Amazon Seller Central Business Value
Amazon Seller Central Seller Fulfilled Prime
Section 5: Enabling Seller Fulfilled Prime
Cheat Sheet
Seller Fulfilled Prime Trial Period
• In order to enable Seller Fulfilled Prime on your account, you need to register for the initial trial phase first by going to the “Seller Fulfilled Prime” main page and signing up to start your trial.
• Enable Prime shipping in your Prime trial shipping template as we discussed in the previous section as well as review Prime Shipping Requirements.
• Enroll your items in Seller Fulfilled Prime by assigning SKUs to your Prime shipping template as we explained in a previous section.
• During the trial period, all SKUs assigned to a Prime shipping template will count as Prime trial orders, regardless of the buyer’s location.
• All Prime trial orders will contribute toward the trial period performance requirements described below.
• You will need to fulfill Prime trial orders by identifying Prime trial orders according to the Prime badge displayed on the “Manage Orders” page in Seller Central and the “isprime” identifier in “Order Reports”.
• Make sure that you fulfill these orders according to the requirements on Fulfilling Seller Fulfilled Prime via Email Notification and via Seller Central as we explained in previous videos.
• During the trial period, you must meet the following performance requirements on a minimum of 50 Prime trial orders:
* An On-Time Shipment Rate of at least 99% for Prime trial orders. Regardless of the shipping speed selected by the customer, Prime trial orders must be shipped on the same day the order is received, as long as the customer places the order before the seller’s cutoff time.
* Use of Buy Shipping Services for at least 99% Prime trial orders.
* A cancellation rate of no more than 0.5% for Prime trial orders.
• Make sure that you only add SKUs to the Prime Shipping template that you can fulfil quickly in order to maintain these metrics.
• Until you complete the trial period, Seller Fulfilled Prime will not be active on your account and the Prime badge will not be visible on the items you have enrolled in Seller Fulfilled Prime.
• If your metrics fail during the 50 trial orders, you will have to start your 50 trial orders all over again from scratch.
Checking your Performance Metrics for Seller Fulfilled Prime
• Knowing how insanely vital your Performance Metrics are for the success of not only the actual Trial Period you have to undergo for Seller Fulfilled Prime, but also for the success and enablement of the program itself in the long run on your account, it goes without saying that it is vital you keep tabs on these metrics.
• In order to check your Performance Metrics for Seller Fulfilled Prime, select “Account Health” from the Drop-Down Menu of the “Performance” tab on the top Menu of Seller Central.
• On the next page, click the “Eligibilities” tab on the top of the page.
• Your Seller Fulfilled Prime Performance Metrics will be visible in a block on this page, noting again the metrics as follows:
* On-Time Shipment Rate;
* Use of Buying Amazon Shipping Services; and
* The Cancellation Rate.
Seller Fulfilled Prime Enabled
• Right, you have successfully picked, packed and shipped 50 orders perfectly, maintaining an above 99% On-Time Shipment Performance Shipment Metric, more than 99% of your orders you bought shipping from Amazon and you kept your cancellation rate to below 0.5%.
• Success! You have now successfully enabled Seller Fulfilled Prime on your account.
• 24 hours after you become eligible for the Seller Fulfilled Prime program, the SKUs mapped to one or more of your Prime Templates will automatically display the Prime badge to customers.
• To maintain eligibility for Seller Fulfilled Prime, you are required to meet the same Prime trial performance requirements.
• In addition to gaining eligibility for the Seller Fulfilled Prime program, your Prime items will also show guaranteed delivery date messaging.
• Sellers whose performance metrics fall below required levels are no longer eligible for Seller Fulfilled Prime but can continue selling those items on Amazon without Prime badging.
The Suspension of Seller Fulfilled Prime on your Account
• Oh dear! What happens if one or more of your Performance Metrics fail according to the required performance by Amazon?
• Your On-Time Shipments drop below 99%.
• You’re using more of your own couriers to deliver Seller Fulfilled Prime orders so you have stopped buying as much shipping from Amazon: less than 99% of the orders you have shipped have been with Amazon’s shipping.
• And your cancellation rate has risen to over 1% of your orders.
• Guess what? Amazon has now suspended the Seller Fulfilled Prime Program on your account.
• While you can still continue selling the SKUs you set up so diligently for the Seller Fulfilled Program, there is no Prime badging associated with them anymore and you may therefore be losing sales to your competitors who do still have the Seller Fulfilled Program.
Re-enabling Seller Fulfilled Prime on your Account
• So, your Seller Fulfilled Prime Program has been suspended on your account due to some or all of your performance metrics falling out of the percentage requirements made by Amazon.
• It’s okay. We can get it back.
• To reactivate or re-enable Seller Fulfilled Prime on your account, you’ll need to do the following:
* Correct the issues that caused your account to be Suspended from Seller Fulfilled Prime, such as making sure you always have enough stock so you don’t have to cancel any orders, you start buying shipping from Amazon instead of using your own couriers and you give your picking, packing and shipping people a stern talking to so that your orders go out on time every time;
* Bring the minimum Performance Metrics back for Seller Fulfilled Prime, like make sure you don’t cancel any orders, you are only buying shipping from Amazon going forward and you are dispatching orders on time all the time;
* Send a “Plan of Action” to the Seller Performance Team, explaining what happened and why and how you will prevent this drop in Performance Metrics in the future; and
* Request that Seller Fulfilled Prime be re-enabled on your account.
• With any luck, you’ll have Seller Fulfilled Prime re-enabled in no time!