I just got off the phone with Seller Support who informed me that effective October 1 Amazon extended delivery windows being shown to buyers for non-Prime merchant fulfilled orders. We noticed a massive drop in sales (even worse than they have already been). I was reviewing listings to try and get to the bottom of this latest issue and noticed 2 week delivery dates being shown to customers. The 2 weeks is if I were shipping to my own state.

We have AHT set at 2 days and delivery to our own state set to 2-3 day delivery. We had SSA in place, even after I disable SSA to play around with shipping times and templates Amazon then started displaying a 1 week minimum up to 2 weeks for delivery, again to our own state.

This is clearly deterring buyers from making FBM purchases thus negatively impacting business. I was told by the Seller Support agent that I could explain to potential buyers on the listing that we actually deliver faster than Amazon is advertising (this is against Amazon policy). I was also told that I could reach out to buyers who have completed purchases to explain to them that they will be receiving their packages much faster than the estimated delivery window Amazon provided them.

It is clear to me that Amazon wants to do away with 3rd party merchants who do not use their FBA services or force us into using FBA especially considering the high costs associated with improperly handled inventory counts, long receiving times, having to battle with Amazon every step of the way to correct an Amazon caused mistake, the list goes on.