Amazon.co.uk on-time delivery policy and shipping settings update
Fast and accurate delivery is essential for customers and often determines where they choose to shop. The best way to ensure reliable on-time delivery for customers is to set accurate handling and transit times and to choose reliable carriers. To help reduce late deliveries, we’re introducing an on-time delivery rate (OTDR) policy.
Effective from September 16, 2025, you’ll be expected to maintain a minimum 90% OTDR without promise extensions when fulfilling Fulfilled by Merchant orders on Amazon.co.uk. OTDR measures the percentage of your Fulfilled by Merchant units that are delivered on or before the “Deliver by” date.
Depending on your OTDR performance level, you may face actions ranging from temporary deactivation of individual listings to restrictions on your ability to list Fulfilled by Merchant products. We will publish the updated OTDR metric on the Account Health dashboard starting from September 16, 2025, and send out informative warnings from October 16, 2025, with your current OTDR and recommendations on how to improve, if you’re below the minimum requirement. No enforcement measures will apply before February 2, 2026.
To improve your OTDR, you can set accurate delivery promises by adjusting your handling time and transit time settings and choosing reliable carriers. Alternatively, you can get help managing your delivery dates by using the following tools, which are designed to offer accurate promises and reduce late deliveries:
- Automated handling time sets handling times at SKU level based on how long it usually takes you to process and hand over that product to carriers.
- Shipping Settings Automation (SSA) sets transit times based on up-to-date carrier delivery performance from your warehouse locations to different customer destinations.
- Buy Shipping helps you choose a shipping label for a service that can meet the Prime delivery promise to the customer.
When you use all of the above tools to fulfil an order or alternatively set a 0- or 1-day handling time in combination with SSA and Buy Shipping, those orders will have no negative impact on your OTDR. You’ll still be expected to ship on time and meet the account level requirement on late dispatch rate.
Effective from January 19, 2026, we’ll also make changes to shipping settings to provide customers with accurate and fast delivery promises. The maximum transit times available in standard domestic shipping templates for the UK mainland will change from 5 days to 4 days based on observed actual carrier transit times. Non-mainland and certain remote areas will be excluded from this change. For a detailed list of excluded areas and item level exceptions, go to Default transit times for domestic sellers.
To learn more about these changes, the various performance thresholds and actions, go to the announcement on the Changes to programme policies page.
Amazon.co.uk on-time delivery policy and shipping settings update
Fast and accurate delivery is essential for customers and often determines where they choose to shop. The best way to ensure reliable on-time delivery for customers is to set accurate handling and transit times and to choose reliable carriers. To help reduce late deliveries, we’re introducing an on-time delivery rate (OTDR) policy.
Effective from September 16, 2025, you’ll be expected to maintain a minimum 90% OTDR without promise extensions when fulfilling Fulfilled by Merchant orders on Amazon.co.uk. OTDR measures the percentage of your Fulfilled by Merchant units that are delivered on or before the “Deliver by” date.
Depending on your OTDR performance level, you may face actions ranging from temporary deactivation of individual listings to restrictions on your ability to list Fulfilled by Merchant products. We will publish the updated OTDR metric on the Account Health dashboard starting from September 16, 2025, and send out informative warnings from October 16, 2025, with your current OTDR and recommendations on how to improve, if you’re below the minimum requirement. No enforcement measures will apply before February 2, 2026.
To improve your OTDR, you can set accurate delivery promises by adjusting your handling time and transit time settings and choosing reliable carriers. Alternatively, you can get help managing your delivery dates by using the following tools, which are designed to offer accurate promises and reduce late deliveries:
- Automated handling time sets handling times at SKU level based on how long it usually takes you to process and hand over that product to carriers.
- Shipping Settings Automation (SSA) sets transit times based on up-to-date carrier delivery performance from your warehouse locations to different customer destinations.
- Buy Shipping helps you choose a shipping label for a service that can meet the Prime delivery promise to the customer.
When you use all of the above tools to fulfil an order or alternatively set a 0- or 1-day handling time in combination with SSA and Buy Shipping, those orders will have no negative impact on your OTDR. You’ll still be expected to ship on time and meet the account level requirement on late dispatch rate.
Effective from January 19, 2026, we’ll also make changes to shipping settings to provide customers with accurate and fast delivery promises. The maximum transit times available in standard domestic shipping templates for the UK mainland will change from 5 days to 4 days based on observed actual carrier transit times. Non-mainland and certain remote areas will be excluded from this change. For a detailed list of excluded areas and item level exceptions, go to Default transit times for domestic sellers.
To learn more about these changes, the various performance thresholds and actions, go to the announcement on the Changes to programme policies page.
136 replies
Seller_MYW4mrY7RosgH
Im struggling to understand this policy. I sell personalised items, many that are under £5 in price and are sent royal mail 48 LL. As we all know, RM hardly ever scan these items. So am i now going to be penalised for this as they are not scanned and recorded as delivered? Are Amazon implying that i have to send EVERYTHING tracked?
I cannot use Amazon buy shipping due to my RM pricing contract and business set up across multi platforms, nor should i feel blackmailed into using Amazon shipping. But where does this leave me?
Seller_ZJhFeE3tNKzfh
Amazon want sellers using FBA, that much is now clear. And only top sellers at that. Everyone else…I would suggest finding other avenues to sell on.
Seller_AlYpsVHv0gj21
Unfortunately FBA is a non starter for a lot of sellers. Book sellers like me would find the fees far too much to bear. (if any bookseller uses FBA and finds it economical then I'm open to correction - I havent looked at fba fees for many years)
Ange_Amazon
Hi,
I've now opened the Ask Amazon thread: 🚚 [LIVE] OTDR Policy Q&A: Join Our Ask Amazon Event (17-24 Sept) in regards to this policy launch. I invite you to continue to ask your questions and share your feedback there for review by the team in charge.
Thank you.
Ange
Seller_wwpJBZIpwCABa
Dear Amazon,
While I appreciate the importance of fast and accurate delivery for customers, I am concerned that the new OTDR policy effectively sets Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) sellers up to fail.
Amazon states that sellers should “choose reliable carriers,” yet SFP sellers in the UK are restricted to the carriers Amazon has pre-approved — namely Royal Mail, DPD, and Evri. Sellers do not have the freedom to source alternatives, nor do we control the operational performance of these carriers. Each of the mandated providers has well-documented and regular service failures. When these failures occur, it is the seller who is penalised under the OTDR metric, despite having met all handling and dispatch obligations.
This creates a fundamentally unfair situation:
- No choice of carrier – Sellers must use Amazon’s onboarded carriers.
- No accountability for carriers – Carriers face no penalties for missed deliveries, while sellers are penalised for circumstances outside their control.
- Financial and reputational harm to sellers – Small businesses are disproportionately impacted, as they lack the economic resilience to absorb penalties tied to carrier underperformance.
If Amazon is committed to “customer obsession” and fairness, then it should:
- Hold approved carriers accountable for meeting the Prime delivery standard, rather than transferring that risk entirely onto sellers.
- Recognise seller compliance when orders are shipped on time and via Amazon-mandated services, even if the carrier subsequently fails in the final mile.
- Provide sellers with a genuine choice of carrier or meaningful recourse when carriers consistently underperform.
Without these safeguards, this policy risks discouraging participation in SFP, undermining seller trust, and ultimately reducing the availability of products for Prime customers.
I urge Amazon to reconsider the implementation framework for OTDR to ensure fairness, accountability, and genuine partnership with sellers.
Sincerely,
Seller_W0UadCH7lVBVG
@Maja_Amazon @Julia_Amazon @Julia_Amzn @Winston_Amazon @Ash_Amazon @Spencer_Amazon @Sakura_Amazon_ @Abella_Amazon @JiAlex_Amazon @Simon_Amazon @JiAlex_Amazon @Abella_Amazon @Sakura_Amazon__
Thanks for the replies
Can I ask you to talk to the decision makers in regards to this OTDR for orders that have multiple items in one order.
eg, a customer see's a Doormat for sale. Priced and listed as one item, they want 10 so they add 10 to their basket. The seller therefore packs 10 of them in to one package and dispatches.
For whatever reason, the shipper delivers the parcel late by 1 day.
Amazon count all 10 items in the package as 10 late deliveries, not 1 package that is late.
So, the impact to a seller can be big very quickly.
I currently have 18 items that are impacting my OTDR, and yet it is only 4 orders that are late.
This can't be fair, surely, as it is only 1 package/delivery that is late, not 10 individual parcels.
So, if an Amazon Mod could please research this and let all Sellers know asap, Thanks
Seller_HwaQlgFnhSuGS
Ange confirmed this in a post further up.
So you can make 99 customers happy but the 1 who got get the bulk 100 items (1 order) 1 single day late (without complaint) can hammer your metrics. Yet on another platform, they have just confirmed plans to protect sellers of item whos order gets delivered later than expected.
Amazon is truly another world.
I confirm what @Seller_q02IFWVcXV5xcsaid, this is now calculated on a unit basis rather than order basis, to better represent the customer impact.
Seller_W0UadCH7lVBVG
@Ange_Amazon
Thanks TBC_Lee.
It's so ridiculously narrow minded of Amazon.
We use Amazon Buy Shipping for a number of our orders, and yet we are still penalised! We have now increased handling on some items, not great for the customer eh"
Yep, I have a meeting with the 'other' platform tomorrow. They are throwing all sorts of benefits at me, large discounts on seller fees, free marketing, and they are consistently at the top of the page on Google, Plus don't forget there are now many other marketplaces out there who are so so much simpler to deal with.
I've been a loyal, large seller on Amazon for more years I care to remember, and I pay approx £6k p/month in Amazon fees....for what?
Amazon are making my decision much easier with this latest OTDR to concentrate our product offering on other Marketplaces that are now serious contenders.
Sure, Amazon is a great marketplace for the buyer, but for the seller...? And at what cost.
Now, imagine when I take my £6k p/month Amazon fees and plant it elsewhere, see how that grows instead. Amazon won't reach out to me, not now or then.
Seller_W0UadCH7lVBVG
@Ange_Amazon
But Ange the 'customer impact' is that a seller has to increase their handling time, therefore increasing the ETD! Thats a negative, not a positive!
Seller_HwaQlgFnhSuGS
Oddly we have observed that with the rise of services such as Temu and other similar 'International' platforms people seem more happy for cheaper and wait longer for delivery.
Our local EVRI guy used to have his van full of Amazon deliveries, but now he reports that has dropped dramatically and Temu/TicTok are by far his main deliveries. Even my wife buys elsewhere and pays much much less for slower delivery and she is one impatient sod lol! Times are hard and money talks, so we personally are much happier to wait for the cost saving.
It's the customer that Amazon has created that makes Amazon beat sellers down relentlesly. The claims and demands Amazon makes increases the COGS which increases the prices the customer pays. This must eventually make customers more likely to stray elsewhere.
We are now adding our wares onto TT and are looking out for the new UK retail giants that are adding their own marketplaces, such as the aforementioned Range etc. They are all jumping on, so a trend is emerging. Every action has a reaction, its just with the size of Amazon I wonder if it will even scratch the surface.
Seller_QZzlgwaho5GAp
It's not even busy yet, we shipped an order 1 day early (same day) yet we are faced with RM delivering RM48 items 6 days late! So it seems the only way to help sellers is to set a maximum purchase per SKU of 1 unit & move all bulk sales to other platforms. If a customer wants 10 items they have to place 10 separate orders.
