5 ways to improve your Valid Tracking Rate (VTR) on Amazon

Amazon customers depend on tracking numbers to find out where their orders are and when they can expect to receive them. Valid Tracking Rate (VTR) is a performance metric that reflects those expectations. As an Amazon seller, you already know that a high seller rating is vital to your success in ecommerce. A high seller rating represents that you’re capable of getting orders right, keeping inventory in stock, meeting shipping deadlines, maintaining positive feedback from buyers — and more. 

Knowing your seller rating can help you identify where you struggle to meet ever-evolving customer expectations and where you excel. And this will allow you to create and maintain a positive customer experience.

What is Valid tracking rate

Valid tracking rate (VTR) measures how often you use valid tracking information for your packages. VTR measures the percentage of merchant fulfilled package that have a valid tracking number. Amazon customers depend on tracking numbers to find out where their orders are and when they can expect to receive them. VTR is a performance metric that reflects those expectations. Amazon has started tracking your business’s Valid Tracking Rate (VTR) from 19 April 2021. The VTR will then be measured over 30 days, although you should already see your VTR in your Amazon account.

How VTR is calculated

To calculate VTR, we take the number of packages you ship with a valid tracking number and divide it by the total number of packages you have shipped and confirmed over a 30-day period. VTR is expressed as a percentage. We use the promised delivery date to determine which orders are included in the performance metric.

Given below is the VTR calculation logic based on ship origin country:

• For packages shipped from US, we consider a valid tracking id if Amazon records at least one carrier scan.
• For packages shipped from China, we will consider a valid tracking based on following criteria:
  • Packages with a value below 5 USD (including shipping fee) must use an integrated carrier and trackable ship method that provides at least one carrier scan*.
  • Packages with a value equal to or above 5 USD (including shipping fee) must use an integrated carrier and fully trackable ship method that can provide at least two carrier scans (including a delivery scan or delivery attempt).

*A carrier scan is a scan the carrier performs to show the package is in transit.

VTR policy requirements

Sellers must maintain a VTR greater than or equal to 95% at a product category level. VTR below 95% in a product category may result in:

• Restrictions on your ability to sell seller-fulfilled items within that category or categories, without affecting your seller-fulfilled offers in product categories that meet the VTR requirements, nor will these restrictions affect your FBA offers.
• Negative impacts to your eligibility to participate in premium shipping and guaranteed delivery.

If any of your listings are suspended, you can submit a plan of action and apply for reinstatement to op-pso-vtr-appeals@amazon.com. If your plan of action is approved, your seller-fulfilled listings in the affected product category will be restored.

How to maintain a healthy VTR

• Purchase shipping labels through Amazon’s Buy Shipping services.
• Choose carriers from the drop-down menu that are integrated with Amazon, listed below. These carriers provide real-time tracking status to Amazon.
• Verify that the carrier name, shipping service, and tracking ID are entered correctly and belong to the same carrier.
• Confirm, and update if necessary, the tracking information before the carrier delivers the package. If the tracking information is confirmed or updated after the package is delivered, that means the customer was not able to track the order. This is not useful to the customer and it will impact your VTR metric.
• Tracking IDs need to have at least one carrier scan to be valid.

Below are five ways to improve your Valid Tracking Rate.

Confirm and update tracking information within 24 hours of handing a package to the carrier.

If the tracking information is confirmed, updated, or added after the package is delivered and the customer wasn’t able to track the order, it is marked as a defect.

Verify that the carrier name, shipping service, and tracking ID is entered correctly and belong to the same carrier.

Currently, Amazon does not support Chinese carrier names, therefore using Chinese characters to manually enter tracking information is not valid.

Purchase shipping labels through Amazon’s Buy Shipping services.

Using this service, you can instantly upload and confirm tracking information for all your orders. You will also be able to track order’s delivery status on the ‘Order details’ page in Seller Central. This service can also help protect sellers from A-to-z Guarantee claims.

Choose Amazon integrated carriers from the drop-down on the ‘Order details’ page.

These integrated carriers provide real-time tracking status to Amazon.

Tracking IDs need to have at least one carrier scan to be valid.

Only orders that are mentioned in the Defect report will affect the Valid Tracking Rate metric. If any of your listings are suspended due to Valid Tracking Rate, you can submit a plan of action to op-pso-vtr-appeals@amazon.com and apply for reinstatement. If your plan of action is approved, your seller-fulfilled listings in the affected product category will be restored.

To maintain a 95% VTR and create a positive customer experience, sellers need to meet consumer demands of transparent and accurate shipping and delivery. Order fulfillment tracks incoming orders and manages the processes required to fulfill each of them. It also handles the operations of returns and refunds after a purchase has been made. Sellers can reduce manual fulfillment and speed up these processes using relevant software.

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