Amazon account health: the targets and a weekly check

Order Defect Rate (ODR) is the share of orders with a defect over a 60-day period, where a defect is negative feedback, an A-to-z Guarantee claim that was not declined, or a credit card chargeback. Amazon says sellers may sell only if ODR is below 1%. Late shipment rate is the share of orders confirmed after the expected ship date, over a 10-day and a 30-day period, and Amazon’s guide says above 4% may lead to suspension. Pre-fulfilment cancellation rate is the share of orders the seller cancelled in a seven-day period, with customer-initiated cancellations excluded, and above 2.5% may lead to suspension.

An Amazon.in seller blog page lists the same three limits (1%, 4% and 2.5%) but gives no measurement periods, and it is dated 2020. Amazon.in forum posts call the shipping metric late dispatch rate. The windows above come from the global guide, so confirm them on your own dashboard. The guide also says shipping metrics show only seller-fulfilled orders, which matters if most of your volume goes through FBA.

Illustrative example, with made-up numbers: a seller ships 200 orders in 60 days and three have a defect. That is 1.5% ODR, above the 1% limit, from three orders. Another seller with 40 orders in a week cancels two for stock-outs. That is 5% against a 2.5% target. Percentages on low volume swing hard, so a handful of problem orders matters more for a young account than for a large one.

Valid Tracking Rate, the share of shipments with a valid tracking number over 30 days, is the fourth shipping metric. The Seller University guide does not state a target. Amazon-labelled posts on both the US and Indian seller forums say above 95%, but read the target shown on your own dashboard before treating that as a rule.

Amazon’s AHR policy describes a score from 0 to 1,000. New sellers start at 200, and the score reflects policy adherence and selling activity over the last 180 days. Green (200 to 1,000) is Healthy, yellow (100 to 199) is At Risk, and red (99 or lower) means eligible for deactivation or already deactivated. Violations cost points by severity, and you earn points back as you fulfil orders: Amazon’s FAQ gives 4 points for every 200 successful orders in the last 180 days.

Two rules deserve attention. A critical violation sets the score to zero and starts a 3-day window to fix it before deactivation. And repeat violations count: in most cases Amazon sets the maximum at five for infringement-related policies and two for restricted products within 180 days, regardless of score. Amazon.in’s own page names the ratings Good, Fair, At Risk and Critical and gives no numeric bands, so match the labels on your dashboard to the wording above rather than assuming they are identical.

Amazon states that a Healthy AHR only protects against deactivation for the policies inside the score. It may still deactivate immediately for suspected fraudulent, deceptive or illegal activity, or for violations outside AHR. The guide adds that good account health does not guarantee an account will not be suspended, so Performance Notifications need reading too. Sellers with several stores should check each one, since notifications can differ.

The Amazon.in blog on account blocks names other triggers: unverified account information, counterfeit or infringing products, safety or product-information complaints, misusing product pages or variations, prohibited products and abuse of reviews. It is a 2020 page with some unclear wording, so use it as a topic list, not a legal reference.

Pick one day a week and run this list. Open Account Health and note ODR, late shipment and cancellation against 1%, 4% and 2.5%. Open Performance Notifications for every store. Open Product Policy Compliance and look for new removals. Confirm the Emergency notifications phone number under Notification preferences is current, because Amazon says its Account Health team may call you in urgent cases, and that for a notification titled “Urgent: Amazon seller account under review” it will contact you within 24 hours.

When something is flagged, use the Appeal button to submit a Plan of Action. Amazon says it usually has three parts: the root cause, the actions taken and a fix that stops it recurring. If you believe the violation is an error, dispute it, since violations are removed on a successful dispute or when a rights owner retracts a complaint. Before you appeal, pull the actual orders behind the number and fix the cause.