Update to FBM requirements for Amazon.co.uk
We’re updating our Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) requirements for Amazon.co.uk to help increase your conversion with more accurate delivery promises, ensure timely deliveries for business customers and facilitate smooth customs clearance.
Deliver reliably to Amazon Business customers during their operating hours
To ensure secure delivery and fewer delivery reattempts, we expect that you maintain a business hour delivery rate of 90% or higher starting on 30 September 2026. This metric measures the percentage of FBM shipments delivered to Amazon Business customers within their hours of operation. From 30 October, if your performance remains below the requirement set out in the policy, non-compliant listings may be deactivated for business customers. To review your business hour delivery rate, go to the Account Health Dashboard. For more information, go to the Business Hour Delivery Rate FAQ
Improve your delivery promise with more accurate handling time
In our UK store, 90% of FBM orders already dispatch within a one-day handling time. Reflecting this, starting on 15 July 2026, the account-level default handling time will only display 0-day and 1-day options. If your account-level handling time is set to 2-days, it will automatically change to 1-day (you can still set a longer handling time per SKU). Starting on 1 September 2026, if an SKU’s handling time is one or more days longer than your actual performance for more than 30 days, we’ll enable Automated Handling Time for those SKUs to make it easy for you to offer faster delivery promises that reflect your actual performance. To learn how to monitor your SKU-level handling time, go to Modify Handling Time.
Ensure seamless delivery for cross-border shipments
To ensure customs clearance, you must comply with new EU Customs Reform regulations for shipments originating from outside the EU delivered to an EU address, starting on 1 July. For shipments under €150 imported under Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS), select an approved courier authorised to provide correct customs documentation, supply your courier with Amazon’s IOSS number and ASIN details for each product. For more information, go to Changes to programme policies.
Note: If your business hour delivery rate is below the requirement, we’ll notify you with recommendations on how to improve. We recommend that you use reliable couriers and set accurate handling and transit times. You can also enable Automated Handling Time, Shipping Settings Automation and Amazon Buy Shipping – orders fulfilled using all three tools will not count towards the business hour delivery rate requirement.
To view these changes, go to Changes to programme policies or view policy highlighting changes to the Order Performance programme policy (available in English only).
Update to FBM requirements for Amazon.co.uk
We’re updating our Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) requirements for Amazon.co.uk to help increase your conversion with more accurate delivery promises, ensure timely deliveries for business customers and facilitate smooth customs clearance.
Deliver reliably to Amazon Business customers during their operating hours
To ensure secure delivery and fewer delivery reattempts, we expect that you maintain a business hour delivery rate of 90% or higher starting on 30 September 2026. This metric measures the percentage of FBM shipments delivered to Amazon Business customers within their hours of operation. From 30 October, if your performance remains below the requirement set out in the policy, non-compliant listings may be deactivated for business customers. To review your business hour delivery rate, go to the Account Health Dashboard. For more information, go to the Business Hour Delivery Rate FAQ
Improve your delivery promise with more accurate handling time
In our UK store, 90% of FBM orders already dispatch within a one-day handling time. Reflecting this, starting on 15 July 2026, the account-level default handling time will only display 0-day and 1-day options. If your account-level handling time is set to 2-days, it will automatically change to 1-day (you can still set a longer handling time per SKU). Starting on 1 September 2026, if an SKU’s handling time is one or more days longer than your actual performance for more than 30 days, we’ll enable Automated Handling Time for those SKUs to make it easy for you to offer faster delivery promises that reflect your actual performance. To learn how to monitor your SKU-level handling time, go to Modify Handling Time.
Ensure seamless delivery for cross-border shipments
To ensure customs clearance, you must comply with new EU Customs Reform regulations for shipments originating from outside the EU delivered to an EU address, starting on 1 July. For shipments under €150 imported under Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS), select an approved courier authorised to provide correct customs documentation, supply your courier with Amazon’s IOSS number and ASIN details for each product. For more information, go to Changes to programme policies.
Note: If your business hour delivery rate is below the requirement, we’ll notify you with recommendations on how to improve. We recommend that you use reliable couriers and set accurate handling and transit times. You can also enable Automated Handling Time, Shipping Settings Automation and Amazon Buy Shipping – orders fulfilled using all three tools will not count towards the business hour delivery rate requirement.
To view these changes, go to Changes to programme policies or view policy highlighting changes to the Order Performance programme policy (available in English only).
51 replies
Seller_ZQyopdiwkUHOZ
I would LOVE to see the data on that.
Seller_tRuvBEHDedp4q
Starting on 1 September 2026, if an SKU’s handling time is one or more days longer than your actual performance for more than 30 days, we’ll enable Automated Handling Time for those SKUs to make it easy for you to offer faster delivery promises that reflect your actual performance.
No no no
This is my business - not yours
They are my customers - not yours
What gives you the right to amend my handling time automatically? Customer has been given a delivery date already and ordered knowing it - do you really think giving them an earlier delivery date would make any difference to the order?
All this means is I will now deliberately set a SKU handling time of 2 days on all of my listings and also deliberately not post same day. Due to personal circumstances I do not want to promise 1 day handling. Yes - some weeks I can achieve it, but other weeks I cannot. So on the weeks I achieve it customer is happy as they get their item early.
But if I manage achieve it for 30 days and you then enable Automated Handling Time and customer then sees a quicker delivery time which I then do not achieve it is me who then gets penalised for not maintaining my OTD rate. What an absolutely barmy idea!!
Seller_FcBsp3LVJUSNQ
It says starting July the 15th but it auto applied to us last night with no warning!
You have nothing but dislikes on this post.
Please reconsider.
Everyone hates this idea.
Seller_GKVc5zj2QTT1e
The Business Hour Delivery Monitoring is one thing, and its laughable considering Amazon's own logistics doesn't adhere to business hour deliveries anyway.
However, making it compulsory for one day or less default handling time is just appalling. We have always had it set to two days in the 10 years of trading on here, and we have always met that timeframe, and during peak season its always close to the mark, but it is what we know and what we have always worked with
Our account health remains good with a great OTDR, and customer feedback always exceeds expectations for earlier deliveries than anticipated.
We've only ever had to change it once, during covid when we had to increase it slightly due to the demand for online ordering and for us, throughout these years, late dispatch defects are a rarity.
By changing it at default level will catch many sellers out, of which we feel for, as I am sure not all businesses follow the forum discussions or the vast amount of non relevant emails that are sent by Amazon. I am sure to start with, you'll see sellers late dispatch rates increase as they try to adapt to the changes - and it'll be the customers that lose out, which is the opposite outcome to what they are hoping with this change, surely?
I've just spend over an hour, fiddling around with a price and quantity spreadsheet to modify our handling times back to two days (after a weekend its the right amount of time to dispatch orders - a pattern that has not altered in the 10 years).
A required field on the spreadsheet is 'inventory always available' with the choices of 'enabled or 'disabled', whatever you choose, you can't then add in a quantity to the SKU as it gets blanked out, so what happens when you want to adjust the quantity in bulk, or just change them to allow for sales in the time taken to download an inventory file, transfer to price and quantity file and then upload this for handling time purposes.
Edit: Report Summary back, not only are there now over 200 sku's with errors, (for a simple handling time edit), but because we couldn't add a quantity, or leave it blank, the quantity for all of the successful skus processed, have reverted to 0 quantity.
If anyone has updated their handling times in bulk recently, i'd appreciate some tips.
Edit again: Need to leave the 'Inventory always available' field blank, and then fill the 'quantity' column with the required numbers, which will then grey out the 'inventory always available' fields. 🙄
I'm hoping that's reverted each SKU back to two days now, we'll find out.
But it doesn't end there does it - because:
"Starting on 1 September 2026, if an SKU’s handling time is one or more days longer than your actual performance for more than 30 days, we’ll enable Automated Handling Time for those SKUs to make it easy for you to offer faster delivery promises that reflect your actual performance."
So come September when we may well exceed handling times for different SKU's, they'll start automatically changing them (which has caught us out before, after opting out etc) - it's just a mess and not a positive change at all.
Seller_CK4uVgepFK2eb
Removing 2-day handling times from FBM sellers is completely unreasonable. Did Amazon even think to consult FBM sellers on this?
We have 2 day handling times where almost everything is shipped in 1 day.
I now cannot ever have a single weekday where I do not dispatch, which will seriously hamper taking up any business or personal arrangements.
I usually pick orders over a couple of hours before they are dispatched and collected by the courier. On rare occasion, items cannot be quickly located or processed and are sent the following day. Now I have to rapidly respond to and pick every order as they come in given there is such a small window of time to resolve internally an issue if it crops up.
I now cannot even travel 50 miles away for business opportunities out of fear my car may breakdown rendering dispatch that day impossible.
I can't respond to a business, family or medical emergency if it might get in the way of dispatch.
If I have a medical emergency in the morning I cannot go to A&E as I cannot guarantee I will be able to dispatch. In fact, if I have medical emergency rendering me unable to dispatch I will be punished.
@Dougal_Amazon This change sets unreasonable expectations upon sellers. I urge you to speak to them, listen to them and reverse course.
Seller_Z0KJE0XhVJBsw
Hmmm smells like a policy deliberately contrived to drive off small sellers. You know it might just work. Awful, now I have to waste a day turning up the delivery time on a load of SKU's, knowing full well you will muck about with them without warning or consent again. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse. Thankfully Amazon is no longer the focus of my business.
Seller_VRLcGyKjbmPXA
Or basically forcing you into FBA instead, not a chance, never again with their ever changing policies and ending up with stranded inventory.
Seller_RguKGMHvWFmo3
I used to think I was an adult in business that worked for myself, turns out instead of working for a big Finance company with all the corporate rubbish I wanted to get away from, including targets that were totally inachieveable, that I now work for Amazon with all the corporate rubbish and achievable targets instead!!
Seller_H1Iho3c24Wva5
I get so many business buyers purchasing on Friday with their address closed on the weekend, but deliver by will be Saturday or Monday.
We, as sellers, can not tell couriers when to deliver. I use Premium and FBM+ shipping, so I can't use a slow delivery service, and I have handling set as same day. This suits most end-users.
Surely, it makes more sense to adjust the deliver by and dispatch by dates for business customers, so that it lines up with their opening times. If they place an order on Friday and they're closed all weekend, as we are too, extend their dispatch date to Monday... That would make the most sense if this policy were really about ensuring smooth delivery for business customers.
