If you fulfill orders yourself, there's a deadline you need on your radar: starting June 29, 2026, Amazon requires that every seller-fulfilled SKU with a configured handling time must be accurate. And "accurate" has a specific definition that's worth understanding before the clock runs out.
Amazon says more than 87% of US seller-fulfilled orders ship within one day. The problem is that many sellers have configured longer handling times than they actually need, which pushes out promised delivery dates and costs them sales. According to Amazon's data, every one-day improvement in promised delivery time drives an average 5% increase in sales. That's the business case for this requirement, and it's a real one.
What "Accurate" Actually Means
Your handling time is considered accurate when your actual shipping speed consistently matches what you've configured at the SKU level. If you're shipping SKUs a full day faster than your stated handling time, that's a flag. The threshold is one day, not two, which is a meaningful tightening from earlier standards.
There are two paths to compliance. The first, and the one Amazon recommends, is to enable Automated Handling Time (AHT). AHT sets handling time dynamically based on your recent shipping history and comes with Late Shipment Rate (LSR) protection, which means you get some cover if you occasionally miss a ship date. You can turn it on now in your Shipping settings.
The second path is to manage handling time manually at the SKU level. If you go this route, Amazon will monitor each SKU over a rolling 30-day window. If a SKU is consistently shipping at least one day faster than stated, you'll get flagged and have 30 days to correct it. If you don't, Amazon takes over and sets handling time for those SKUs on your behalf, with LSR protection for 180 days.
The Enforcement Sequence
The manual path sounds simple, but it gets complicated at scale. If you have hundreds of SKUs across multiple warehouses with different prep times, accurate manual overrides for every single one become a continuous management task. AHT is the more durable solution for most sellers.
There are some exclusions worth noting. Custom and handmade products are exempt, as are Heavy and Bulky less-than-truckload shipments. Everything else falls under the new requirement.
For sellers running a mix of FBA and FBM inventory, this interacts with other upcoming changes. The SFP speed threshold increases on July 6 are a separate but related concern. If you're managing seller-fulfilled orders across multiple programs, you have about four weeks before both changes are in effect at the same time. That's not a lot of runway to sort out your configuration.
What to Do Before June 29
Start by checking whether AHT is already enabled on your account. If AHT is on, you're likely in good shape and may not need to do anything. If it isn't, the most straightforward move is to turn it on now from your Shipping settings and let it calibrate from your recent history.
If you prefer to manage handling time manually, pull your active seller-fulfilled SKUs and audit the last 90 days of actual ship times by SKU. Look at the 95th percentile, not the average. Amazon's automation will use your recent best performance as the baseline, which may be faster than your real capacity during peak periods or supplier delays. If you use your average as the baseline, you could be exposed when things get busy.
It's also worth reviewing how this interacts with your account health metrics. Our Amazon services team helps brands audit their seller-fulfilled setup and navigate exactly these kinds of policy changes. If you want to talk through your configuration before June 29, schedule a call with us and we'll take a look at what needs to change.