Shipping Settings Automation

Shipping Settings Automation can help you quickly create shipping templates with multiple delivery regions and applicable transit times to each delivery region. Amazon will dynamically calculate the transit time from your ship from location to a customer location by applying the applicable transit time of the carrier shipping service you use. Amazon will periodically refresh your shipping templates to reflect the latest delivery speed of carrier shipping services using most recent carrier delivery capabilities data, so that you will have updated shipping settings without manually maintaining your shipping templates by yourself.

Shipping Settings Automation supports:

• Transit time automation for domestic Self-fulfilled Standard Shipping.
  Important: Transit time automation feature is currently only made available to selling partners who have high performance in On-time Delivery Rate and Valid Tracking Rate.
• Shipping region automation for domestic Seller Fulfilled Prime One-Day Delivery and Two-Day Delivery.

Shipping Settings Automation for Self-fulfilled non-prime Products

To enable Shipping Settings Automation for Self-fulfilled products to have your transit time automatically adjusted, perform the following steps:

1. From the Settings drop-down menu on the top right of Seller Central, click Shipping Settings.
2. On the Shipping Templates
   • If you want to create a new shipping template to enable Shipping Settings Automation, click Create New Shipping Template-> Create a new delivery template, enter the Shipping Template Name (for example, "My Automated Self-fulfilled Shipping") and choose from either a Per Item/Weight-Based or Price banded rate model as your shipping rates.
   • Or, if you want to upgrade an existing shipping template to enable Shipping Settings Automation, choose the existing shipping template then click Edit Template on the right side of screen.
3. Click on the toggle button to enable Shipping Settings Automation.
4. Select your Ship-from location(s), and click Next. You can select up to 10 ship from locations.
5. Select “I want to automate my Self-fulfilled (non-Prime) shipping settings” and click Next.
6. To enable transit time automation for Standard Shipping, perform following steps on the Standard Shipping Automation Preferences page:
   
   1. Select the carriers and shipping services you use in the Carrier Preferences section.
   2. Manage your Standard Shipping Regions by clicking Edit in the Region Preferences section.
   3. Click on Next.
7. Review your Shipping Settings Automation preferences for Domestic Standard Shipping and click Confirm.
8. Review and edit shipping fee for your shipping regions.
9. Click Save template.
10. Assign your Self-fulfilled SKUs to the shipping template.

Shipping Settings Automation for Seller Fulfilled Prime Products

Selling partners enrolled in the Seller-Fulfilled Prime program can enable Shipping Settings Automation for Seller Fulfilled Prime products, by performing the following steps:

1. From the Settings drop-down menu on the top right of Seller Central, click Shipping Settings.
2. On the Shipping Templates,
   • If you want to create a new Prime shipping template to enable Shipping Settings Automation, click Create New Shipping Template-> Create a new delivery template, enter the Shipping Template Name (for example, "My Prime Shipping") and choose from either a Per Item/Weight-Based or Price banded rate model as your shipping rates.
   • Or, if you want to upgrade an existing Prime shipping template to enable Shipping Settings Automation, choose the existing Prime shipping template then click Edit Template on the right side of the screen.
3. Click on the toggle button to enable Shipping Settings Automation.
4. Select your Ship-from location(s), and click Next. You can select up to 10 ship-from locations.
5. Select “I want to automate my Seller Fulfilled Prime shipping settings” and click Next.
6. Select the carrier and shipping services for Prime Two-Day and One-Day shipping based on the shipping services coverage and click Next.
7. Review Prime Shipping Settings Automation coverage and click Confirm.
8. Review and edit shipping fee for non-Prime customers for Domestic Standard Shipping.
9. Click Save template.
10. Assign your Prime SKUs to the Prime shipping template.

Shipping Settings Automation FAQ

What is the benefit of Shipping Settings Automation?

Customers like to purchase products with fast delivery promises, but offering accurate transit times to different delivery regions requires sellers to accurately calculate and track the delivery capabilities of the carrier shipping services they use, which may be difficult. We know many selling partners may choose to set longer than actual transit times for their standard shipping or limit the fast delivery regions they can offer at same cost, leading to unnecessarily long delivery promises that look less attractive to customers.

Shipping Settings Automation for both Prime and Standard Shipping can help you significantly simplify the delivery region and transit time calculation process with just a few clicks by telling us where you ship from and what carrier shipping services you use. Amazon will then calculate the accurate transit time to different delivery regions using the most recent carrier delivery capabilities data that is made available by the carriers to Amazon. You no longer need to do complex calculations or track carrier delivery performance by yourself, and your delivery promises will be more accurate.

How can I check if I am eligible for Shipping Settings Automation for Self-fulfilled domestic Standard Shipping?

Currently, Shipping Settings Automation for Self-fulfilled domestic Standard Shipping that automatically calculates your transit time is only made available to selling partners who have high performance in On-time Delivery Rate and Valid Tracking Rate. We will notify you when you are eligible to use this feature.

You can perform the following steps to check if you are currently eligible for this program:

If you are already enrolled to Seller Fulfilled Prime

1. Create a new shipping template or edit an existing manual shipping template.
2. On the Shipping Template page, click on the toggle button to enable Shipping Settings Automation.
3. Select your Ship-from location(s), and click Next.
4. If you see that you are able to select “I want to automate my Self-fulfilled (non-Prime) shipping settings” under Fulfillment Type Preferences, and click Next, then you are eligible for this program. You can follow the workflow to create a Standard Shipping automation template.

If you are not enrolled to Seller Fulfilled Prime

1. Create a new shipping template or edit an existing manual shipping template.
2. On the Shipping Template page, if you can see and are able to enable Shipping Settings Automation toggle button, then you are eligible for this program. You can follow the workflow to create a Standard Shipping automation template.

How does Amazon automate my Self-fulfilled Standard Shipping transit times?

Amazon periodically tracks carrier delivery performance for carriers integrated into Amazon’s system and can therefore help you automatically set up-to-date transit time of the carrier shipping service you use from your ship-from location to the customer location.

How does Amazon automate Prime Shipping regions?

Prime Shipping eligible regions are auto-calculated based on the regions reachable within one day and two days using your Shipping Settings Automation preferences including your ship-from location(s) and your carrier shipping services. Amazon also helps you to automatically adjust the shipping regions periodically based on latest carrier delivery performance aiming for maximum possible Prime Shipping coverage with high on-time delivery.

How many ship-from locations can I select?

You can select up to 10 ship-from locations. Prime Shipping regions will be a set of union (or sum) of all regions that the selected shipping services can deliver from each ship-from location for Two-Day and One-Day Delivery orders. Note that when enabling more than one ship-from location, shipping setting automation will assume that all ASINs are held at each ship-from location in equal volumes.

What carriers/ship methods should I select?

Shipping Settings Automation allows you to select carrier shipping services per shipping option, including Self-fulfilled Standard Shipping and Seller Fulfilled Prime. All the displayed carrier shipping services in the Shipping Settings Automation preference selection are eligible for selection. You are required to use the carrier and ship method listed in the Shipping Automation template when you receive an order linked to that template.

Can I use different shipping services to fulfill domestic Standard Shipping orders with automated transit time?

If you use Buy Shipping service, you can select any eligible shipping service as Buy Shipping will only display the shipping service that meets the customer delivery promise. If you do not use Buy Shipping service to ship your order, you are required to use a carrier and ship method you listed in the Shipping Settings Automation template that can meet the delivery promise. If you use a carrier or ship-method different to the one(s) set in the Shipping Settings Automation feature, we may extend your delivery promise for the relevant template to protect customer experience.

Can I select multiple carriers/shipping services?

Yes. Please select all shipping services that you intend to use. Shipping regions will be set as a union (or sum) of all regions that the selected shipping services can deliver.

If I enabled multiple shipping services to automate Self-fulfilled Standard Shipping transit times, which shipping service will be used for the customer promise if multiple shipping services can all deliver to a customer location?

You can select all shipping services that you intend to use and shipping regions will be set as a union (or sum) of all regions that the selected shipping services can deliver. For Self-fulfilled Standard Shipping, we will choose the shipping service with the longest transit time to avoid potential increase to your ship cost. For example, if the transit times for the two shipping services you enabled offer 2-3 business days and 3-5 business days respectively to same customer location, we will choose the shipping service with 3-5 business days. In the case of multiple ship methods with a transit time range, we will choose the one with shortest possible transit time. For example, if the transit times for the two shipping services you enabled offer 2-4 business days and 3-4 business days respectively to same customer location, we will choose the shipping service with 2-4 business days.

Why can’t I see transit times to different delivery regions in my Standard Shipping template?

Amazon dynamically calculates the transit time at a granular level (e.g. zip5 to zip5 lane) from your ship-from location to customer location using the carrier shipping services you use. We also periodically update the transit times to ensure its accuracy. We don’t show the large volume of transit time management information to simplify your experience.

If I changed ship-from location or my shipping services, can I update my automated shipping settings?

Yes, you can update your automated shipping settings at any time. Select the shipping template and click Edit Template. In the shipping template edit page, click Edit Information on the right side of the Shipping Settings Automation toggle button, then you can update your ship from locations and shipping services. After you click Confirm, Amazon will immediately refresh your automated shipping settings based on your updated Shipping Settings Automation preferences.

How are the coverage percentages determined for Prime Shipping?

Prime Shipping coverage is calculated as the percentage of country population that are within the Prime Shipping regions covered by your selected shipping services from your ship-from location.

How do I know when my transit time or shipping regions are changed?

Whenever Amazon updates Prime region or transit times for automated shipping templates, Amazon will create a new version of the shipping template. You can review the changes in shipping template revision history.

How is Prime coverage determined by Amazon?

We enable a region as Prime when your preferred carrier/shipping service can deliver on-time to all post codes in that region. If we find that some of the post codes in that region cannot be delivered on time, we may turn off that region as Prime to protect the customer experience. However, as delivery speeds of shipping services improve, a non-Prime region may be upgraded to a Prime region.

What happens if I can’t buy the designated shipping services in Buy Shipping?

You should be able to use the designated shipping services in Buy Shipping if you:

1. Purchase the shipping label on-time and before the pick-up time for the shipping service
2. Select a ship-from location in Buy Shipping that was also defined on your automated shipping template.

If for any reason you fulfilled all requirements (i.e. shipped on time) and still were not able to purchase your preferred shipping service on Buy Shipping, you may buy the shipping label outside of Buy Shipping but ensure that the shipping service purchased can deliver the products on time. For Prime orders, we will automatically ensure that such orders are not counted towards your Buy Shipping eligibility metrics and remove them from your defect report. It may take up to 4 business days from the date of the order for the change to reflect on your account. For at least 98% of Prime orders, you are required to buy labels from supported carriers for Seller-Fulfilled Prime using Buy Shipping services.

This only applies to Prime orders tied to automated shipping templates.