Modify handling time

Amazon provides the estimated delivery time to buyers on the offer listing 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.

What is handling time?

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 time calculation displayed on the offer listing and checkout page.

Total Delivery Time = Handling Time + Transit Time (+ any holidays)

What is default handling time?

Default handling time is the handling time set at an account level and applies to all your products unless you specifically change the product level handling time. You can set the default handling time to either 1 business day or 2 business days (this does not affect products that have a product level handling time set).

How can I update the default handling time?

To update the default handling time on Seller Central, follow the below steps:

1. Go to Settings on Seller Central and clickShipping Settings.
2. On the Shipping Settings page, navigate to General Shipping Settings tab.
3. Scroll down to Handling Time and click Edit.
4. Select 1 Day or 2 Days and click Save.
5. Optional: Enter your order handling capacity and click Save. This will allow you to set a limit for how many orders you can handle within 1 or 2 days, and protect against Late Shipment Rate (LSR) when you receive more orders than you can manage.
   Note: You can change your default handling time only once in a 24-hour window.

How can I modify handling time for specific products?

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 two ways you can modify the handling time:

• You can use the Add a Product tool or select Edit on the Manage Inventory page:
  • Enter the number of days required to prepare the product for shipment in the Handling Time field.
    Note: You can view your default Handling Time in your Shipping Settings, under General Shipping Settings.
• You can also use the Inventory Loader.
  • Enter the number of days required to prepare the product for shipment in the handling_time column on the InventoryLoaderTemplate tab.
  Note: Leaving the attribute empty on the Inventory Loader template will cause the Handling Time to revert to your default Handling Time.
  Note: Your offer will update on Amazon within 15 minutes. In case of maximum load on Amazon systems, it can take up to 24 hours for offer information and 48 hours for product information.
• You can also opt in for Same Day handling time. This provides you with additional flexibility to set same day handling time for some or all of your products. Same Day handling time only applies to Standard shipping options. The feature is only available to sellers that meet high delivery performance standards.

Why is setting faster and accurate handling time important?

Customers love faster deliveries and are more likely to purchase products that have faster estimated delivery times. Products with faster estimated delivery times are also more likely to be the featured offers on product detail pages. Setting faster and accurate handling times also helps improve the delivery experience for your customers.

How does handling time impact my account performance?

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 business day, expected ship date for orders placed till 12 midnight will be the next business day. 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. Not meeting the LSR requirement may result in account deactivation. For more details, see Late Shipment Rate.

Do these handling time settings affect Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) and Premium Shipping orders?

No. Orders for Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) and Premium Shipping (Same Day Delivery, Next Day Delivery, and Two Day Delivery) should be shipped on the same day as long as the order is received before the order cut-off time. For more details, see How to process Seller Fulfilled Prime orders and Order fulfillment settings.

What is transit time?

Transit time is the time elapsed between when you hand the shipment over to your carrier until its delivery to the customer’s address. You can modify the transit times for your SKUs by editing your shipping templates. To learn more, see Create, edit, or delete shipping templates.

Amazon generates handling time recommendations for a product based on your overall delivery performance, your actual delivery performance for that product, and delivery performance of similar products on Amazon. The recommendations are refreshed monthly and are based on the prior month’s handling time historical performance to reflect the most recent fulfillment capabilities.

We encourage you to regularly monitor and update your handling times recommendations. Setting more accurate handling times will enable more accurate estimated delivery dates to customers.

To view and configure your recommended handling times, please follow the below steps:

• Under Inventory on Seller Central navigation menu, click Manage Seller Fulfilled Products
• Under the Recommendations tab, you can view all the products that have recommended handling times.

• Click Update to accept the recommended handling time. Your handling time will be updated for that product. You may select multiple products to update handling time in bulk.
• Click Ignore to ignore the recommendation.
• Check back on the first day of the next month to view updated handling time recommendations.