Amazon has issued an announcement! There is a risk of disruption to UK logistics in the coming weeks

On August 23, Amazon UK announced that it would extend its delivery commitment to customers for all self-delivered goods (including Prime) in the coming weeks. The reason is that it is expected that the Royal Mail strike and delivery service disruptions across the UK may cause significant disruption to sellers, so this countermeasure is taken to mitigate the negative impact on sellers.

The UK postal strike involves 115,000 postal workers, which is not only the largest strike in the summer, but also the largest strike in terms of scale. The strike will last for four days, specifically: August 26 (Friday), August 31 (Wednesday), September 8 (Thursday), September 9 (Friday).

The union warned that deliveries and collections will be shut down in most parts of the UK during the strike. It is difficult to ensure that goods are delivered on time during the strike. It is reported that some special deliveries, tracking packages, new coronavirus test kits and medical prescriptions will be given priority.

To minimize the impact on sellers’ operations, Amazon UK recommends the following practices:

Provide advance notice to operators of volume forecasts and demand changes.

Consider using multiple carriers to ensure your products can be shipped out on time.

Providing customers with correct tracking information and regular updates if their order is delayed beyond the expected delivery date.

To avoid potential damage to your cancellation rate, continue to ship orders as quickly as possible.

If you are unable to process customer orders at all, update your listing status for holidays and other absences to deactivate all seller-fulfilled listings in the UK. You must still process and fulfill all orders you receive until you deactivate the listing.

Judging from the content of the announcement, Amazon did not specify the specific time for extending delivery, nor did it explain how to deal with the negative impact on sellers caused by the strike.

Therefore, under the announcement, some sellers raised questions, such as:

1. When will service disruptions occur across the UK?

2. How long will the service interruption last?

3. Is the promise of extended delivery only for sellers using Royal Mail? Or does it also include sellers using DPD?

In addition to Amazon, eBay UK also recently issued an announcement stating that it will provide protection measures for sellers affected by this incident. eBay will automatically protect sellers' transactions between Monday, August 22 and Monday, September 18. Specifically, for transactions with an estimated delivery date between the above dates, the platform will automatically remove the seller's delayed delivery rate calculation; at the same time, the seller's "Not Received Package" count in the service indicator dashboard will be automatically deleted. During this period, the platform will also delete and delay any negative and neutral feedback related to or resulting from non-delivery.

Compared with the announcement of eBay UK, the announcement of Amazon UK did not explain the specific implementation process very clearly. En will continue to pay attention to whether Amazon will respond to sellers' questions in the future.

Amazon

UK Logistics