Amazon announced its new carrier tracking information policy and prompted Amazon sellers to comply with it from October 1, 2021.
According to the policy, Amazon sellers will be required to provide the carrier name and valid tracking details to stay relevant on the marketplace and to provide an enhanced customer experience.
For those who opted for Amazon Partnered Carrier Program or Amazon Global Logistics, Amazon will generate the carrier tracking information automatically.
It helps Amazon to track your inventory more efficiently and arrange their facilities by providing tracking information. With the help of this information, Amazon can make items available for sale while inventory is in a transient form on fulfillment centers.
All tracking information is provided to Amazon through shipment creation workflow. For faster delivery and lesser errors, it is best to ensure that the carrier tracking IDs map to the FBA Amazon ID label.
New VTR Requirements for Packages Shipped from China
Packages shipped directly to customers from China must meet the following VTR (Valid Tracking Rate) requirements:
1) Packages that have a shipping value of less than $5 must include a physical scan and trackable shipping method.
2) Packages that have a shipping value greater than or equal to $5 must include a delivery scan or delivery attempt. and trackable shipping method.
What does this mean for Amazon Sellers?
This policy update, certainly, escalated the workload for Amazon sellers, specifically the sellers residing in countries where it isn’t possible to purchase shipping directly through Seller central.
However, this tracking information will be used to upgrade the monitoring of inventory more efficiently and avoid delays.
Amazon will punish sellers by introducing a new metric called “missing tracking information defect rate” for those who have lower defect rates at the shipment level.