[AMZ] Update to US Seller Fulfilled Prime and Premium Shipping program policies

[papy]

Hi all, just received this email:

Hello,

We wanted to let you know that we’re making some updates to our Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) and Premium Shipping policies. In October 2023, we reopened SFP to new seller enrollment with updated program requirements. Since then, we’ve gathered data on program performance and listened to sellers’ feedback to provide additional clarity, address frequently asked questions, and help sellers succeed in SFP. To consistently meet customers’ evolving expectations and ensure that the Prime badge and Premium Shipping continue to represent the experiences that customers have grown to trust and expect, we’re updating SFP and Premium Shipping program policies, effective June 29, 2025.

The following changes will apply to SFP trial enrollment and graduation:

• Program trial limits. Program trials will be limited to three attempts per calendar year, whereas no set limit existed previously.
• Trial period graduation restrictions. Graduation from the trial period will be restricted at least 30 days prior to major sales events and periods of heavy customer activities. This restriction is to ensure that you’re adequately prepared to manage SFP requirements prior to these busy periods.

Sellers enrolled in the SFP trial must adhere to the SFP program policy. For more details, go to Seller Fulfilled Prime Program Policy.

The following changes apply to sellers who are enrolled in SFP:

• Minimum shipment requirements. You must consistently ship Prime packages and ship at least 100 Prime packages per month.
• Exemption period to address performance issues. If you receive a second email notice about a performance issue, we’ll introduce an exemption period during which your SFP eligibility won’t be impacted as you work to remediate these issues with your Prime status disabled.
• Restrictions for misclassified products. We reserve the right to block SFP offers, pause Prime eligibility, or revoke Prime status if you repeatedly misclassify products. This includes incorrectly classifying products in a different size tier than the item package dimensions.
• Performance protection from major network disruptions. Any SFP performance misses resulting from major fulfillment network disruptions that we identify won’t affect your SFP eligibility.
• New appeals process. You’ll now have two weeks from the date that you receive a performance email notification to submit an appeal.

The following changes apply to Premium Shipping:

• Performance requirement updates. The minimum required on-time delivery rate (OTDR) will be updated to 93.5% from 97%.
• Performance monitoring. The evaluation period that we use to determine your eligibility to offer Premium Shipping will change from 30 calendar days to 7 days. Additionally, you’ll receive two email notices if you fail to meet the same requirement twice. A third violation within four consecutive weeks will lead to removal from the program. If you’ve met all requirements for four consecutive weeks following your first infraction, we’ll reset your eligibility status for that requirement.

To protect your account health when Amazon is setting promises on your behalf, SFP and Premium Shipping offers will now receive OTDR protection from late deliveries if Shipping Settings Automation is enabled on your shipping template, you’ve purchased shipping labels marked as “OTDR Protected” on Amazon Buy Shipping or Veeqo, and you’ve shipped on time. We designed these tools to set accurate delivery dates, reduce late deliveries, and to meet or exceed the minimum OTDR requirement. Even if you do not use these tools, if there is a major disruption event that impacts all sellers shipping to a specific region (as determined by Amazon), Amazon will not count deliveries that are late as a result in your OTDR.

For more information on these changes, go to the following help pages:

• Upcoming changes to Seller Fulfilled Prime
• Upcoming changes to Premium Shipping
• On-time delivery

The Amazon Services team

[HobbesIsMyTiger]

Beat me to it

SFP was already unworkable so these new changes change nothing.
As far as the Premium Shipping changes, they seem like a net positive at this time.

[papy]

@HobbesIsMyTiger

SFP was already unworkable so these new changes change nothing.

True. I’m technically only still eligible (and in the loop) because I turned it off in 2020 during covid. And when the guidelines changed, I could not replicate FBA with my own warehouses or third party providers at low enough cost to justify even trying.

[HobbesIsMyTiger]

Same, I turned it off that Feb, the day the changes went into effect, and am therefore still SFP eligible. No intention of using it again, unless they revert some of the preposterous requirements.

[Lost_My_Marbles]

@papy

I’m technically only still eligible

@HobbesIsMyTiger

No intention of using it

@papy

Minimum shipment requirements. You must consistently ship Prime packages and ship at least 100 Prime packages per month.

And so if this is true, all of us should be loosing our SFP eligibility which is no big deal to us as we tried to look for a way to remove ourself from the program a long time ago but couldn’t find a way.

[Long-TimeLurker]

We turned our SFP offerings back on about a month ago after our volume started picking up as we enter our busy season.

There is currently an invite only trial for the XL size tier that basically reverts it back to the old regional prime which has been nice.

[papy]

@Long-TimeLurker

We turned our SFP offerings back on about a month ago

Nice! Are you using your own warehouses or a third party provider?

[Long-TimeLurker]

One, our main shipping facility, is our own but the rest are contracted out to 3PLs.

[papy]

Nice, the secret option C hybrid option

[Long-TimeLurker]

Though with as many locations as we have, prime templates get a bit hairy on those extremely rare occasions when the automation involved in switching them has a hiccup.

[Long-TimeLurker]

I feel like our number of templates requires clarification.

The number we have is for different combinations of in-stock scenarios. While MLI and SSA are in play for prime and those items just use a single template, the rest cover different in-stock scenarios for items we don’t want on MLI.

Why would you not want an item on MLI? This is because subscribe and save and MLI are not compatible systems. If you’re using MLI, the way the inventory systems work don’t mesh together. Amazon isn’t smart enough to read that you have 100 in location 1, 75 in location 2, etc.