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.

Amazon Valid Tracking Rates are now critical to Amazon seller ratings in the UK. This is because as of April 19, 2021 Amazon sellers will need to maintain a 95% Valid Tracking Rate over a rolling 30-day period in order to keep their seller rating. 

Keep reading to understand more about Amazon Valid Tracking Rate. You’ll also learn why your Valid Tracking Rate is essential for a positive seller rating and, equally as important, why it’s vital to the customer experience (and how you can improve the customer experience with order fulfillment). 

What is an Amazon Valid Tracking Rate? 

An Amazon Valid Tracking Rate, or VTR, measures how often sellers use valid tracking numbers on their orders. 

So what constitutes a “valid” tracking number? According to this article about Amazon Valid Tracking, valid in this specific context means that the Amazon seller provides the correct name of the delivery service provider and the particular delivery service used for all merchant fulfilled orders. In addition, sellers must include an error-free tracking ID for these orders delivered with a tracked delivery method or the unique parcel ID through Royal Mail during the ‘Ship Confirm’ process. Shipments need at least one carrier scan recorded by Amazon to be considered valid. 

To determine the VTR itself, Amazon divides the number of packages delivered with a valid tracking number by the total number of packages a seller has delivered and confirmed. The result is the Valid Tracking Rate (as a percentage). 

Best practices for an accurate Amazon Valid Tracking Rate

Because Amazon seller tracking is a critical component of your ecommerce success, it’s vital to pay attention to detail. Maintaining a 95% VTR relies in part on providing your customers with error-free tracking information. 

Below are some of the best practice methods suggested by Amazon to ensure that your VTR is accurate:

• Verify Tracking Numbers: Confirm that you didn’t leave the tracking information blank, entered the tracking number correctly, and used no special characters.
• Verify Carrier Information: Make certain that you selected an Amazon integrated carrier from the ‘Manage Orders’ drop-down menu, bulk uploaded feeds, entered the correct carrier name, and corroborated that the carrier information matches the tracking information.
• Confirm Dispatch and Update: Confirm and update the tracking information before the order is delivered to ensure your buyer can track the order.

Why do sellers on Amazon need to be aware of Amazon Valid Tracking Rates? 

As an Amazon Seller, you know you’ll need to provide a Valid Tracking Rate of 95% in the UK to maintain your seller rating. However, it’s not just important to provide your customers with valid tracking information because of the new standards set forth by Amazon. It’s also an integral part of creating a positive customer experience.

Customer experience is the overall exposure to and interaction a customer has with your brand at any point. And a positive customer experience is expected end-to-end — not just at one or two points during the buying journey. Creating a positive customer experience will set you apart from your competitors and build brand loyalty, keeping customers coming back.

Recent trends in ecommerce identified in this research study by Linnworks highlight that consumers want convenience and transparency throughout the shipping and delivery process as part of a positive customer experience. In fact, 72% of consumers have abandoned their purchases over a lack of shipping transparency on ecommerce sites. 

The way to prevent cart abandonment? Provide transparency by way of accurate shipping estimates like cost and delivery times and valid tracking details that allow customers to see their order delivery status. 

Improve the customer experience with order fulfillment

To maintain a 95% VTR and create a positive customer experience, sellers need to meet consumer demands of transparent and accurate shipping and delivery. Using an order fulfillment system, like Linnworks, can help make consistently meeting these expectations a reality.

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 with automated inventory management. 

Linnworks order fulfillment process

• Connect your Amazon Seller Accounts, Buy Shipping, and courier integrations compatible with Amazon in Linnworks. (Linnworks is compatible with UK couriers such as DHL, UPS, Hermes, and more.)
• Then, customer orders from Amazon (as well as orders from other selling channels) are downloaded into Linnworks’ system.
• After that, automated workflows help you route orders for picking, packing, and dispatching.
• After your orders are picked, packed, and set for dispatching, Amazon Services can be assigned to orders. You can print Amazon Buy shipping labels directly from the Linnworks Open Orders screen, and couriers are automatically assigned to the orders. 
• Finally, Linnworks provides valid tracking information to Amazon for all of your orders (whether you use Amazon Buy Shipping or an alternative courier).

Using an order fulfillment system improves the customer experience and can help you maintain a 95% VTR by:

Reducing input errors

Automation helps minimize errors in tracking details. This enables you to achieve a 95% Valid Tracking Rate, in turn allowing you to keep your seller rating.

Saving you time

Employing an order fulfillment system reduces the amount of time you spend manually fulfilling orders. This means you can spend more time focusing on other aspects of your business. 

Providing shipping and delivery transparency

Mistake-free shipping information improves the overall customer experience because it allows your customers to track their purchases accurately.

Learn more about the benefits of order management.

Ready to automate your order fulfillment?

In ecommerce, how you manage orders is vital to your success on Amazon.

An order fulfillment system will also automate things like important tracking details that are now critical to maintaining a 95% Valid Tracking Rate on Amazon, which in turn will help you keep your Amazon seller rating.