Newer sellers panic about the wrong metrics, so a primer from someone who’s watched the dashboard for years. The ones that actually threaten your account:
- Order Defect Rate (ODR) - the big one, target under 1%. Combines negative feedback, A-to-z claims, chargebacks.
- Late Shipment Rate and Pre-fulfillment Cancel Rate - these mostly hit SELLER-FULFILLED (FBM) orders. If you’re pure FBA, Amazon handles shipping so these largely don’t apply to you.
- Policy violations / suspected intellectual property complaints - increasingly the thing that actually gets people suspended.
If you’re FBA-only, your shipping metrics are mostly Amazon’s problem. Your risk shifts to policy/IP issues and product complaints. Watch your Account Health page, dont ignore the notifications.
this is an important nuance people miss. i do FBM on some stuff and FBA on others. on the FBM side late shipment rate WILL bite you - buy with valid tracking, ship on time, set realistic handling times. on pure FBA you basically cant control those so dont stress them.
the thing that genuinely scares me these days isnt shipping metrics, its a random IP complaint or “inauthentic” flag. those can nuke a whole account. keep your invoices/supply chain docs.
+1 on keeping documentation. The single best account-health insurance is being able to prove your supply chain: real invoices from a real supplier, matching quantities. If you ever get an authenticity or IP challenge, that paperwork is what reinstates you. I keep a folder per SKU. Boring, until the day it saves your business.
good to know the late shipment stuff is basically an FBM thing. i was stressing about it on my FBA items for no reason. so for FBA my main job is dont sell stuff that gets complaints and keep my paperwork. got it
@sidehustlesara basically yes. FBA = Amazon owns the logistics metrics, you own the product quality and the legitimacy paperwork. Sell good product, source it legitimately, keep the invoices, respond to any account health notice fast. Do that and the dashboard stays green.