Amazon's New On-Time Delivery Rate (OTDR) Policy: What Sellers Need to Know

At Veeqo, we know that providing a great customer experience is key to your success. Customers who receive a great experience, will come back to you time and time again. That's why Amazon is updating their On-time delivery requirement beginning September 25, 2024. This update aims to improve overall shopping experiences by ensuring customers receive their orders promptly. At Veeqo, we're committed to helping you through this transition and providing the tools you need to meet Amazon's new requirements.

On-Time-Delivery Rate: What’s changing?

Under the updated rules, sellers must maintain a 90% or higher On-time delivery rate (OTDR) without promise extensions for their seller-fulfilled orders. Sellers with an OTDR below 90% risk restriction of their ability to have seller-fulfilled products listed on Amazon.com, though they can still offer Amazon Fulfilled (FBA) listings. For a great customer experience, Amazon recommend that you maintain a 95% or greater OTDR for all seller-fulfilled orders.

Amazon has also changed the way they measure OTDR. Previously, OTDR was calculated after any "promise extensions" were added to the delivery date. Promise extensions are additional days Amazon may add to the original delivery date to account for factors like weather, transportation issues, or a seller's history of late deliveries. Now, Amazon measures OTDR based on the percentage of seller-fulfilled items that were delivered on or before the original "Deliver by" date, before any promise extensions are applied. In other words, the OTDR metric no longer includes the extra days provided by promise extensions. It's solely focused on whether items were delivered by the original promised date, not the extended date.

I know policy changes like this can be challenging for sellers. At Veeqo, we're committed to supporting you through this transition with tools to help you meet Amazon's 90% OTDR requirement, and hit the recommended 95% OTDR or more.

How Amazon is implementing this policy

This new policy was announced on July 25th and from September 25th Amazon will begin restricting sellers with the lowest OTDR performance.

How Veeqo is helping you stay compliant

Even before Veeqo was acquired by Amazon, I always made sure that our sellers were at the heart of everything we built. Since being made aware of this policy change, we’ve been working hard to make sure it’s simple for you to understand which labels have a high chance of meeting the on-time delivery date and which labels will protect your OTDR even if the order is delayed. With our new clear badging, we're making it simple for sellers using Veeqo to maintain excellent on-time delivery rates.

OTDR Protected Shipping Labels:

When you purchase shipping through Veeqo, we'll flag the carriers and services that are "OTDR Protected" - reliably meeting Amazon's delivery time requirements. Using these labels protects your metrics, even if an order is delayed when used in combination with two other Amazon's Fulfillment Tools: Shipping Settings Automation and Automated Handling Time.* Additionally, by accessing reliable ship methods in Veeqo you’ll see 20% fewer late deliveries for your Amazon orders on average. This is because we know the reliable shipping methods that consistently deliver on time.**

Labels with a late delivery risk

Veeqo now has a badge which shows you the carriers and services with a ‘late delivery risk’ which have a low likelihood of meeting the on-time delivery date for that specific order. You will receive an alert when you try and purchase a label with a late delivery risk.

Other ways Veeqo safeguards your Amazon account health:

In addition to helping you maintain on-time deliveries, Veeqo provides other valuable tools for keeping your Amazon seller account in good standing:

• Valid Tracking Rates (VTR) at 100%: Every label purchased on Veeqo automatically sends valid tracking to Amazon, eliminating this common problem metric.

• Minimize Order Defect Rate (ODR): See which services provide protection against delivery issues impacting your ODR through successful A-to-z claim appeals.

• More Reimbursed Claims: Through purchasing ‘Claims Protected’ labels, Veeqo helps you get 6x more successful A-to-z claims reimbursed by Amazon, and 1.5x more SAFE-T claim payouts.

See more about our protections here.

How Veeqo speeds up your handling time:

• Efficient order processing: Veeqo's automated order routing and batch picking capabilities help you process orders faster, reducing delays.

• Real-time inventory management: Avoid stockouts and backorders by syncing your inventory levels across sales channels, preventing late shipments due to inventory issues.

• Shipping carrier integration: Access pre-negotiated rates from trusted carriers like Amazon Shipping, UPS, FedEx, and USPS, and purchase 'OTDR protected' labels directly from Veeqo, streamlining the shipping process.

At Veeqo, our goal is to make growth simple. These changes ensure you can provide fast shipping while protecting yourself from any unexpected penalties. Start shipping with Veeqo today to protect your Amazon seller account and continue providing the best customer experience.

*Your OTDR will not be impacted by late deliveries for an order if 1) The SKU delivered late was assigned to a Shipping Template with Shipping Settings Automation (SSA) enabled, 2) Your account has Automated Handling Time (AHT) and 3) You purchased an “OTDR Protected” shipping label on Veeqo to fulfill this order.

**As compared to Amazon sellers who purchase shipping labels outside Amazon Buy Shipping and ship on time.