automated handling time, is same day an option?
I know the forums are going bonkers over the new automated handling time announcement but I haven't seen details regarding potentially how aggressive amazon will be in their automated settings... In our case we manually set most items to 2 day handling time with a few exceptions being set to 1 day. We ship most items same day and on the Fulfillment Insights Dashboard it shows Handling time (promise):2.8 days and Handling time (actual): 0.5 days. Questions:
1) If we do nothing and let Amazons automated settings take over could/would they set us to same day shipping or is 1 day the lowest setting for the automated value?
2) If I am correctly understanding the following sections of their email, "You can choose to close this gap by manually setting an accurate handling time on your account and SKUs or by enabling automated handling time" and "... if it remains above two days as per our policy for on-time delivery, you will be auto-enrolled into having automated handling time enabled and will no longer be able to disable automated handling time", this means if I do nothing then I will be stuck and locked in to their automated settings. However, if I proactively drop my current manual setting to 1 day instead of 2 then presumably the gap will will also drop by 1, which at 1.8 should allow me to disable the automated setting? Does that sound correct?
3) Is the date/time of the shipment based on tracking information provided by the carrier or the date/time of when we upload the ship confirmation and tracking of the orders? If I confirm a shipment and provide tracking at 10am vs 4pm it is the same day as far as the carrier and time in transit are concerned but does amazon consider 11am being 0.25 days less handling time than 4pm? Or is all day considered the same regardless of the time?
Sort of rhetorical question but why does handling time matter at all? Isn't the deliver by date all that matters? If I "promise" delivery by Friday should it matter what day I shipped it, as long as it arrives by Friday?
The shipping times in transit are not flexible enough to be precise so we were using the handling time as a way to pad the total delivery time on cross country shipments. 2-3 or 2-4 days + 2 days handling is fine, but may not be enough with 0 or 1 day handling. The next option is 5-8 days which is too long even with same day shipping...
automated handling time, is same day an option?
I know the forums are going bonkers over the new automated handling time announcement but I haven't seen details regarding potentially how aggressive amazon will be in their automated settings... In our case we manually set most items to 2 day handling time with a few exceptions being set to 1 day. We ship most items same day and on the Fulfillment Insights Dashboard it shows Handling time (promise):2.8 days and Handling time (actual): 0.5 days. Questions:
1) If we do nothing and let Amazons automated settings take over could/would they set us to same day shipping or is 1 day the lowest setting for the automated value?
2) If I am correctly understanding the following sections of their email, "You can choose to close this gap by manually setting an accurate handling time on your account and SKUs or by enabling automated handling time" and "... if it remains above two days as per our policy for on-time delivery, you will be auto-enrolled into having automated handling time enabled and will no longer be able to disable automated handling time", this means if I do nothing then I will be stuck and locked in to their automated settings. However, if I proactively drop my current manual setting to 1 day instead of 2 then presumably the gap will will also drop by 1, which at 1.8 should allow me to disable the automated setting? Does that sound correct?
3) Is the date/time of the shipment based on tracking information provided by the carrier or the date/time of when we upload the ship confirmation and tracking of the orders? If I confirm a shipment and provide tracking at 10am vs 4pm it is the same day as far as the carrier and time in transit are concerned but does amazon consider 11am being 0.25 days less handling time than 4pm? Or is all day considered the same regardless of the time?
Sort of rhetorical question but why does handling time matter at all? Isn't the deliver by date all that matters? If I "promise" delivery by Friday should it matter what day I shipped it, as long as it arrives by Friday?
The shipping times in transit are not flexible enough to be precise so we were using the handling time as a way to pad the total delivery time on cross country shipments. 2-3 or 2-4 days + 2 days handling is fine, but may not be enough with 0 or 1 day handling. The next option is 5-8 days which is too long even with same day shipping...
0 respuestas
Seller_uNOzQqa8ZfEVy
I'd also like to know the answer to this. Currently my handling time is either 1-2 days, but my actual handling time is .4 days. If that translates into a 1 day handling time then that would be fine. Meaning you place an order today, then I have until end of day tomorrow to confirm shipment.
Dominic_Amazon
Hi @Seller_hyIteolKDibWK,
Dominic from Amazon here, want to provide some additional info. If your account has automated handling time enabled, your handling time and order handling capacity is set automatically based on your historic performance for each SKU. This setting allows customers to see a more accurate delivery date, which is typically shorter and usually results in more sales.
Instead of constantly updating your default handling time or manually configuring SKU-specific handling times, automated handling time configures the most accurate handling time for each SKU based on your historic performance.
This help page: Introduction to Automated Handling Time provides some helpful info on the topic and the positives of this being enabled.
In regards to your question:
For the US marketplace, the “Deliver By” date is measured in Pacific Time (PST/PDT). So if an order had a deliver by date of Jan 01, all items in the order must be delivered by Jan 01, 11:59:59 PM PST/PDT to be OTDR compliant.
Promise extensions are additional days that we may add to the delivery date to account for logistical factors that may delay a delivery such as extreme weather, transportation network constraints, or recent history of a seller delivering shipments after their set delivery date.
Best,
Dominic
Seller_4K7eqIN4GuF2E
As you see the response from Dominic is useless. So is anything Amazon tells you about automatic handling time.
Amazon no longer allows you to globally reset your handling time. They tell you that you must do it individually by SKU. Guess what - that does not work and is lip service.
I used to say I never had a buyer complain that they received an order too soon from us (even though we try to ship the same day). That actually happened yesterday but NOT on Amazon - on eBay.
And based on Amazon's WRONG calculations (done by the bots) recently most addresses in Texas are not qualifying for USPS Ground Advantage (our preferred method) forcing us to use Ship Station to generate the shipping label. And where we set shipping to use only USPS Amazon insists on giving us their "ground" shipping service as well as UPS and Fed-Ex (as a side note if we needed to ship via UPS we would NEVER use Amazon as we would NOT be the "shipper of record" and if there were a problem with loss or damage Amazon will NOT file the necessary claim on our behalf).
Of course automatic handling time does NOT apply to FBA.
Seller_ymzLWoErWEccr
This has been our experience as well. We closed our warehouses one Saturday in June to conduct an inventory audit. When we've done these audits in the past, rather than putting our account on vacation mode, I've uploaded an inventory file to change handling times on all ASINs from 0 days to 2 days - then after order cutoff, I would revert it with another file that changed all ASINs back from 2 days to 0 days. This time, the file processed fine, and I even went into our products to confirm that handling time was indeed listed as 2 days - but every new order that came in had a same-day ship-by date. I'm not talking about pending orders that were placed when it was 0 days - I mean new orders. So I called Seller Support and they were like, "Huh, that's weird - we'll investigate." Three weeks later, I got a response that in order to change handling time on ASINs, I would need to upload an inventory file. Oh, no kidding?
Seller_XJk5RkDQR39p0
If you are a seller in rural USA, and I'm not saying that I am, one ice storm, a tornado, or a flood, will end your business, one day of internet, or electric power outage. Many of those sellers are also manufacturers, so manufacturing takes a hit. I can't think of a scenario where that is helpful. Even my CPA is taking a hit now because so many businesses are struggling. Let's hope for a happy ending.
Seller_hyIteolKDibWK
I have some actual examples of the problems I was expecting... we offer free standard shipping on most items and being located in a major city on one of the coasts the most popular and cost effective methods, ground advantage, is 5 days in transit to many areas on the opposite coast. with 2 day handling time I can offer 2-4 day transit time and the item will (typically) arrive on time.
now with 1 day handling time an order that comes in after hours or on a weekend has to ship the next day and therefore will be 1 day late. I can't change the time in transit to 2-5 days, the next option is 5-8 days which again gives the customer a falsely pessimistic delivery time, which is what amazon claims to want to avoid.
Maybe there's a way to combine the basic free shipping to the far zones with the free standard for closer zones but the point is that we do not have flexible enough settings to simple say our handling time is less than our current setting and force us to reduce it without accounting for how it affects the overall delivery time., on most items we do not have enough margin to simply ship a faster method for those orders (we do on some orders and have factored that in when quoting faster delivery time).
Seller_hyIteolKDibWK
A new update... as expected without the extra day handling time our OTDR is falling significantly (also due to USPS ground advantage not consistently meeting their claimed time in transit). Now we have to revise the time in transit... The total time is the total time, regardless of whether it's included in handling time or transit time. So stupid Amazon!
