Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) Requirements & Expectations
This article outlines what sellers must know and have in place before starting an Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) trial through Cahoot. SFP is a high-stakes program with strict performance metrics, limited trial attempts, and significant operational requirements. Read this in full before requesting a trial start date.
What SFP Requires from You
Amazon's SFP program lets you display the Prime badge on listings while fulfilling from Cahoot's warehouses instead of FBA. In exchange, Amazon enforces strict performance thresholds that you are responsible for monitoring and maintaining:
Amazon's Performance Requirements:
- On-Time Delivery Rate (OTDR) of at least 93.5%
- Valid Tracking Rate above 99%
- Pre-fulfillment cancellation rate below 0.5%
- Free 1-day and 2-day delivery for Prime customers
- Free nationwide standard shipping for all customers
- Minimum thresholds for 1-day and 2-day page view delivery speed metrics
- Zero-day handling time (same-day ship for orders received before cutoff)
- Weekend fulfillment on at least one day (Saturday or Sunday)
- Minimum 100 Prime shipments per month, consistently throughout the month
Trial Period Rules
Before full SFP enrollment, you must pass a 30-day trial period during which you ship at least 100 Prime trial packages while meeting all performance metrics. The Prime badge does not display during the trial — it activates only after successful graduation.
Additional trial rules to plan around:
- Graduation is blocked during major sales events (Prime Day, Black Friday through Christmas)
- The latest trial start date before the holiday freeze is typically mid-September
- During the trial, SKUs must be either fully on or fully off for SFP — no partial-template strategies
- You must be ready to drive traffic to your Prime listings as soon as the trial starts
What Cahoot Does — and What You Are Responsible For
This is the most important section to understand before starting. SFP success depends on a clear division of responsibility between Cahoot and the seller.
Cahoot Handles
- Fulfilling SFP orders from the optimal warehouse using the best available carrier and service
- Rate-shopping across carriers to find the cheapest label that meets the promised delivery date
- Using air shipping without consultation when ground options cannot meet the delivery promise — this protects your SFP metrics but can be expensive
- Providing the Cahoot SFP shipping template that meets SLA coverage requirements
- Generating Amazon Buy Shipping labels for Prime orders when configured
You Are Solely Responsible For
- Creating, maintaining, and monitoring all shipping templates on Amazon
- Managing the inventory quantities listed on Amazon (Cahoot does not push warehouse-level quantities to Amazon)
- Monitoring SFP performance metrics in your Seller Central dashboard daily
- Turning SFP listings on or off based on performance or stock levels
- Disabling P.O. Box addresses in your SFP shipping templates
- Adding all alias SKUs for SFP listings in Cahoot before taking orders
- Running ads and controlling traffic timing to maintain page view metrics
- Any optional template-swapping strategies (Cahoot does not provide automated scheduling)
SFP Requires Full Order Automation
Custom workflows that allow manual order approval (such as letting you reset orders to choose which ones ship through Cahoot) cannot remain in place during an SFP trial. Amazon SFP requires automated fulfillment of every order received before cutoff, with no manual gating.
Before your trial begins, any custom manual-approval logic on your account will be removed. All orders for SFP-enabled SKUs will flow through Cahoot automatically. To avoid double-fulfillment, ensure your inventory is not active on other fulfillment platforms for those SKUs.
Account & System Setup Checklist
Complete every item below before requesting a trial start date. Missing items are a common cause of failed trials.
Pre-Trial Setup Checklist:
- Cahoot user account created in your Amazon Seller Central with required permissions: Inventory, Orders, Performance, Reports, Services, Fulfillment Settings, Manage Carrier Accounts, and Shipping Settings
- At least one Next Day shipping service enabled in Cahoot (without this, labels meeting the delivery promise may fail)
- All alias SKUs for SFP listings added in Cahoot
- Partner Reserve Quantity (Buffer Quantity) configured for all SFP SKUs
- Amazon Buy Shipping configured with Cahoot's UPS account
- All SFP SKUs assigned to the Cahoot SFP shipping template — not Amazon's auto-created "Default Prime" template
- P.O. Box addresses disabled in all SFP shipping templates
- Manual order approval workflows removed (full automation enabled)
Inventory Management for SFP
Amazon only sees the total quantity you list — it does not know which Cahoot warehouses hold what stock. If a nearby warehouse is out of stock for an SFP order, Cahoot may need to ship from a farther location using air shipping to meet the delivery promise. This protects your metrics but can be very expensive.
You have three options for managing what you list on Amazon:
| Strategy | How It Works | Trade-Off |
| List the lowest single-warehouse quantity | Check which Cahoot warehouse has the fewest units and list only that number on Amazon | Safest for cost control; requires you to update Amazon as balances shift |
| List the West Coast warehouse quantity | West Coast can usually reach the East Coast within delivery windows; the reverse is harder after cutoff | Reasonable middle ground for coverage and cost |
| List the full combined quantity | List total inventory across all locations | Maximum availability, but expect expensive cross-country air shipping once a warehouse runs out |
Carrier Expectations
Carrier configuration is one of the largest drivers of SFP trial outcomes. Amazon's OTDR threshold (93.5%) leaves little room for late deliveries, so the carriers you enable matter.
USPS
Cahoot does not recommend USPS for SFP orders. Service levels have declined in recent years, and inconsistent scanning or late deliveries directly impact your OTDR.
UPS, FedEx, and Air Services
At least one Next Day service must be enabled in Cahoot. If carrier APIs do not return services that meet the delivery promise (for example, no UPS Ground or FedEx Home Delivery available), Cahoot will ship using whatever service is available, regardless of cost, to protect your performance metrics.
Amazon Buy Shipping
Amazon Buy Shipping provides OTDR protection for late carrier delays and improved handling of A-to-Z claims. When enabled, Cahoot configures our UPS account inside your Amazon account so labels ship on Cahoot's UPS while still benefiting from Buy Shipping protection.
Be aware of the trade-offs:
- Only services returned by Amazon's Buy Shipping API can be used, which may sometimes return higher-cost services
- You cannot switch between Buy Shipping and Direct from Carrier on an order-by-order basis
- FedEx is not supported through Amazon Buy Shipping at this time
Understanding Page View Metrics
This is the most commonly misunderstood part of SFP. Amazon does not just measure actual delivery performance — it measures what percentage of Prime customer page views on your SFP listings showed a 1-day or 2-day delivery promise at the time of viewing.
The delivery promise is calculated based on the customer's location, your warehouse addresses, carrier transit times, current time of day relative to your cutoff, and day of the week.
The practical takeaway: concentrate ad spend, email campaigns, promotions, and other traffic-driving activity inside this window. Evening views (for example, 11 PM EST) hurt the metric even when they generate sales.
Current targets are approximately 30% for 1-day page views and 70% for 2-day page views, but always verify current thresholds in your SFP Performance Dashboard.
What Happens After a Successful Trial
After graduation, ongoing seller responsibilities continue:
- Daily monitoring of your SFP Performance Dashboard
- Daily checks across each connected sales channel and listing service to confirm orders are flowing into Cahoot and shipments are reflected back correctly (Daily Order Management for Network Sellers)
- Watching for same-day-shipping orders that arrive after cutoff (uncommon, but they happen)
- Replenishing inventory before stockouts force expensive air shipments
- Turning SFP listings off if you fall below reserve quantities or if metrics start trending toward thresholds
Final Pre-Trial Confirmation
Before requesting a trial start date, confirm all of the following:
Ready to Start Checklist:
- Your Cahoot plan has been upgraded to include SFP fulfillment support
- The full setup checklist above is complete
- You understand template management, inventory listing, and performance monitoring are your responsibility
- You understand Cahoot may use air shipping without consultation to protect your metrics
- You are removing the SKU from any other fulfillment channels to prevent double-fulfillment
- You are prepared to drive traffic to Prime listings immediately upon trial start
- Your trial start date avoids Amazon's holiday graduation freeze (typically late September through early January)
When everything above is confirmed, contact your Cahoot account manager or Submit Ticket to coordinate your trial launch.