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Update to Valid Tracking Rate guidelines
To offer customers fast and accurate deliveries, our Order Performance program policy requires that you maintain a Valid Tracking Rate (VTR) of over 95% for seller-fulfilled listings. VTR calculates the percentage of seller-fulfilled packages that include valid tracking information.
Starting on January 15, 2025, we’ll revise the VTR metric and update exemptions to include new shipping regions and package values.
- If you ship to the US from China, Canada, American Samoa, or the US Minor Outlying Islands, you must provide tracking information for your orders. Packages valued at less than $5 USD*, must include at least one valid carrier scan. A carrier scan is any scan the carrier performs to show a package is in transit. Packages valued at or over $5 USD*, must provide at least two valid carrier scans, where one of the scans is the package arriving at the carrier’s facility and the other is either the delivery or attempted delivery scan.
- If you ship to the US from India or the UK, you must provide tracking information for your orders. Packages valued at less than $15 USD*, must include at least one valid carrier scan. Packages valued at or over $15 USD*, must provide at least two valid carrier scans, where one of the scans is the package arriving at the carrier’s facility and the other is either the delivery or attempted delivery scan.
Additionally, some shipments are exempt from the VTR requirements. Your shipments are exempt if they fall in one of the following categories:
- Digital products
- Domestic packages shipped by the freight carriers listed in the Valid Tracking Rate help page.
- Domestic packages valued at less than $10 USD* shipped by USPS, using "USPS Standard Mail envelopes” or “USPS First Class Mail envelopes"
- Packages shipped from the UK or India to the US, which are valued under $15 USD* shipped by an Amazon integrated carrier with an untracked shipping service. You can identify these ship methods as they appear on the carrier and shipping service drop-down menu when you confirm shipments
- Packages shipped to the US from anywhere other than the US, Canada, the UK, India, the US Minor Outlying Islands, American Samoa, or China
*All values above exclude taxes and include shipping charges.
For more details on how to maintain a healthy VTR, how VTR is calculated, and VTR-exempted shipments, go to Valid tracking rate (VTR).
28 replies
Seller_otDFihTxKiDRD
FYI, the links in here are NOT linking to anything useful. It links to a page that makes me pick an account even to get to this article in the forums *from* my seller central page. In this article, I still have to pick an account to get to a main page. There is no anchor set to take us to the information you are pointing us to.
I write and edit KM articles, Job Aids, and SOPs for my day job. Someone could write this to either include the valid shippers or give anchors in the tracking rate help page that get exactly where we need to look to get that info. Especially without the gatekeeping link to the forums or help pages.
MJ
Seller_JeSBYj1XH8qlB
Packages shipped from the UK or India to the US, which are valued under $15 USD* shipped by an Amazon integrated carrier with an untracked shipping service. You can identify these ship methods as they appear on the carrier and shipping service drop-down menu when you confirm shipments
We ship from the UK. We just checked an order that we have in the system. The good is $7.37 (including tax and shipping). It is a letter size. The only option I am being offered is DHL for $20.47.
What do you mean an Amazon integrated carrier with an untracked shipping service? How do we find these? We currently ship with Royal Mail handing over to USPS for under $3.
Or is it actually going to be $20 - that's Amazon's fantastic version of an untracked shipping service? In which case I assume we switch off sales after Christmas...which after constant requests from Amazon account managers to extend our market to the USA seems like a complete waste of everybody's time.
Jim_Amazon
Hi there @Seller_JeSBYj1XH8qlB
I passed along your questions and concerns to the partner team!
Integrated carriers and ship methods are added to the drop down menu on the Seller Central Manage Your Orders page. If there is a carrier/ship method that does not provide tracking ID's on that list, it will be exempt.
A follow up question the team asked is where are you seeing DHL as the only option? Is that in the drop down menu?
-Jim
Seller_lsaYfcHFBboLW
I’ve got a similar issue. We ship from uk using Royal Mail selected from the dropdown menu, and the items are handed over to usps on arrival in usa. There is a number but no proper tracking on this. Can we continue to use this if the product is less than $15. Will our VTR stay ok if we do this?
Thanks
Jim_Amazon
@Seller_lsaYfcHFBboLW
Yes, the case you described will be exempt from VTR caluclation from 1/15/2025.
Packages valued below $15 and shipped from UK or India to the US via untrackable shipping services will be exempted from the VTR calculation. An untracked shipping service for an integrated carrier refers to a shipping service where the carrier does not provide any tracking details. These untracked services are included in the list of available shipping services on the Confirm Order page.
-Jim
Seller_JeSBYj1XH8qlB
@Jim_Amazon- that's fine but currently Royal Mail is not an option?
When you click Buy Shipping > the only option is currently DHL. When you click Manage Carrier Preferences you can link accounts with DHL or UPS but not Royal Mail. Royal Mail is linked fine for our European marketplaces but there is no option to add it for America.
So whilst orders under $15 are exempt as you say - do we have to buy the label through Amazon Buy Shipping in order for it to remain exempt? As there is not a financially viable option currently. Or can we continue to buy through Royal Mail indirectly and confirm shipment manually as we have been doing?
Jim_Amazon
@Seller_JeSBYj1XH8qlB
Currently, Royal Mail is not integrated via Buy Shipping in US Marketplace. However, you could still choose Royal Mail as your carrier.
Yes, packages shipped from the UK to the US, which are valued under $15 USD* shipped by an Amazon integrated carrier (e.g., Royal Mail) with an untracked shipping service will be exempted. You can identify these ship methods from the carrier and shipping service drop-down menu when you confirm shipments.
-Jim
Seller_u5NhC61gK9Rhg
Are there any updates for how Amazon displays VTR exempt shipments to customers? The way Amazon displays untracked shipments to customers is completely broken.
Seller_r9wMm8LrE5iKj
Bring on the stupid: Amazon exempts a freight method of "LTL" or "Truck" -- which is clearly untrackable -- but doesn't consider shippers such as JB Hunt -- one of the largest in the country, with full tracking available -- valid.
Bring on the unintended consequences: expect Chinese shippers to route packages elsewhere (via Hong Kong?) to get around this requirement, slowing delivery times even further. If having scans is important, and transit time is important enough that we're dealing with some major OTDR absurdities, then simply force these sellers to FBA. Stop treating Chinese sellers better than the American middle-class sellers that you're in the process of gutting. Why do you have America, Amazon?
Seller_xeDdQgRH5VZwO
I've mentioned this before, but eBay has ways to track small items under $10. There's really no excuse that Amazon does not offer a similar tracking method for these items. It would help both sellers & buyers to be able to offer tracking for small items at the cost of a stamp.
Seller_dVF6yjwGL6QPW
I'm a Canadian Handmade seller and my products are made to order and valued mostly around the $5 to $8 mark. Now Amazon expects me to ship these with tracking to the U.S. which for the cheapest method would cost $10 and up. No one would be willing to pay shipping fees like this for low value items.
Like others have mentioned Amazon is basically creating a fraudsters heaven by sending every customer an email that their package is missing to request a refund from the seller!
Clearly Amazon is trying to either force smaller sellers out of the platform entirely or get them to use FBA. How is that supposed to work out for a Handmade business where most orders are MADE TO ORDER?!
Seller_C5lfd6kh2Gnrr
"Packages valued at or over $5 USD*, must provide at least two valid carrier scans, where one of the scans is the package arriving at the carrier’s facility and the other is either the delivery or attempted delivery scan."
I can see where this is going to be a BIG problem.
1. Unless you personally get the item scanned when you drop it off, it's a crapshoot whether they scan at the carrier facility.
2. Not ALL deliveries are scanned upon delivery and many scans just fail and do not get in the system.
These are carrier responsibilities, however as a seller, you are considered just as responsible. The only thing you have control over is #1 but most sellers either hand it to a truck driver or lay it to the side on the counter at a facility with no scan. I always get packages scanned but it's time consuming, waiting in line, etc.
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