An Introduction to Buy Shipping

Amazon’s Buy Shipping service allows sellers to purchase shipping labels individually or in bulk at discounted rates from UPS and FedEx and at USPS Commercial Plus rates from the USPS directly through Seller Central or the Merchant Fulfillment API. Sellers can also use the service to ship and confirm orders as well as track shipments. In this post, we’ll provide an overview of Buy Shipping.

Buy Shipping and Seller Feedback

As of May 8, 2018, Amazon allows merchants to request to have the impact of seller feedback related to delayed orders or orders that are not received removed from their feedback rating for Buy Shipping orders that were shipped on time. In these cases, the feedback will appear with a line striking through it with the following statement from Amazon: “The fulfillment issues associated with this order were not due to the seller.”

Seller feedback is an important performance metric. Negative feedback can cause a seller’s rating to drop, may cause merchants to become ineligible for Amazon programs such as Seller Fulfilled Prime, and can negatively impact sales conversions. If you receive negative feedback for fulfillment issues related to an order that was sent on time through Buy Shipping, request to have it stricken from your seller feedback rating.

Benefits of Buy Shipping

Merchants who use Buy Shipping can purchase labels in bulk for up to one hundred orders at a time. They can also track order delivery status on the Orders detail page in Seller Central; Amazon will instantly upload tracking for all orders. The service can also protect sellers from A-to-z Guarantee claims; if an order is shipped with Buy Shipping and a buyer files an A-to-z claim stating that the order was not received, Amazon funds the claim. In this case, the seller will not receive a notification on the Manage returns page and their Order Defect Rate will not be impacted by the claim.

Seller Fulfilled Prime and Buy Shipping

Amazon merchants must purchase shipping for all Prime items via Buy Shipping. Using the system for all orders can help sellers transition to Seller Fulfilled Prime more quickly. Seller Fulfilled Prime allows merchants to fulfill products labeled as hazardous materials (hazmat) in a Prime-eligible fashion. It also provides the benefit of making a merchant fulfilled order eligible for Prime; since many buyers filter by Prime eligibility this can positively impact sales.