Amazon US Amazon Business Seller-Fulfilled Orders: The 90% Business Hour Delivery Rate and the October 30 Action Point

As of October 23, 2026, Amazon’s published materials support a narrower conclusion than “all Amazon orders must reach 90%” or “a seller below 90% will be shut down.” The Business Hour Delivery Rate (BHDR) requirement applies to seller-fulfilled shipments destined for Amazon Business customers at commercial addresses in the US store. Starting September 30, 2026, the required rate is 90% or higher.

Amazon says that sellers below 90% on September 30 will be notified and given recommendations for improvement. If the rate has not improved by October 30, Amazon says that the seller’s seller-fulfilled offers for Amazon Business customers may be deactivated. The same announcement says that Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and retail offer eligibility will not be impacted.

The practical reading is important: October 30 is an action point for affected Amazon Business seller-fulfilled offers, not a published promise of automatic full-account closure.

What the BHDR actually measures

Amazon defines BHDR as the percentage of Amazon Business shipments that were delivered on the first attempt and within the customer’s business hours. The metric applies only to seller-fulfilled orders destined for Amazon Business customers with commercial addresses.

It is therefore not the same as:

• the overall on-time delivery rate for every order in the account;

• the final-delivery rate for every commercial address;

• an FBA delivery-performance metric; or

• a universal metric for ordinary retail customers.

Sellers using both FBA and seller fulfillment should separate the offer and order types before interpreting the number. A store-level average cannot replace the BHDR calculation.

How the rolling 14-day window works

BHDR is refreshed daily, but it is not simply the set of packages shipped during the most recent 14 calendar days. Amazon’s help page says the metric covers a 14-day period based on shipments whose promised delivery date falls between 7 and 21 days before the day on which the metric is viewed.

Amazon’s example is that a BHDR viewed on November 21 would use promised delivery dates from November 1 through November 14. The example shows why the date window matters: the metric looks at a promised-delivery-date cohort, and that cohort moves forward each day.

Near October 30, looking only at packages shipped on October 29 will not explain the current rate. The account report should be reviewed for the promised delivery dates in the active window, the first-attempt delivery time, and the recorded failure reason.

Whose business hours count?

Amazon says that business days and hours are determined by the delivery preferences set by the business customer. If the customer has not provided preferences, default business days and hours are applied in local time. The help page gives Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., as an example of the default schedule.

This is why a seller’s warehouse hours or internal support schedule cannot automatically establish BHDR compliance. The relevant question is whether the carrier’s first delivery attempt occurred on the applicable customer business day and within that customer’s delivery hours.

What September 30 and October 30 mean

September 30: the 90% standard begins

Amazon’s help page says that BHDR is transitioning from an informational metric to a required performance standard starting September 30, 2026. The official announcement says that sellers in the US store need to maintain a BHDR of 90% or higher for seller-fulfilled shipments to Amazon Business customers.

If the rate was below 90% on September 30, Amazon says it would notify the seller and provide recommendations. That wording describes a notification and improvement step; it does not say that the account is automatically closed on that date.

October 30: possible action against a specific offer type

The announcement says that if the rate does not improve by October 30, seller-fulfilled offers may be deactivated for Amazon Business customers.

Three boundaries should remain visible in any explanation of this date:

1. The affected objects are seller-fulfilled offers for Amazon Business customers.

2. “May be deactivated” describes a possible platform action, not a guaranteed uniform action for every seller below 90%.

3. The announcement says that FBA and retail offer eligibility will not be impacted.

The final account-specific result must be checked in the seller account’s notifications, Account Health status, and offer status.

Where to verify the metric and the underlying orders

Amazon directs sellers to the Account Health dashboard’s Program Eligibilities section or the Fulfillment Insights dashboard. The BHDR report can be downloaded and reviewed by Order ID.

The help page identifies fields such as:

• First Attempt Delivery Time;

• Business Hour Delivery, showing whether the first attempt was within business hours;

• Failure Reason;

• Customer Business Hours on First Attempt Date;

• Final Attempt Delivery Date and Final Attempt Delivery Time;

• Carrier Name and Ship Method; and

• Is Buy Shipping.

These fields turn a percentage into a diagnostic path. They can show whether a shipment failed because the first attempt occurred on a closed day, outside the customer’s hours, or in a carrier and ship-method pattern that performs poorly for commercial addresses.

Amazon’s published improvement directions

Amazon’s help page lists several ways to manage BHDR: use the report to identify stronger-performing carriers and ship methods, enable Shipping Settings Automation, use Automated Handling Time, review customer delivery preferences at the order level, and use Amazon Buy Shipping so available shipping methods better reflect the customer’s operating preferences.

The official announcement also says that shipments fulfilled using Automated Handling Time, Shipping Settings Automation, and Amazon Buy Shipping together are guaranteed to meet the BHDR requirement. That is Amazon’s platform statement. It should not be rewritten as a promise that any seller, carrier, or individual shipment will achieve a particular outcome; the seller should still verify the current account report and status.

A practical review sequence before October 30

First, confirm that the account has seller-fulfilled orders going to Amazon Business customers at commercial addresses.

Second, record the current BHDR and identify the promised delivery-date window used by the dashboard.

Third, download the order-level report and group the failures by first-attempt time, customer business hours, failure reason, carrier, and ship method.

Fourth, use those findings to review handling time, transit time, carrier selection, Shipping Settings Automation, Automated Handling Time, and Buy Shipping. These are review and improvement actions; they are not a substitute for the platform’s own measurement.

Finally, check the account notification and the specific Amazon Business seller-fulfilled offer status around October 30. Do not infer the result from the overall store status, FBA status, or ordinary retail orders.