Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) Requirements & Expectations
This article explains what Cahoot handles and what you are responsible for when running Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) through Cahoot. SFP success depends on you actively managing your shipping templates, monitoring your metrics, checking orders daily, and keeping inventory replenished.
Amazon's SFP Program Requirements
Amazon sets the performance thresholds, trial rules, and delivery-speed targets for SFP, and updates them periodically. Cahoot maintains a current summary of these requirements:
Current Seller Fulfilled Prime Requirements — Amazon's performance thresholds, delivery-speed targets, and trial rules.
SFP Trial Checklist — work through this before requesting a trial start date to confirm your SKUs, inventory, and operations are ready.
Always confirm the thresholds that apply to your account in your SFP Performance Dashboard in Seller Central. Trial attempts are limited per calendar year, and graduation is blocked during Amazon's holiday freeze, so make sure everything is in place before you start.
What Cahoot Does and What You Are Responsible For
Cahoot fulfills your SFP orders. You manage everything on the Amazon side.
Cahoot Handles
- Fulfilling SFP orders from the optimal warehouse using the best available carrier and service
- Rate-shopping across carriers for the cheapest label that meets the promised delivery date
- Using air shipping without consultation when ground service cannot meet the delivery promise (this protects your metrics but can be expensive)
- Providing the Cahoot SFP shipping template and assisting with initial template setup during onboarding
- Generating Amazon Buy Shipping labels for Prime orders when configured
You Are Solely Responsible For
- Maintaining and monitoring all shipping templates in Seller Central, including any optional template changes you choose to make
- Monitoring your SFP Performance Dashboard daily and turning SFP listings on or off based on performance
- Checking daily that orders are flowing into Cahoot and shipments are syncing back to Amazon
- Managing the inventory quantities listed on Amazon and replenishing stock to Cahoot before stockouts
- Running ads and timing traffic to protect your page view metrics
- Adding all alias SKUs for SFP listings in Cahoot before taking orders
Monitoring Your SFP Metrics
Check your SFP Performance Dashboard in Seller Central every day, during the trial and for as long as you are enrolled. Watch 1-day and 2-day delivery speed (page views), On-Time Delivery Rate, Valid Tracking Rate, and cancellation rate. Amazon evaluates each product size tier separately, so review Standard-size, Oversize, and Extra Large performance on their own.
If a metric is failing or trending toward Amazon's minimum, act the same day. During the trial, a miss fails the trial and uses one of your limited attempts. After graduation, a sustained miss puts the Prime badge at risk for the affected size tier. Waiting for the next weekly update is usually too late to recover.
The standard responses are to shift ad spend into the morning window, turn off SFP for SKUs that are dragging the percentage down, and confirm inventory is stocked in every warehouse so more shoppers fall within 1-day reach. If the 1-day delivery speed metric specifically is failing, see What should I do if my 1-day delivery speed metric is failing? in the FAQ for a corrective template schedule.
Daily Order Checks
Log into each connected sales channel and listing service daily to confirm orders are reaching Cahoot promptly and shipments are showing as fulfilled. Early detection lets Cahoot troubleshoot before an order ships late (see Daily Order Management for Network Sellers).
Amazon requires every SFP order received before cutoff to ship the same day. Cahoot's cutoff is 2:00 PM local time at the fulfilling warehouse Monday through Friday, and 11:00 AM local time Saturday. Check at least once daily for any orders that have not reached Cahoot.
Managing Inventory and Replenishment
Amazon only sees the total quantity you list. It does not know which Cahoot warehouses hold stock. If the nearest warehouse is out of a SKU, Cahoot ships from a farther location by air to meet the delivery promise, which protects your metrics but costs significantly more. You control this risk through the quantity you list and how you replenish.
| Listing Strategy | Trade-Off |
| List the lowest single-warehouse quantity on Amazon for each SFP SKU | Safest for shipping cost; requires updating Amazon as warehouse balances shift |
| List only the West Coast warehouse quantity on Amazon for each SFP SKU | Middle ground; West Coast can usually reach East Coast within the promise window, but not the reverse after cutoff |
| List the full combined quantity across all Cahoot warehouses on Amazon for each SFP SKU | Maximum availability; expect expensive cross-country air shipments once any warehouse runs out |
Set a Partner Reserve Quantity for every SFP SKU and turn off SFP listings for any SKU that drops below it. Plan replenishment inbounds well ahead of stockouts, allowing for supplier lead time, carrier transit, and Cahoot receiving time. Distributing inventory across all SFP warehouses keeps most orders on economical ground shipping.
Stock SFP SKUs in All Cahoot Warehouses
A SKU stocked in only one warehouse has only one cutoff. Once that warehouse passes 2:00 PM local time, every remaining order that day for that SKU ships the next day and may need overnight service to meet the promise, which counts against your On-Time Delivery Rate and adds cost. For example, a SKU stocked only in the east coast has no way to ship a 3:00 PM ET order same day, even though the West Coast warehouse is still open for another two hours.
Keep every SFP-enabled SKU stocked across the network. Check per-warehouse balances on the Your Inventory with Partners page; a zero in Partner Qty Available at any location means orders from that region will route elsewhere or ship late.
Carrier Expectations
Cahoot does not recommend USPS for SFP orders; inconsistent scans and late deliveries directly hurt your On-Time Delivery Rate, and USPS is disabled by default for Prime orders. If carrier APIs do not return a service that meets the delivery promise, Cahoot ships with whatever service is available, regardless of cost, to protect your metrics.
Amazon Buy Shipping provides OTDR protection for carrier delays and better handling of A-to-Z claims. When enabled, only services returned by Amazon's Buy Shipping API can be used, which may sometimes cost more, and you cannot switch between Buy Shipping and direct carrier labels order by order.
Cahoot makes commercially reasonable efforts to resolve carrier problems but is not responsible for carrier failures such as missed pickups, delayed origin scans, or late delivery.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Cahoot's cutoff time for same-day shipping of SFP orders?
2:00 PM local time at the fulfilling warehouse Monday through Friday, and 11:00 AM local time Saturday. Cahoot does not ship on Sunday. Because the cutoff is local, an order placed at 4:00 PM ET can still ship same day from the West Coast warehouse if that warehouse has stock, though it may need air service to deliver next day.
Do I have to ship SFP orders on Saturday?
Yes. Amazon requires at least one weekend operating day, and Cahoot ships Saturdays with an 11:00 AM local cutoff.
Does Amazon know which Cahoot warehouses have my stock?
No. Amazon only sees the total quantity you list. Cahoot does not sync inventory levels to Amazon.
Amazon created a "Default Prime" template I did not set up. Is that a problem?
No, Amazon creates it automatically when your trial starts. Just make sure none of your SFP SKUs are assigned to it. All SFP SKUs belong on the Cahoot SFP template.
An SFP order came in after cutoff with a same-day ship requirement. What happens?
It ships the next shipping day, which will count as late against your On-Time Delivery Rate or the order will route to a further location resulting in expensive overnight shipping.
Can Cahoot swap my templates or adjust my Amazon inventory for me?
No. Cahoot does not schedule templates or push quantities to Amazon. After onboarding, template changes and SFP strategy consulting are paid professional services; Submit Ticket to request them.
How do I request a trial start date?
Submit Ticket to coordinate your trial launch.
When can my listings show a 1-Day promise
A page view only counts toward your 1-day delivery speed metric if Amazon calculated a 1-day promise at the moment the shopper viewed the page. Amazon calculates that promise per shopper location: a 1-day promise appears only if a Cahoot warehouse within reach of the shopper (UPS Ground up to Zone 4 on the Cahoot SFP template) is still before its order cutoff. Each Cahoot warehouse on the template has a cutoff of 2:00 PM local time Monday through Friday and 11:00 AM local time Saturday, with Sunday not operating.
Because cutoffs are local, the 1-day window closes region by region across the day. Views from shoppers near an East Coast warehouse stop earning a 1-day promise at 2:00 PM ET (11:00 AM ET Saturday); views from shoppers near the West Coast warehouse continue until 5:00 PM ET (2:00 PM ET Saturday). Views after the shopper's regional cutoff, on Sundays, or on holidays show a 2-day or longer promise and count against your 1-day metric, even if they convert to sales. Shoppers outside Zone 4 of every stocked warehouse never see a 1-day promise at any hour, so your inventory footprint sets a ceiling on this metric regardless of timing.
Whether your listings naturally clear Amazon's 1-day threshold depends on your traffic mix, order volume, and where your customers are. Sellers with strong morning traffic across many regions often meet it without any special action. Regardless, concentrate ad spend, promotions, and email campaigns inside the morning window: those views can ship same day and count toward your 1-day metric, while evening views do the opposite.
What should I do if my 1-day delivery speed metric is failing?
Act immediately. This is the most common blocker during the trial, where attempts are limited, and it can also occur after graduation. First, shift ads and promotions into the morning window and turn off SFP for SKUs that are dragging the percentage down. If that is not enough, some sellers temporarily limit SFP exposure to the hours a 1-day promise is possible by manually switching SKUs between the Cahoot SFP template and a non-SFP template in Seller Central. Cahoot does not automate this, and every hour the SFP template is off is an hour without Prime-badged sales, so use it only while the metric needs recovery. If you use this tactic:
- Enable the SFP template at 3:01 AM ET on each day Cahoot ships. This is just past midnight Pacific, so every warehouse has rolled into the new shipping day. Enabling earlier (for example, 12:01 AM ET) exposes you to West Coast views that still see a 2-day promise.
- Disable the SFP template at 5:00 PM ET Monday through Friday and 2:00 PM ET Saturday, when the West Coast warehouse passes its cutoff and no shopper can earn a 1-day promise. If most of your traffic is East Coast, disabling at 2:00 PM ET (11:00 AM ET Saturday) trims more non-qualifying views but gives up West Coast 1-day views in between.
- Keep the SFP template off on Sundays and holidays. Cahoot does not ship on those days, so every view counts against you. Enable at 3:01 AM ET on the next shipping day; when Monday is a holiday, that means Tuesday.
- Still ship on Saturday. Keep the SFP template on Saturday morning and drive traffic while orders can ship same day, so you get at least one Saturday order shipped for Amazon's weekend requirement. Disable after the Saturday cutoff, since the next shipping opportunity is Monday.