Seller Fulfilled Prime Fulfillment Glossary

A-to-z Guarantee claim: A claim a customer files with Amazon when an order from a third-party seller is late, missing or not as described. Claims affect account health.
Buy Shipping: Amazon's tool for purchasing carrier labels within Seller Central or connected software. It uploads tracking automatically, and eligible labels receive Amazon's late-delivery protection.
Dimensional weight: A carrier billing method based on package volume rather than actual weight. Large, light packages are billed at the higher of the two.
First carrier scan: The first tracking event recorded when a carrier takes possession of a package. A label without a timely first scan signals a shipment that has not moved.
Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA): Amazon's service in which sellers send inventory to Amazon's fulfillment centers and Amazon picks, packs, ships and handles customer service.
Handling time: The time between an order being placed and the package being handed to the carrier. SFP generally expects same-day handling before cutoff.
Inventory sync: Automatic updating of available quantity across sales channels from one inventory pool, so each channel shows only what can actually ship.
Late-delivery protection: Amazon's protection for eligible Buy Shipping labels, under which carrier-caused late deliveries do not count against the seller's on-time metric when the seller shipped on time.
Merchant Fulfilled Network (MFN): Orders a seller fulfills directly rather than through FBA. SFP is the Prime-badged form of merchant fulfillment.
Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF): Amazon's service for fulfilling orders from non-Amazon channels using FBA inventory.
Multi-node fulfillment: Splitting inventory across more than one warehouse so orders ship from the location closest to the customer, reducing transit time and cost.
On-time delivery rate: The share of Prime orders delivered by the promised delivery date, measured over a rolling window. It is the central SFP performance metric.
Operating days: The days a seller's template says it processes and ships orders. Weekend operating days extend the Prime promise into Saturday and Sunday.
Order cutoff time: The latest time an order can be received and still ship the same day. It must match real warehouse capacity and carrier pickup times.
Order defect rate (ODR): An Amazon account health measure combining negative feedback, A-to-z Guarantee claims and chargebacks as a share of orders.
Prepaid return label: A return shipping label provided to the customer at no charge. Amazon generally requires prepaid labels for many seller-fulfilled returns.
Prime badge: The Prime label shown on eligible Amazon offers, signaling fast delivery to Prime members. On SFP offers it depends on the seller keeping up with program requirements.
Promised delivery date: The delivery date Amazon shows the customer at checkout, calculated from the seller's template. On-time delivery is measured against it.
Regional Prime: Showing the Prime badge only in regions a seller can reach within the Prime delivery promise, rather than nationwide.
Safety stock: Inventory held back from available quantity to absorb miscounts and demand spikes, reducing the risk of overselling and cancellations.
Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP): An Amazon program that lets sellers display the Prime badge on offers they fulfill from their own or a third-party warehouse, provided they meet Amazon's Prime delivery and performance standards.
Seller-canceled order rate: The share of orders the seller cancels after they are placed, most often because of inventory errors. SFP requires it to stay very low.
SFP trial period: The probationary stage before full SFP enrollment, during which a seller ships a required number of Prime orders while meeting performance standards.
Ship-from node: A warehouse location that ships orders. Multi-node SFP uses several nodes to reach more customers by ground within the Prime promise.
Shipping template: The Seller Central settings that define ship-from location, handling time, operating days, regions and delivery speeds for a group of SKUs.
Valid tracking rate: The share of shipments with a tracking number Amazon can validate with the carrier. SFP requires a very high valid tracking rate.

Seller Fulfilled Prime fulfillment glossary