Amazon Handmade informed sellers it was shortening their Handling Times settings in an email this week titled, “Change to Default Handling Time options.” Its reasoning: it said 85% of the time, sellers fulfill orders within 1 day of receiving an order.
However, sellers can set SKU-specific Handling Times.
The notification is similar to an announcement it made on its general seller announcement board last month, which we covered on September 22. The full text of the letter follows below:
Dear Sellers
Sellers often set longer Handling Times than they actually need to prepare, pack and hand-over packages to carriers. This causes buyers browsing products to see longer than necessary delivery dates. In contrast, by setting more accurate Handling Times, buyers typically see more attractive delivery dates which on average leads to more sales.
We have detected that 85% of the time sellers fulfill orders within 1 day of receiving an order. For this reason, we are removing the 2-day Default Handling Time option, and all sellers who had 2-day as their default will be automatically switched to 1-day. However, to protect the account metrics for sellers that had set 2-day Default Handling Time, Amazon will update your SKU-Specific Handling Time on your behalf in the following ways:
1) For SKUs where you have historically taken more than 1-day to handle orders, and do not have a SKU level handling time set, Amazon will automatically set a 2-day SKU-Specific Handling Time, which will override your Default Handling Time.
2) For SKUs where you have historically taken 1-day or less to handle orders, and do not have a SKU level handling time set, Amazon will not assign a SKU-Specific Handling Time. Therefore, your updated Default Handling Time of 1-day will apply.
3) For SKUs that previously had a SKU-Specific Handling Time, there will be no changes applied.
Worried about this change?
1) Set an Order Handling Capacity to protect your business from surges of orders
2) Set SKU-specific Handling Time: Some sellers are confident that most of their SKUs can ship within 1 day, but have some products that may take longer. For these SKUs, you can set a longer handling time which will override your Default Handling Time specifically for that SKU. For more information, check Change handling time.
Note – If you also sell on the Canadian marketplace these handling time updates will also apply to the Canadian marketplace settings
Thank you,
Seller Fulfillment Services
Amazon is obviously very sensitive to handling speed. With that – how does the Handmade category logically go together with the 1-day handling? The whole idea of Handmade suggests some time for producing the piece.
For instance, in jewelry, even the most simple item production/assembly takes 1-2 days, while any customization, including casting or stone setting, would imply 3 days of most effective work.
Doesn’t such unrealistic expectations for handling eliminate the advantages of real handmade manufacturing while encouraging more industrial sellers in the Handmade category?