This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to set up shipping options to utilize Amazon's services effectively. By following the steps outlined here, you will be able to integrate Amazon's shipping solutions into your business operations, ensuring a seamless delivery experience for your customers.
NOTE: These steps are a necessary prerequisite whether you are connecting to Amazon through a listing tool or through our direct integration.
Creating or Updating a Template
It's up to you whether you want to create a new template or edit an existing one! If you do create a new template and are asked about Shipping Settings Automation, click 'Cancel' and confirm that the Shipping Settings Automation toggle is off for this template (Here's why).
Update Shipping Templates
- Log in to Amazon Seller Central
- Go to Settings > Shipping Settings
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Select the tab that says Shipping Templates and click "edit" at the top right-hand corner.
NOTE: If you already have Shipping Templates assigned to FBM SKUs, you can also edit/update these templates.
- Under Transit Time choose a minimum of 4 days for Standard Shipping (See the screenshot below). This is so we can fulfill your order within the promised delivery time. For most states, this will be 5-8 days.
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Amazon will only allow you to select 2-4 days for the same state as your origin warehouse. This is passed through to our system as 4 days in transit, which will still appear as a Standard shipment.
NOTE: If you are using a direct integration with Amazon, the handling time automatically updates to 3 business days at a product level when we update the inventory levels (items not inbounded are not affected). This overrides the account-level default you set below.
- Total Delivery Time = Handling Time + Transit Time (+ any holidays and weekends)
- 2-4 day transit time + 3 day handling time will ingest orders with a Standard Service Level, 5-7 days.
- We do not recommend expedited transit time options below.
- Lastly, ensure the following regions within the United States are excluded from the template as they currently are not supported by Flexport:
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- Puerto Rico
- US Virgin Islands
- APO & FPO
- Optional: Edit or exclude any other US regions that you do not wish to ship to. Set up shipping fees if desired.
Update Shipping Settings
- Go to Amazon Seller Central, and then Settings > Shipping Settings > General Shipping Settings.
- Set a default shipping address in the Eastern Time Zone of the United States.
- Enter an address that is relevant for your business or use the "General Delivery" address shown in the screenshot below.
NOTE: For non-US-based sellers, using this address lets Amazon know that your orders are being shipped from the US. Therefore, your customers will see accurate shipping times.
- Enter an address that is relevant for your business or use the "General Delivery" address shown in the screenshot below.
- Verify your order fulfillment settings.
- Set same-day delivery cutoff times to 10 am. In general, same day delivery is not supported.
- Set all other delivery service levels to a 2 pm cutoff time.
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Operating days should be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The fulfillment centers generally do not operate on Saturday or Sunday.
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Set an account-level default of 1 business day for handling time for all of your products. You can learn more on this here.
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Why: Handling time is important. A proper handling time will align your account with standard order handling.
- Setting a lower handling time will show a faster delivery date to buyers, but can put you at risk of missing OTS (on-time shipping) requirements from Amazon.
- For this reason, we recommend a slower but safer delivery time for your Amazon orders.
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Optional but recommended:
- If you are using a listing tool to connect to Amazon, please contact your listing tool support to see how they set the handling time.
- Do not use “Amazon recommended” handling time, as this will not allow Flexport to override your handling time to 3 business days, and may cause some of your orders to leverage expedited shipping speeds.
- If you are using a listing tool to connect to Amazon, please contact your listing tool support to see how they set the handling time.
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Why: Handling time is important. A proper handling time will align your account with standard order handling.
Additional Notes
Shipping Setting Automation: No need to enable shipping setting automation in Amazon Seller Central. Unfortunately, this will not work as intended because a fulfillment location only appears as one warehouse from Amazon's point of view.
Order Handling Capacity: No need to set Order Handling Capacity limits in Amazon Seller Central. You can set this as a way to throttle your orders without any ill effect, but we cannot guarantee to import new Ship By dates (and adjust accordingly) after an order has already been imported.