Overview

Amazon will temporarily relax Prime delivery‑speed requirements for sellers on its European marketplaces from 17 November 2024 through 11 January 2025. The adjustment is meant to accommodate carrier bottlenecks during the holiday shopping surge and to keep sellers from losing Prime visibility because of delays beyond their control.

Key Points

• Relaxed speed thresholds — Domestic standard‑size items must now achieve 20 % delivery within 2 days and 50 % within 4 days, a softer target than the usual Prime metric.
• Cross‑border leniency — For shipments that cross EU borders, the same product class only needs 5 % delivered within 3 days, 10 % within 4 days, and 25 % within 6 days.
• Oversize allowances — Domestic oversize goods require 20 % delivery within 4 days and 60 % within 6 days; cross‑border oversize shipments need just 20 % within 6 days.
• Prime badge cut‑off — The fastest 85 % of Prime‑eligible offers in each store will retain the badge, provided they meet a maximum of 6 days for domestic orders and 9 days for cross‑border orders.
• Extra‑large exemption — No delivery‑speed targets apply to extra‑large items for the entire holiday window.
• Multi‑market coverage — The relaxed rules are active simultaneously across Amazon’s UK, DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, and PL storefronts.

How Prime Badge Allocation Works

1. Eligibility screening — Amazon first identifies offers that satisfy the core health metrics (on‑time delivery rate, cancellation rate, etc.). For example, a seller‑fulfilled laptop that maintains a 98 % on‑time rate will pass this filter even if its delivery window stretches to 7 days.
2. Speed tier assessment — Within the eligible pool, Amazon measures the percentage of orders delivered inside the new holiday thresholds. A German seller of kitchen gadgets that ships 22 % of orders within 2 days and 52 % within 4 days will be classified as meeting the standard‑size domestic benchmark.
3. Badge ranking — Offers are ranked by their actual delivery speed, and the top 85 % receive the Prime badge. If a French seller of cosmetics consistently ships in 5 days, they will likely stay inside the badge‑eligible segment, while a slower competitor at 8 days may fall outside.