The performance management program evaluates your performance on the five metrics below and analyzes the performance accumulated over the assessed period. Note that new metrics may be added in the future.
Assessments are scheduled every week for the past week (Sunday – Saturday). During special event dates such as Black Friday or Prime Day the assessment cadence may change along with the assessed period.
Metric | Goal | Definition |
Late Processing Rate* | ≤ 0.5% | Number of units not processed as per their Expected Ship Date divided by total units shipped during the assessment period |
Shipment Cancellation Rate** | ≤ 0.2% | Number of units canceled by seller divided by total units shipped during the assessment period |
Late Handover Rate* | ≤ 0.5% | Number of units not handed over to the carrier as per their Scheduled Ship Date divided by total units shipped during the assessment period |
Returning Grading Turn Around Time*** | ≤ 20% | Number of units returned not processed on C-Return app, divided by total returned units of the last 30 days |
Customer Returns Rate (by Product Family)**** |
CE: ≤ 1.8% CO: ≤ 0.8% Media: ≤ 0.8% OHL: ≤ 1.6% SL: ≤ 2.0% |
Number of units returned divided by total units shipped for each product family during the assessment period |
* For Late Processing Rate and Late Handover Rate goal, it is not considered a policy violation if the seller has has delayed up to 2 units during the 1-week assessment period (or proportional amount if the assessment period changes) AND has filled the violation report survey within 2 days after the issue occurs, even if it means a processing or handover rate greater than 0.5%.
** For Shipping Cancellation Rate, it is not considered a policy violation if the seller has canceled only 1 unit during the 1-week assessment period (or proportional amount if the assessment period changes) AND has filled the violation report survey within 2 days after the issue occurs, even if it means a Shipping Cancellation rate greater than 0.2%.
*** For Return Grading Turn Around Time, it will not be considered a policy violation if the seller has not processed up to 2 returned units during the last 30 days (or proportional amount if the assessment period changes), even if this means a rate greater than 20%.
**** For Customer Returns Rate, the metric will be calculated as a weighted average of Amazon's Product Family definition – see select examples below. This metric will not be considered as a policy violation, it will be available only for visibility.
A strike is counted for each metric violation during the assessment periods and a penalty imposed on the seller for each new strike. The total strike count is accumulated over 12 weeks, and a high strike rate will attract severe penalties. See the table below for more details:
Strike | Penalty |
1st Strike | Formal warning |
2nd Strike | Formal warning |
3rd Strike | Prime Badge Removal |
4th Strike | Deactivation on FBA Onsite for a minimum of 7 days* + Plan of action |
5th Strike | Deactivation on FBA Onsite for a minimum of 14 days* + Plan of action |
6th Strike | Deactivation on FBA Onsite for a minimum of 28 days* + Plan of action |
7th Strike | Deactivation on FBA Onsite for a minimum of 70 days* + Plan of action |
*Reactivation occurs on the next business day after minimum suspension period if the plan of action was presented and approved by Amazon.
When a Prime Badge is removed from the profile, the Seller loses it for one week. If performance recovers in this period, penalties are reversed, the Prime badge is returned, and the seller can return to normal operations. If the performance of the seller in this week does not recover to match the stipulated goals, a new Strike is issued with expected consequences for that Strike.
The date of receipt of the email communicating the Strike is considered as the day of the Strike. After receiving this email, the seller has two days to appeal. The Strike "window" lasts 12 weeks, that is, a Strike received before this interval is not considered to determine the number of the next possible Strike.
If the seller reaches the 4th, 5th, 6th or 7th Strike, it is necessary to complete a Plan of Action identifying the root cause of the Strikes and actions taken to correct and prevent them. This action plan is mandatory for the account to be reactivated and is analyzed by the FBA Onsite Operations team.
Recently launched sellers must have a processing history of 1 complete assessment period to be eligible for the Prime badge. Their performance is evaluated on a review that considers the previous assessment period.
On every assessment, sellers will receive a report by email with their performance in the monitored metrics in the previous week. For Late Processing Rate and Seller Cancellation Rate sellers can track their performance directly in the performance section of the Onsite Tool. If they do not agree with the results of the performance summary, sellers can use the Contact Us section on the Onsite Tool FAQ page to open a case with Seller Support following the guidelines given below:
An immediate deactivation plan is triggered in cases where the seller exceeds any of the limits below in a single day or if there are too many unprocessed pending orders close to CPT – Critical Pull Time, and seller is unresponsive::
Criteria | Limits |
Fast Track* Pending Orders | 5 units |
Cancellation | 5 units and 5% of affected units** |
Late Processing Rate | 5 units and 5% of affected units ** |
Late Handover Rate | 5 units and 5% of affected units** |
* Fast Track: order with expedited or priority ship option
** Affected units: units that need to be processed on the same day including those pending from previous days
The deactivation occurs as soon as the criteria is exceeded. Likewise, the seller is reactivated after they complete a Plan of Action identifying the root cause of their Strikes and actions taken to correct and prevent them. This action plan will be analyzed by the FBA Onsite Operations team and is mandatory for the account to be reactivated.
Three deactivations during an assessment period, even if the metrics are within the stipulated target is considered a Strike.