Amazon just relaxed its delivery requirements! Effective in February

The company cited ongoing coronavirus restrictions at major shipping companies such as UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service.

As major shipping companies continue to face coronavirus restrictions, Amazon is taking pressure off third-party sellers to pack and ship their own orders.

Last August, the company announced that starting in February 2021, members of Amazon’s Seller Fulfilled Prime program would be required to deliver items on Saturdays and meet one-day and two-day delivery goals.

In a note sent to sellers on Tuesday and reviewed by CNBC, Amazon said it was temporarily relaxing delivery speed targets for SFP members in response to “logistics industry constraints” caused by the pandemic.

That means Amazon will give SFP members a pass if it can’t guarantee one- and two-day delivery speeds for some shoppers.

The note says:

An Amazon spokesperson confirmed that the changes were announced to sellers on Tuesday .

Launched in 2016, the SFP program enables third-party merchants to make inventory eligible for two-day shipping and display the vaunted Prime badge on their listings without having to pay for Amazon’s fulfillment service, Fulfillment By Amazon.

With SFP, merchants store their own products and pack orders, while delivery is managed by carriers like USPS, FedEx, or UPS.

Major carriers’ systems have come under unprecedented strain throughout the coronavirus pandemic and the holiday shopping season due to increased e-commerce activity.

On top of that, UPS and FedEx are likely to face tighter capacity constraints in the coming months as they prioritize shipping millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines.

Amazon measures SFP members’ ability to meet one- and two-day delivery goals based on how often these delivery options are displayed to customers when they view a seller’s product listing.

SFP members only need to guarantee a delivery time of less than two days for 55% of users viewing their product listings.

Starting in June, SFP members will be required to display delivery speeds of two days or less to 70% of users who view their product listings.

Starting February 1, sellers will still be required to support Saturday or Sunday delivery and pickup and provide nationwide delivery services.

Amazon said at the time that it announced the change last summer to give sellers ample time to prepare and communicate with carriers.

The move drew criticism from some third-party sellers, who said it could burden their businesses if they had to work on weekends.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, sellers who fulfilled orders on their own were struggling to meet Amazon’s two-day delivery goal.

Amazon said last August that less than 16% of SFP orders in the U.S. were delivered within two days, largely because sellers don’t work on weekends.