An Amazon worker delivers packages amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Denver, Colorado, USA, on April 22, 2020.
Kevin Mohatt | Reuters
Amazon is easing some of the pressure on third-party vendors who pack and ship their own orders due to continued coronavirus restrictions on major carriers.
Last August, the company announced that, as of February 2021, members of Amazon’s Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) program would be required to make deliveries on Saturdays and meet delivery goals of one and two days.
In a note sent to sellers on Tuesday that was seen by CNBC, Amazon said it was temporarily relaxing delivery speed targets for SFP members in response to “pandemic constraints in the logistics sector”. This means that Amazon will give SFP members a pass if they cannot guarantee delivery speeds of one or two days for a portion of buyers.
“While we know that salespeople like you are working to raise the level of Prime customers, we also understand that the pandemic has introduced restrictions on the logistics industry, on which you depend to meet customer expectations,” according to the note. “In recognition of these restrictions, we are adjusting the delivery speed targets of one and two days.”
An Amazon spokesman confirmed to CNBC that the changes were announced to sellers on Tuesday.
The SFP program, launched in 2016, allows third-party merchants to make inventory eligible for two-day shipping and display the Prime badge on their lists without paying for Amazon’s customer service, Fulfillment By Amazon.
With SFP, sellers store their own products and pack their own orders, while delivery is managed by carriers such as USPS, FedEx or UPS. Leading operators experienced unprecedented stress on their systems during the coronavirus pandemic and the holiday shopping season as a result of high e-commerce activity.
In addition, UPS and FedEx are likely to face even stricter capacity restrictions in the coming months as they prioritize sending millions of doses of the coronavirus vaccine.
Amazon measures an SFP member’s ability to meet one- and two-day delivery goals based on how often these delivery options are shown to customers when they view a seller’s product list. As a result of the update on Tuesday, SFP members will only be required to guarantee delivery in two days or less for 55% of people who view their product list.
Starting in June, SFP members will be required to show delivery speeds of two days or less to 70% of people viewing their product list. Sellers will still be required to support delivery and pickup on Saturdays or Sundays, as well as provide nationwide delivery coverage as of February 1.
Amazon announced the move last summer to give sellers plenty of time to prepare and communicate with operators, the company said at the time. The move received criticism from some third-party vendors, who say it could overburden their operations if they needed to work on weekends.
Salespeople filling orders on their own had a hard time meeting Amazon’s two-day delivery goals, even before the coronavirus pandemic. Less than 16% of SFP orders in the U.S. were delivered in two days, mainly because salespeople don’t work on weekends, Amazon said last August.