Though Charge When Ship is new for some sellers, it's been used by other sellers for quite a while. We are bringing this functionality to you because of Amazon’s commitment to providing the best customer experience possible.

See the bottom of this announcement for answers to the top 10 questions sellers ask about Charge When Ship. They cover getting paid, failed buyer payments, tracking information, timing, cancellations, and other important subjects.

How Charge When Ship works

1. When you ship an order, you confirm the shipment and provide shipping information. You can confirm shipments in Manage Orders, or with text-file feeds, AIM APIs, or a third-party application. (Consult your application provider about confirming shipments with their application.)


2. As long as you confirm that the order was properly shipped, you will be paid in accordance with the Marketplace Participation Agreement. We charge the buyer after you confirm shipment (rather than when the buyer places the order), and then we credit your Marketplace Payments account. Of course, just as now, there may be circumstances where payment may later need to be refunded, for example when the buyer does not receive the order, or it is not as described.


3. We display the shipping information in the buyer's Amazon account, and we also send the buyer an e-mail notification with all of the shipping information.

Benefits of Charge When Ship

• Buyers contact sellers less often if they know when and how an order was shipped. They especially appreciate tracking information. We provide the shipping details to the buyer once you ship the order and confirm the shipment through Manage Orders or a feed.


• Informed buyers are happier buyers; happier buyers leave better feedback ratings.


• If you are unable to ship an order, you can cancel it instead of confirming shipment; we won't charge the customer and you won't have to issue a refund.


• You can easily tell which orders you have not yet confirmed as shipped, and we'll also send you an e-mail reminder if an order remains unshipped past the promised ship date.

As a reminder, seller pre-order listings in our Books, Music, Video, and DVD categories are not permitted. Please ensure you are excluding these items from your listings.

We strongly encourage you to sign up for Charge When Ship soon to avoid interruption during the textbook sales season. Learn more and sign up.

FAQ: Top 10 (See the entire FAQ list.)

What happens if a customer's payment is declined, either before or after the seller confirms an order?

As long as you confirm that the order was properly shipped, you will be paid in accordance with the Marketplace Participation Agreement. We charge the buyer after you confirm shipment (rather than when the buyer places the order), and then we credit your Marketplace Payments account.

Of course, just as now, there may be circumstances where payment may later need to be refunded, for example when the buyer does not receive the order, or it is not as described.

How will we know if we have successfully migrated to Charge When Ship?

You will be able to tell that your account has been transitioned to Charge When Ship in several ways:

1. We'll send you an automated e-mail confirming it.


2. On the Manage Orders page you will see a Cancel button for new orders (in addition to the "Print packing slip" button).


3. At the top of the Manage Orders and Manage Payments pages there will initially be a large yellow box indicating the account now has Charge When Ship functionality. (However, note that since these boxes can be closed by clicking "Don't show this again," if one of your account users closes the box it will no longer appear for any of your account users.)

Should I confirm shipment of orders I received before I signed up for Charge When Ship?

Orders placed before you had Charge When Ship functionality will not have a Cancel button in Manage Orders, and they will not appear on the Unshipped Orders Report. Buyers have already been charged for those orders once they appear as "Payment complete" in your account. You will never have to confirm shipment for those orders. Check Manage Orders or the Unshipped Orders Report to see which orders require shipment confirmations.

For orders you received prior to enrolling in Charge When Ship, you should continue to send your own notifications if you have already been sending e-mail notifications to buyers when you ship orders.

For new orders you receive after your account is enabled for Charge When Ship, you must not send buyers shipment notifications. Instead, confirm these orders using the button in Manage Orders or using a feed. Amazon will notify buyers of shipments confirmed through Charge When Ship, because it is a better buyer experience to receive a single shipping notification.

Note that if you do happen to confirm shipment of an order you received before you had Charge When Ship functionality, we will display the shipping details in the buyer's Amazon account, but we won't send an e-mail notification to the buyer. Therefore, please continue to send those notifications for orders you received before you had Charge When Ship functionality.

Is tracking information required?

Tracking information is not required for feeds or Manage Orders, but, based on buyer feedback, we highly encourage providing tracking information. Buyers prefer to track their orders, but we realize that not all shipping methods support tracking.

What happens if we don't ship within 2 days?

If you don't confirm shipment of an order within 2 business days, we automatically send late shipment e-mail notifications to you and to the customer. If the order is still not confirmed as shipped after 25 days, we send you another notification, reminding you to confirm the shipment.

After 30 days, we cancel the order and send you and the customer notification of the cancellation. If you know you cannot fulfill an order on time, be sure to cancel it immediately so we can notify the customer. It is important to show this consideration to customers so they can decide whether to purchase the product elsewhere.

If the order is placed on Friday, or weekends, how does the "2 days to ship" rule work?

Promised ship dates are based on weekdays—Monday through Friday (except holidays). An order placed on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday will have a promised ship-date range of Monday – Tuesday, and should be shipped no later than Tuesday, the 2nd business day after the order was placed.

Are sellers going to be charged a fee for refunding rather than cancelling?

Refund processing will remain the same as before: for a partial refund, we retain a portion of the fees we collected from you for the order; for a full refund, all fees are credited back to your seller account.

What happens if we ship the order at 1 pm and the customer requests to cancel the order at 1:15 pm? The customer gets the product and a refund?

Buyers are not able to cancel orders after we've made the orders available to you. With Charge When Ship, however, you can cancel orders on behalf of buyers instead of confirming shipment. If you agree to refund an order after you have shipped it, you can ask the buyer to return the product.

How will this affect seller performance metrics?

The existing seller performance metrics will still apply with Charge When Ship, and we'll also monitor late shipment and cancellation metrics.

Can buyers leave feedback on cancelled (will not ship) orders?

Buyers can leave feedback on all canceled orders, whether or not the seller's account has Charge When Ship functionality.

See the entire FAQ list.