Amazon held a chat session on Tuesday where it answered questions from sellers who use its fulfillment service about a new requirement when sending inventory to Amazon FBA fulfillment centers called Send to Amazon Delivery Window.
One seller asked Amazon to provide a detailed explanation of what exactly had changed in terms of delivery windows from the previous practice to the current one, to which an Amazon moderator responded:
“Delivery Window is a new requirement, since April 24, 2023 on the Send to Amazon (STA) shipment creation process. When sellers create a non-Amazon partnered carrier shipment, we’ll ask them to provide a “Delivery Window,” which is an estimated date range of when sellers expect their shipment to arrive at our fulfillment center.
“Given the variability in transportation lead times, we are asking for a date range. A Delivery Window is a 7-day for domestic shipments) or 14-day for international shipments). The window provides Amazon an expected arrival for seller shipment so Amazon can better manage incoming shipments and process sooner.”
Another seller posted:
“It appears the goal of the Send to Amazon Delivery Window is to help Amazon prepare to receive the inventory. We currently use Amazon Partnered Carriers but the inventory check-in times have been a month after the shipment says it’s been delivered by UPS. I’m wondering if using a non-partnered carrier and providing a delivery window would expedite the check-in process.”
The answer was no. “We do not seek delivery windows when you use Amazon Partnered Carriers, as we gain information on your shipment expected arrival directly from the carrier. While we have been working on reducing the check-in times, using a non-partnered carrier vs. a partnered carrier will not impact your check-in process.”
Other sellers asked questions related to Amazon FBA that were not specific to the Amazon Delivery Window feature, but the questions provided a glimpse into sellers’ concerns. One was about Amazon’s practice of splitting many of the incoming products into multiple locations.
You can read the questions and Amazon’s responses on the thread devoted to Tuesday’s chat session. (Tip: you can click on “Amazon replies.”)
