All of you heard that quality is remembered long. Premium services always attract buyers. Offering Amazon Prime delivery through the Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime program is a lucrative option to reach more customers and improve sales. This program allows eligible sellers to display the Prime badge on their listings and offer customers Prime benefits, including free One-Day and Two-Day shipping and free returns, without fulfilling their orders through Amazon's fulfillment centers.
However, to participate in the program, sellers must meet specific requirements to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction. This post will discuss the requirements for sellers to join Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime.
What Is Seller Fulfilled Prime?
Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) is a program offered by Amazon that enables sellers to deliver their products directly to Prime customers straight from their own warehouse. By showcasing the Prime badge, sellers commit to fulfilling orders with One-Day or Two-Day Delivery without any extra cost to Prime customers. Amazon offers SFP sellers its approved transportation solutions to help meet the high standards for the Prime customer experience.
By participating in Seller Fulfilled Prime, sellers can reach an extensive network of Amazon Prime members. Prime shoppers can quickly find products marked with the Prime badge using on-site filters. In addition, Prime products have increased chances of winning the Buy Box. Offering products with the Prime badge can lead to increased sales and visibility. However, sellers must meet specific criteria and take on additional responsibilities in terms of shipping, inventory management, and customer service.
Note. For the moment, Seller Fulfilled Prime is not accepting new registrations. If you want to be notified when enrollment reopens, join Amazon’s waitlist.
Related: What is Buy Box? How to Win Buy Box on Amazon
How Does Seller Fulfilled Prime Work?
Sellers participating in Seller Fulfilled Prime fulfill orders from their own or a third-party logistics provider’s warehouse. SFP orders must be delivered with Amazon-supported shipping carriers to ensure a high level of customer service. They are responsible for shipping orders directly to customers within the promised Prime shipping timeframe (One-Day or Two-Day delivery). Sellers must ensure they have enough inventory to fulfill Prime orders and maintain the promised shipping timeframe. They can use their own inventory management systems or integrate with Amazon's seller tools.
To participate in the SFP program, sellers must meet specific criteria, including high seller performance metrics and a history of timely fulfilling orders. Before enrolling in the program, sellers must pass a trial period (typically 5 to 90 days and a minimum of 200 orders) to prove they meet Amazon’s requirements. The Prime badge doesn’t appear on the seller’s listings during that period. After the trial is successfully completed, a seller is automatically enrolled in the program.
Sellers are responsible for handling customer inquiries, returns, and refunds. They must also adhere to Amazon's customer service standards.
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Seller Fulfilled Prime in 5 steps
- Step 1. Qualify for the SFP program and pass the trial period.
- Step 2. Fulfill inventory from your warehouse.
- Step 3. Handle your orders and purchase shipping labels from authorized carriers.
- Step 4. Select, prepare, and dispatch your orders on the same day.
- Step 5. Carriers authorized by Seller Fulfilled Prime will pick up and transport orders to customers within two days.
Requirements for Seller Fulfilled Prime
To be eligible for the program, sellers must meet certain requirements and adhere to specific performance metrics to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction. These requirements include maintaining high customer service and fulfillment standards.
Offer Premium Shipping
To apply for the SFP program, you are required to fulfill more than 30 Premium Shipping orders and have your metrics in good standing. Premium Shipping is Amazon’s feature available to select sellers with good account performance and includes One-Day and Two-Day shipping.
Premium shipping requirements:
- Professional account;
- Account must be 90 days or older;
- Trackable orders;
- High-performance metrics (94% Tracking Rate, 96% On-Time Delivery Rate, 1% or less Cancellation Rate);
- Minimum of 10 fulfilled orders during 30 calendar days.
99% On-time delivery
On-Time Delivery Rate (OTDR) is Amazon’s delivery performance metric measuring all shipments delivered by their estimated delivery date as a percentage of total tracked shipments. To be eligible for SFP, you must ship over 99% of your orders on time.
0.5% Order Cancellation Rate
Order Cancellation Rate (OCR) is the ratio of the number of orders canceled to the total number of orders. To participate in SFP, your Order Cancellation Rate must be less than 0.5% (for regular sellers, the target is 2.5%). You can find your OCR figure in the Account Health Dashboard > Shipping performance > Pre-fulfillment Cancel Rate.
Amazon Account Health Dashboard
Related: Amazon Account Health – A Guide for FBA Sellers in 2023
Use Amazon Buy Shipping Services
Amazon Buy Shipping is Amazon’s service that allows sellers to purchase carrier labels and ship products to customers. With the Buy Shipping service, sellers can buy and print these labels, ship and confirm orders, and easily track their shipments. To be eligible for the Seller Fulfilled Prime program, you must use Amazon Buy Shipping Services for at least 99% of orders.
Nationwide delivery coverage
To be eligible for SFP, sellers must have nationwide delivery coverage for all standard-size products on a Prime shipping template. Nationwide coverage includes 48 contiguous United States and the District of Columbia.
Provide weekend delivery
Sellers enrolled in SFP are required to operate weekend pick-ups and delivery. That requires processing and shipping out Prime orders six days a week, including either Saturday or Sunday. Customer orders occurring Friday after the cut-off time or Saturday before the cut-off time must be shipped on Saturday. You can manage your weekend pick-up and delivery settings in Order Fulfillment settings. To offer weekend pick-ups and delivery, you must use shipping methods that support weekend delivery and pick-up on Saturdays or Sundays.
Meet One-Day and Two-Day delivery promises targets
Amazon requires SFP sellers to meet targets for One-Day and Two-Day delivery promises. This metric estimates the percentage of customer page views displaying a one- or two-calendar-day delivery promise when your SFP offer was in the Buy Box, regardless of whether a product was purchased. Amazon has a shipping promise for specific Prime Eligible items. With it, the customer may have an option of Guaranteed Morning, Same-Day, and One/Two-Day Delivery on particular items.
Use Amazon-approved carriers
SFP sellers must deliver orders with Amazon-supported Seller Fulfilled Prime carriers to ensure high-quality customer service. Amazon-approved SFP carriers include Amazon Shipping, Royal Mail, Yodel, Hermes, DPD, Parcelforce and UPS, and other known delivery service providers. You are required to use one of those.
Comply with the Amazon Returns Policy
SFP sellers must agree to the Amazon Returns Policy. If your orders are self-fulfilled, Amazon requires you to match or exceed their return policies. That means you must accept returns within Amazon’s 30-day return window and refund the customer within 2 days of receiving the return shipment. The customer must ship the product back using a pre-paid shipping label.
Related: Amazon Return Policy for Sellers - All You Need To Know
Allow Amazon to process all customer service inquiries
Amazon undertakes to take care of all customer service inquiries on behalf of the SFP seller.
Final Thoughts
Seller Fulfilled Prime can be a beneficial program for Amazon sellers who have the infrastructure and resources to fulfill orders themselves. It can help increase visibility, save on fees, and improve the customer experience, all of which can lead to increased sales and profitability. In order to be eligible for SFP, sellers must meet tight requirements, adhere to specific performance metrics set out by Amazon, and maintain a healthy seller account.
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