Amazon notified sellers of a “new feature” called 1-Day Default Handling time: “Now, with 1-click you can set your Default Handling time to 1 day! Customers will see shorter delivery promises and will be more likely to buy your products.”
A page on its website explains that Handling Time (also known as production time or Lead Time to Ship) is the time between when the buyer places the order until the seller hands the order over to the carrier.
Handling time is part of the delivery time calculation displayed on the offer listing and checkout page
Total Delivery Time = Handling Time + Transit Time (+ any holidays and weekends)
Amazon had previously announced the new feature in May.
In its recent email to sellers, Amazon said one-day Handling Time can lead to more sales: “Customers love to get products faster, which means that offering them shorter delivery promises typically leads to more sales. Sellers like you, on average overestimate by 45% the number of days it takes them to prepare and ship packages. Because of this, they set longer Handling time than they need, making their delivery promise look less attractive to customers.”
Interestingly on the Amazon discussion threads in December, a seller advised against offering 1-day handling. “Since I normally ship within 24 hours I thought I would put my handling time to 1 day. I forget that I have done this and one day do not feel good. Oh I can wait another day to ship orders since I was all caught up. WRONG! NOT WITH ONE DAY HANDLING.”
The seller concluded, “The number of orders you will get by setting handling to 1 day is not worth the HUGE potential problems!”
That doesn’t include the possibility of emergency situations . In a separate thread, sellers discussed what to do if they land in the hospital – it makes for interesting reading and applies to any small business or micro-seller selling on any marketplace.
