Amazon is a remarkable and reliable e-commerce marketplace with daily sales worth $1.29 billion on average. To facilitate the sellers, it delivers around 1.6 million orders every day. However, shipping delays are common for companies worldwide, and Amazon is no exception.
Although Amazon handles the logistic operations efficiently, sellers may experience delayed shipments at some point. Supply shortages, severe weather conditions, carrier company issues, and several other factors can add up to the estimated delivery times.
This guide will help you understand why does Amazon take so long to ship than usual and what you can do to resolve your delayed shipments.
- Why Does Amazon Take So Long To Ship?
- Why Amazon Sellers Need On-Time Shipment?
- What Are the Consequences of Late Amazon Shipping?
- How Can Sellers Avoid Amazon Shipping Delays?
- What Sellers Can Do If Their Shipment Delays?
- FAQs about Amazon Orders and Delivery
- Wrapping Up - Delays are the Part of the Game
Why Does Amazon Take So Long To Ship?
Amazon is one of the largest e-commerce platforms, processing hundreds of thousands of orders every single day. Despite its continuous efforts to ensure timely deliveries, shipment delays can still occur occasionally due to several factors. Therefore, it is important to understand why does Amazon take so long to ship some orders.
Here are some of the possible reasons that can lead to delayed Amazon deliveries for sellers:
1. Increased Demand
Being a popular online marketplace, Amazon experiences an increase in demand for products during certain times of the year. For instance, a spike in orders is observed during the holiday season, religious festivals, or massive sale events. In such cases, the shipping infrastructure of companies gets down due to the excessively overwhelming order requests, causing delays in delivery.
2. Stock Shortages
Amazon guarantees quick delivery by operating a wide network of warehouses efficiently across the globe. The product listings are frequently updated, displaying the current status and indicating the unavailable items. However, if the product runs out of stock in a specific region after your order has been placed, your shipment will get delayed until it is restocked.
3. Weather Changes
If you live in a region with heavy rain or snowfall, you must have experienced issues while driving. Similarly, certain extreme weather conditions can disrupt the traffic channel, resulting in delayed shipments. In such conditions, Amazon either reroutes your parcels or holds them until the condition gets better.
4. Small PO Box or Rural Address
For small PO boxes or rural addresses, Amazon may need some extra time to deliver the orders. This is because these addresses require additional arrangements to deliver the packages. So, that's another reason why does Amazon take so long to ship.
5. Third-Party Carrier Company Problems
Amazon has partnered with many third-party carriers, like USPS, UPS, and FedEx, to use their courier services for delivering customer orders. These companies collect the parcels from Amazon warehouses and ship them to the customer’s location. However, any issues with these carrier services, such as late pickups, missed collection, or capacity overload, can delay the shipments.
All the above reasons can often be the likely cause behind why does it take Amazon so long to ship certain orders. In the next sections, we will discuss how to avoid Amazon selling delays from the seller's end.
Why Amazon Sellers Need On-Time Shipment?
Other than knowing the reasons behind why does Amazon take so long to ship, it is also vital to know why on-time delivery is important for sellers.
Timely shipments are crucial for the sellers to satisfy customers, avoid fines, prevent account suspension, and maintain a positive repute on Amazon. Ignoring this aspect as an Amazon seller can cost you heavily in the long run.
Here are the reasons why Amazon sellers should be concerned with on-time shipments on Amazon:
1. Amazon FBA Standards
The fulfillment by Amazon program is popular amongst sellers, where Amazon takes the responsibility of packing and delivering your products to the customers. However, on-time shipments are even more important under this program. You need to strictly adhere to the policies stated by FBA and deliver the products to the fulfillment center by the specified deadline.
2. Account Suspension
Amazon has set certain standards for sellers to maintain the quality of services. If you fail to satisfy these performance standards, Amazon may temporarily suspend or permanently block their account. In fact, Amazon uses the Late Shipment Rate as one of the main metrics used to gauge the seller’s performance on the platform. Therefore, it is essential to have a low rate against this metric to avoid suspension.
3. Customer Satisfaction
If you deliver late orders to customers consistently, it can impact you account health. When customers don't receive their orders on time, they quickly turn to the platform to leave negative reviews and low ratings.
This shows how important it is for the sellers to work on their shipments if they want to thrive on the platform. Overlooking the on-time deliveries can badly affect you and your account.
What Are the Consequences of Late Amazon Shipping?
Late Amazon shipments can have a drastic impact on sellers. Some of the consequences of late deliveries include:
1. Customer Churn
With the changing dynamics, customers today demand fast shipments. Owing to that, the significance of timely deliveries has increased in digital retail stores. On the other hand, delay in deliveries is one of the key reasons for dissatisfaction among customers. Their frustration grows with time, making customers start blaming Why is amazon taking so long to ship.
For customer facilitation, Amazon displays an estimated delivery time for each product, which puts sellers under pressure to maintain timely deliveries and meet expectations. If customers notice frequent shipment delays from a seller, they become vigilant and avoid buying from that seller.
2. Wasted Marketing Investment
Amazon ads are a driving force to attract potential customers towards your products. With careful planning and investment, you can incredibly boost your sales and revenue.
However, what is the use of marketing when you are not able to deliver products on time? So, all the marketing investment can go wasted if customers have to deal with shipping delays.
3. Damaged Repute
While your stocks are in transit, you may set up the order backlog. In that case, you may unintentionally sell more items than you have in the inventory, which leads to non-fulfillment of orders.
Amazon wants sellers to prioritize fast deliveries to maintain their performance for success. If you deliver products beyond the estimated shipment time, your Late Shipment Rate increases. Amazon monitors this metric for every seller to assess their performance. If its threshold exceeds 4%, you don’t remain an active seller on Amazon, and your account may get deactivated.
4. Bad Reviews
Customers are unhesitant to put bad reviews on products that fail to meet their expectations. Since delayed shipment can impact their mode significantly, it can increase the chance of bad reviews and feedback from customers.
The chances of bad reviews get reduced if the product quality is top-notch. In that case, customer sentiments may be controlled after using the product and acknowledging its quality.
5. Decreased Revenue
If there's a delay in the delivery pipeline, you may experience issues while maintaining the product supply according to the customer demand.
Once you run out of stock, your product listings will not appear in search results anymore, limiting your visibility and chances to land new customers. With no sales, your total revenue would drop critically, further reducing your budget for advertising.
How Can Sellers Avoid Amazon Shipping Delays?
After understanding why does Amazon take so long to ship and anticipated consequences of delayed shipments, it is important to talk about the possible solutions. You should proactively take the following measures to avoid shipping delays:
1. Choose a Reliable Shipping Service
One of the most important factors for ensuring fast shipments is to use a reliable and renowned shipping service. Choose the company that offers fast shipment, accurate tracking details, and delivery time estimation. Amazon’s FBA is a good option to get your parcel packed and shipped by Amazon.
2. Keep Track of Inventory
Monitoring the inventory regularly helps you avoid backlogs and tackle shortages of stock timely. Use Amazon's features to predict the demand for a product and maintain the supply in stock. It will prevent you from running out of stock and meet the demands of customers on the go.
3. Interact and Engage with Customers
Keep in touch with your customers throughout the fulfillment process. Provide them updates on their order status and complete tracking information to build a strong connection and minimize the risk of negative remarks due to late shipments. You can even gain customer insights to understand them better with Shulex VOC.
4. Assess Performance Regularly
Track your performance metrics regularly to detect and address any serious issues. Check on your Late Shipment Rate to keep a record of your delivery times and make improvements to your fulfillment process. Plus, try to optimize product listings using AI-powered tools, like Shulex VOC, to boost your performance.
If you implement these strategies, you can mitigate the impacts of delayed shipments and improve your Seller rating on Amazon.
What Sellers Can Do If Their Shipment Delays?
If you are an Amazon seller and your shipment gets delayed, you can try a couple of options to resolve the issue. Here are the actions that you can take to address the delayed shipment issue:
1. Track Your Order
You must frequently monitor your orders to guarantee timely delivery and catch any issues early in the process. In this way, you can resolve any issues identified while tracking the delivery status.
2. Contact the Amazon Support Team
You can easily contact the Amazon support team to ask about the delivery status, make changes, request changes in the shipping, or add extra details. Provide your order number and tracking details for immediate response.
3. Apply for Amazon Shipping Compensation
Amazon offers compensation to sellers to pay for shipping delays. You can contact the support team to get more details about the compensation options and the procedure.
FAQs about Amazon Orders and Delivery
Q1. How can you track your Amazon order?
To track your Amazon order, follow the given steps:
- Navigate to your Orders.
- Open the order you want to track.
- Select the Track Package option against your chosen order.
- Finally, click on See all updates to check delivery details.
Q2. What is meant by Amazon "Package Delayed in Transit"?
Amazon "Package Delayed in Transit" means that your product has been dispatched to your address. It indicates that your parcel is not coming as quickly as scheduled and may not reach the destination on the estimated timeline. The delay in transit can be caused by a late train or plane or just that the delivery boy hadn't picked it up on time.
Q3. How long does Amazon Prime delivery take?
Amazon Prime delivery is received in one business day after dispatch under the one-day delivery plan. Based on your delivery location and the time you placed the order, your item will be sent the same day and reach your destination the next day if it is available in stock.
Wrapping Up - Delays are the Part of the Game
Amazon typically provides an ultra-fast and super-reliable channel for order deliveries. However, like all other platforms, shipment delays are unavoidable on Amazon for genuine reasons.
Customers waiting for deliveries and the sellers working on business growth are equally pissed off by the delays. Despite the issues, sellers need to plan things smartly to handle the shipment details proficiently.
This guide on why does Amazon take so long to ship reflects the reasons, impacts, and remedies to Amazon shipping delays. So, keep this guide as your reference and work on delivering orders at super-sonic speed to customers.
Also Read: Does USPS deliver on Saturday and Sunday
