours in the metric? If a business lists standard 9-5 but closes earlier, or if the driver’s route hits them late, how does that get fairly reflected?
We want to stay compliant and continue serving Amazon Business customers, but with the tools and carriers already maximized, it’s unclear what additional changes would reliably get us above 90%. This feels like it may unintentionally push more volume to FBA, where sellers don’t face this metric.Any specific guidance, carrier performance data, or adjustments to the tools would be very helpful. Thanks for any clarification you can provide.
Seller_NKoWxmzeYrtUa
How are we supposed to control if businesses are only open 10am-3pm and the Fedex/UPS routes only deliver to that area at 4pm?
This is surprisingly common. FedEx/UPS and other common carriers do not even have a way for us to communicate the business's hours.
Everyone is going to just stop offering Business pricing to avoid this metric that we have no control over - no?
Seller_hZlWagzEXNMRm
why is amazon so dumb and contradicts the common sense we know they have at the top since they are 2 sided anyway. But why show how stupid you actually are? Like you already know we and no seller has any control when a delivery is made. Ups works until 9pm especially during holiday seasons. Honestly, I don't care. If they don't get their package, your shipping OTD crap protects me anyway as long as I ship on time. Bite me amazon
Seller_9ifjYLRCpqwuz
I just looked at our report and we had 6 failed BH deliveries.
1) Shipped to a PO Box. Was available at 2:38pm on a Saturday. 4 days before promise
2) Delivered to a country club on a "closed day" It was a Monday at a business open 7 days per week. 2 days before promise
3) Delivered to a community center on Juneteenth - They were open that day.
4) Delivered to a hotel on Juneteenth - they are open 24/7. 3 days before promise
5) Delivered to a hotel at 5:18pm - They are open 24/7 1 days before promise
6) Delivered to a hotel at 5:28 - They are open 24/7 2 days before promise
So explain anything we could do differently.
What really po's me is that on orders I purchase for my business, Amazon's own delivery missed fully 50% of deliveries. It has gotten so bad that if I really need something on time, I have it sent to my house.
Seller_52pUzzgnsLDGs
This says to me that all third party sellers (those who have a brain) will opt out of business selling and Amazon will no longer have any competition.
Seller_3fb5PeetLDQvb
If you ship early and ahead of projected latencies, you get punished by having your latency window shortened automatically. We build our latencies based on the unrealistic expectations from Amz to begin with. Now, go the other direction and there is punishment for carriers not doing their jobs. Combine this with the cash flowing shipping for two weeks at a time (DD+7) and it's easy to see where this is going.
Sellers would do right to begin pivoting their businesses now. Amazon is not invincible any more than Sears, K-Mart, Borders Books, and many more greedy corporations that stepped on smaller backs to get where they got.
Seller_OQTPwvIVqfKpB
Can you help me understand how we have any control over this?
We use SSA and AHT for practically every order. We ship on time, our OTDR rate is above 99%.
But our Business Hour Delivery Rate is at an 86%.
WE automatically do everything that you give as a way to help keep your rate above 90%. We do not fall short on any other requirements.
How do we actively control this to get our percentage above 90?
What actions can we take to have any control over times that carriers deliver?
Running a report will do nothing but show me what carriers made mistakes this week.
Using AHT and SSA helps us use more reliable carriers.
but we are already doing all of that and this is still not above the minimum standard.
And there's no actual actions WE can take to increase this or have any sort of control in increasing it.
Seller_NpCTTKHemfADL
I'm sorry some of these so called businesses have unreasonable hours. One of these businesses i Shipped to states they are only open 2 days a week at unreasonable times 7am-1pm.
Looking at the odr for these I'm getting a failure for the delivery service delivering a day early within their business hours.
I may just not offer it anymore if amazon is being this unreasonable. We do not control delivery drivers.
Seller_r9wMm8LrE5iKj
First off, don't ever again tell us that a new metric is "informational only". Eventually, you make it requirement -- no matter how stupid it is -- so just tear off the farking bandaid and say "this just in: new stupid". How long until this also applies to retail?
Next, if we use the same carriers and methods as FBA, how is this not simply an anti-trust-violating clause, especially given that YOU are setting the transit times (over which we never had any control, not even if we use Amazon as a shipper): "Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) ... will not be impacted. Using reliable carriers and setting accurate handling and transit times is the best way to meet the requirement. "
Then, define "accurate" handling times ... because automation sets it based on a different threshold than the handling time requirements (and from what I've seen, also inaccurately, with suggested handling times disconnected from the underlying data). Your inability to understand standard deviation, minimum, average, significant sample size, or sometimes even basic math means you are not qualified to run you business based on metrics.
Does removing business pricing in any way help us with this "special needs" concept? Because we're certainly willing to do that ... which helps your buyers how?
How about this: a rainy day delivery rate. Since buyers don't want their cardboard packages getting wet, "we" (meaning the shippers Amazon also uses) have to delivery 90% of our packages in sunshine or you'll kick us off the platform, unless we pay your extortion fees for FBA. Does that sound stupid? How is it significantly different than this?
Finally, explain the underlying motivation for all these rules. Is the goal to slowly push out sellers and have 1PS fulfill everything? Is it to get us all on FBA, at which point you'll jack up fees (and lose items, and give undeserved refunds, etc. etc.) even more? Is it to get a monopoly on business sales, with an eye to expanding that monopoly? It clearly has jack to do with the customer, in spite of your too-loudly objections.
How does it feel to try to put pig on this lipstick every day? Can I at least suggest you put down the Kool-Aid and go work someplace less awful?
