What is the On-time Delivery Rate (OTDR) for Amazon Sellers?How to meet the standards?

On-time delivery of goods has always been a concern for buyers.
Yes, in order to help you reduce delivery delays and improve delivery efficiency, Amazon recently released an update to the self-delivery performance index policy. Please read it patiently

Starting September 25, 2024, self-shipping seller friends are required to maintain an on-time delivery rate (OTDR) of at least 90% without extending their promises to guarantee the performance of your Amazon account.

The new requirements for self-delivery performance metrics are to help sellers improve their sales and operational capabilities and provide buyers with a better shopping experience. For a better buyer experience, we recommend that you maintain an OTDR of 95% or higher.

Amazon shows buyers the estimated delivery time on the product information page and checkout page, which is the estimated time required from the time the customer places the order until the order is delivered. Therefore, setting accurate delivery times for your products can help ensure a good customer experience and may increase sales because:

● Buyers are more willing to buy products that ship faster
● Products with a faster delivery date are more likely to be recommended offers (the offer appears at the top of the product detail page, and customers can buy the item directly or add it to their shopping cart)

Tips:
Your total delivery time gets calculated as follows:
Total delivery time = lead time + transit time + any holidays and weekends + additional buffer time (so that delivery promises can still be met if the carrier has delivery issues)

On-Time Delivery Rate (OTDR) is a measure of how all self-shipped products are delivered to the buyer on or before the seller's promised “delivery date.” This date is calculated based on the seller-configured delivery date and does not take into account promised extensions. For buyers, receiving goods on time can greatly improve shopping satisfaction. It is recommended that you set an appropriate transit time according to the actual situation to ensure that customers receive the item within the expected time.

For example, if you have 130 orders with promised delivery dates in the past 21 days, and 30 of these orders have promised delivery dates within the last 7 days, 30 orders within the last 7 days will be excluded when calculating OTDR (130-30 = 100). Of the remaining 100 orders, if 90 are delivered on or before the promised “delivery date,” then your OTDR is 90%.

What do I need to do to meet the standards?
We will notify seller partners who have not met OTDR standards via email in advance. Amazon has also prepared the following guide for you

Log in to Seller Central, check the OTDR through “Performance > Account Status > Delivery Performance > On-time Delivery Rate”, and download the OTDR report to find orders that have failed to meet OTDR performance standards.

For details, please copy the link below to view the help page in your browser
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/G200847280

Self-shipping seller partners can manually adjust your transit time and lead time, and make good use of Amazon's “Buy Delivery” service to meet the estimated delivery time promised to customers.

● In terms of preparation time: Set the default preparation time for the account according to the account dimension; set the preparation time for different products according to the product dimension. Method: Update lead times (update one product at a time) or upload an inventory file template (update products in bulk) on the Manage Inventory page in Seller Central.
● In terms of transit time: 1) Set transit time automatically: By enabling “Automated Delivery Settings (SSA)”, Amazon will automatically calculate your transit time based on your shipping address and carrier preferences to accurately estimate the transit time; 2) Manually set transit time: Edit the delivery template in “Delivery Settings” to customize your transit time.

Please copy the link to your browser for details:
SSA help page (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/G8WRJF2N5B787XKQ)

First step
Open delivery settings
Go to Seller Central → Settings → Shipping Settings

Second step
Create a new delivery template

Step 3
Turn on automated delivery settings

Step 4
Select an international (for the target site) warehouse address (shipping address)

Step 5 - 1
Select the carrier and logistics service the seller uses

Step 5 - 2
Once saved, the transit time in the corresponding delivery template will be displayed as managed by Amazon, as shown in the image below.

Step 5 - 3
For remote areas, if the order cannot be delivered, you can simply check it during the settings and edit the route:
Delivery settings → Delivery template → After finding the SSA template → click “Edit Template” → Edit Information → Find the regional preferences “Edit” → Uncheck undeliverable regions such as “Hawaii and Alaska”

When will the new OTDR performance metrics take effect?

Effective September 25, 2024.

Self-shipping sellers shipping from China are recommended to use automated delivery settings (SSA) tools to more accurately estimate shipping times and use Buy Shipping (Buy Shipping) to meet order commitments; professional self-shipping sellers shipping from the US are recommended to use the three tools of Automated Delivery Settings (SSA), Buy Shipping Service (Buy Shipping), and Automatic Lead Time (AHT) at the same time. See Seller Central for details.