What is meant by Seller Performance?
It is vital for Amazon to earn the trust of its millions of satisfied customers. That’s why Amazon sets performance goals for sellers that must be met. These performance objectives mainly concern vendors who do not participate in the Fulfillment by Amazon program (FBA) but send their packages themselves, Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM).
The following performance objectives apply to sellers:
- Rate of order defects: is less than 1%.
- Cancellation rate before fulfilment: less than 2.5%
- Rate of delayed deliveries: less than 4%.
- The requirements for premium shipping methods differ from these requirements.
Authorization for premium shipping
- The following requirements must be met in order to be admitted for premium shipping:
- The seller’s account has actively sold on Amazon for at least 90 days
- In the last 30 days at least 10 orders with all shipping methods were processed
- The rate of shipments with a valid tracking number is at least 94%, with the following providers: DPD, DHL, FedEx & UPS
Measurement of seller performance
- Rate of order defects
- The rate of order defects includes orders that have received a negative rating, for which an A to Z request has been made, or for which a refund has been made to a credit card. These factors form the basis for an overall assessment of the rate of defects. Ratings with one or two stars are considered negative.
- Good customer support can prevent most A-to-Z applications.
Cancellation rate before fulfilment
The pre-fulfilment cancellation rate is the number of orders shipped by the seller that were cancelled by the seller prior to confirmation of shipment divided by the number of orders shipped by the seller in the relevant period. All cancellations are included in the calculation of this key figure, regardless of the reason.
Rate of late deliveries
The rate of late delivery is the number of orders shipped by the seller for which the shipment was confirmed after the expected shipping date divided by the number of orders in the relevant period. Delayed deliveries can adversely affect the customer’s purchasing experience.
Performance review process
Amazon regularly reviews the performance indicators and contacts sellers who do not meet the requirements. As a rule, Amazon grants a period of 60 days to measurably improve sales performance. Only in rare cases of particularly poor performance, the right to sell is immediately withdrawn. In this case, an action plan is needed for the Amazon sales performance team to clearly demonstrate how to improve performance.
The rate of order defects can be significantly achieved by a good Amazon optimization. By optimising the product listing accordingly, the customer can make a more conscious choice for a product.