Hi. I’m genuinely lost here.
I don’t handle the FBM side of the business, so forgive me if I say anything obvious or clearly incorrect.
What I’m trying to understand is how to influence Amazon’s shipping settings to reduce the promised delivery dates, which currently feel longer than they should be.
Here’s our setup:
We only have one shipping template for all SKUs
We only offer free “Standard Shipping” (so, Transit times: 5-8 days for most states, 7-14 days for Hawaii/Alaska/Puerto Rico, and 2-4 days within our own state
We fulfill orders from the West Coast
We use Veeqo
We have ATH active
We don’t use SSA
But when I check the promises customers see, the dates don’t quite match (or maybe it’s just me who isn’t reading the data correctly)
Within our state: Sept 30 - Oct 2
Other West Coast states: Oct 3
New Jersey: Oct 6
Kansas: Oct 2
Florida: Oct 15
If we’ve set 5-8 days, how is Amazon coming up with promises that stretch beyond that?
our metrics
Promised delivery time: 9.9 calendar days
Actual delivery time: 7.1 calendar days (gap: 2.8)
Promised handling time: 1.6 calendar days (1.2 business)
Actual handling time: 0.9 calendar days (0.8 business)
Promise extensions: 0.4 calendar days
Are we misconfigured somewhere, or is this just “normal” for FBM?
I’m in the middle of the country so it is normally 3 days to either coast but some can go out a day or 2 further.
Amazon is delusional (and inconsistent) for time of travel. Orders that I have received so far today show these ship by and deliver by dates –
Standard
Ship by date: Tue, Sep 23, 2025 PDT
Deliver by date: Mon, Sep 29, 2025 PDT
Free Economy Shipping
Ship by date: Tue, Sep 23, 2025 PDT
Deliver by date: Tue, Sep 30, 2025 PDT
Standard
Ship by date: Tue, Sep 23, 2025 PDT
Deliver by date: Fri, Oct 3, 2025 PDT
All the ship by dates are Tuesday which is correct. Delivery spans three different days and dates. Granted the Oct 3 IS a book so media mail is involved.
MY question is what on earth are you and @HobbesIsMyTiger selling? Is it all in handmade and requires extensive lead time and production?
Mine are pretty simple – pick, pack, ship and the longest order delivery date today is for a book and even then only October 3rd for the expected date.
Even for Amazon going out to October 15 seems ridiculous. The book is to FL, but so is this one from yesterday -
Ship by date: Mon, Sep 22, 2025 PDT
Those Amazon estimates are insane but that is nothing new from what I have seen over the years.
It gets better and then they suffer a brain cramp and times blow up again.
Have you tried to disable AHT?
I tried it a year or so ago when we could toggle back and forth. My estimated times blew up so far out I got out of it and things improved by several days!
Last September, Amazon stated that the 5-8 day setting would really be just up to 5 days.
With AHT active, then your handle time is set by Amazon per item based on how much handle time you have used on that item in the past.
Promised delivery time = promised handle time + promised transit time
Actual delivery time = actual handle time + actual transit time
The gap is the difference between promised and actual.
You are basically shipping everything within 1 day handle time (which is being set by Amazon for you).
Promise extensions is something Amazon provides the customer when the shipper hasn’t preformed as expected. Not much you can do about this one.
We are pretty much in the center of the US so most of our shipments are USPS Zone 5 and Zone 6. Since USPS last adjustment to their processing in July 2025, we have been seeing on average a promised delivery time of 5 to 6 days (or 6 to 7 days if the date range contains a weekend Sunday).
We have AHT and SSA turned on. Our handle time is 2 days and average transit time is 4 to 6 days. We ship 100% USPS.
We think pretty much normal. If you turn on SSA (since you already use AHT), you might see a day or two improvement.
Thank you again. I have a follow-up question, if you don’t mind.
What would actually happen in practice if we shortened the shipping time in our template? Would we need to adjust anything in our workflow or operations to make sure we can meet those shorter promises.
The time it takes you to get a package out the door is your handling time. The shipping time is how long the item has to reach the destination after you buy shipping. Changing the shipping time changes nothing in regard to your handling time.
The difference is in what shipping options you can use, as Amazon will only offer (and cover for claims) shipping options that they believe will arrive by the delivery deadline. If you shorten your shipping time to 2 days, you may have to use more expensive shipping options to reach more distant addresses.
That said, your shipping time is currently 5-8 days which is pretty long. You should be able to shorten it to the next step down without losing your ability to use the standard shipping options like Ground Advantage or UPS Ground.
You can also experiment with changing your shipping times on your template to see what happens, if you lose important shipping options or what kind of reduction you see in the delivery dates. If you don’t like what you see, change it back.
Please note I don’t know what you sell. If your items have special shipping needs or you use item specific shipping methods, this advice might be way off.
