Since 30 September 2026, Amazon expects US sellers to deliver at least 90% of their seller-fulfilled Amazon Business orders during the buyer’s operating hours, measured over a rolling 14 days. Fall short and Amazon notifies you first. If the rate hasn’t recovered by 30 October, your seller-fulfilled offers can be switched off for Amazon Business customers. FBA orders are not affected, so this hits you only if you ship any of your own orders to business buyers.

What changed

Every fact below is from Amazon’s own announcement on the Seller Central forums, posted by the News_Amazon account. Distribution Strategy Group, Ordoro and EcomCrew all report the same threshold, window and dates.

  • The threshold is 90%. Business Hour Delivery Rate is the share of your seller-fulfilled shipments to Amazon Business customers that arrive while the business is open. Source: Amazon.
  • It is measured over a rolling 14-day period. Source: Amazon.
  • The requirement started on 30 September 2026. If you are below 90% now, Amazon says it will notify you and send recommendations. Source: Amazon.
  • The consequence lands on 30 October 2026. If your rate hasn’t improved by then, your seller-fulfilled offers may be deactivated for Amazon Business customers. They are not deactivated for consumers. Source: Amazon.
  • FBA and Amazon retail offers are exempt. Amazon’s wording is that “Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and retail offer eligibility will not be impacted.” Source: Amazon.
  • Amazon names three tools it says are guaranteed to meet the requirement: Automated Handling Time, Shipping Settings Automation and Amazon Buy Shipping. Source: Amazon.

The metric itself isn’t new. It was already in Account Health. What’s new is a pass mark and a penalty.

What it means for a private-label seller

If everything you sell ships through FBA, nothing changes. You can stop reading here.

If you run FBM on anything, check whether business buyers are ordering it. Private-label brands usually end up on FBM for three reasons: oversized or bulky items that are expensive in FBA, an FBM backup offer for when FBA stock runs out, and B2B or bulk orders. All three can carry Amazon Business orders without you ever targeting business buyers. Office, cleaning and storage products are the likeliest.

The failure isn’t late delivery. It’s delivery at the wrong time. A parcel that arrives on time on a Saturday, or at 7pm, at an office that closes at 5pm can count against you. Many parcel services deliver into the evening and on Saturdays. That’s why a seller with a clean on-time delivery rate can still miss this one.

The timing is bad. Prime Big Deal Days runs 6–7 October, and carrier networks are under peak load all month. Because the window is a rolling 14 days, the orders that count on 30 October are roughly the ones delivered in the second half of October. A slow first week still matters, because it tells you whether your setup can hold 90%. But the second half is what gets judged.

The trade-off in Amazon’s fix. The three tools it recommends hand control to Amazon. Buy Shipping means Amazon’s carrier and rate choices rather than your own negotiated contract, and automated handling time can lengthen the delivery promise your offer shows. For most FBM private-label sellers, keeping your business-buyer orders is worth that cost. If your own carrier rates are well below Buy Shipping, price it before you switch.

What this doesn’t tell you. Amazon’s announcement doesn’t explain how it decides a given business’s operating hours. It also doesn’t say what share of your FBM orders are from business buyers. Your order reports show that, and it’s the first number to pull.

What to do about it

  1. Open Account Health and find Business Hour Delivery Rate. If it’s above 90%, note the number and check again mid-October. That’s the whole task.
  2. If it’s below 90%, see which orders are failing. Weekend and evening deliveries are the usual cause. Move business orders to a business-day service, or ship them earlier in the week.
  3. Consider Buy Shipping for business orders only, if your own carrier setup can’t control the delivery day. Amazon says it’s one of the three guaranteed routes.
  4. If a SKU has very few business orders, sending it to FBA before peak is a cleaner fix than re-engineering FBM shipping. FBA is exempt.
  5. Put 30 October in the calendar. That’s when deactivation can start, not when the measurement starts.

Sources