Addressing Amazon's pre-fulfillment cancellation rate: inventory and order-processing checks

Has your pre-fulfillment cancellation rate started to climb? Do you keep having to cancel orders because items are out of stock? This article is for sellers who ship their own orders (seller-fulfilled, or 出品者出荷). It covers which cancellations count, how to check for inventory mismatches, how to handle daily order processing, and what to do if the metric worsens or your listings are suspended.

What the metric measures and the 2.5% target: only seller-fulfilled orders count

In Seller Central Help, this metric is called the Cancellation Rate (キャンセル率), while on the Account Health (アカウント健全性) page it appears as a tab labeled Pre-fulfillment Cancel Rate (出荷前キャンセル率). It is the percentage of all orders in a given 7-day period that were canceled by the seller, and it applies only to seller-fulfilled orders. This article reflects information as of September 2026, and policies and on-screen labels may change.

Item	Details
Orders covered	Seller-fulfilled orders only (FBA orders are excluded)
What's included	Orders and items canceled by the seller (except those canceled in response to a formal cancellation request from the buyer), and orders Amazon canceled automatically because no shipment confirmation was sent
What's excluded	Orders the buyer asked to cancel using the order cancellation feature in their own account, and "Pending" orders the buyer canceled directly
Target	Under 2.5% (under 1% for orders in the expedited shipping programs, or お急ぎ便関連プログラム)

Amazon's Japanese Help states that if the rate exceeds 2.5%, your seller-fulfilled listings may be suspended. An official document created in 2021 said instead that the account "may be suspended," so the wording varies from source to source; check the notice you receive to confirm the scope of any action. Because Amazon doesn't specify how a rate of exactly 2.5% is treated, it's safest to set your target as "under 2.5%."

The fewer your orders, the more each one weighs (sample calculations)

The table below shows sample calculations we prepared ourselves. Because Amazon does not officially specify how the 7-day period is counted, treat these as rough guides that may not match the figures on your screen.

Orders in 7 days	1 cancellation	2 cancellations
20 orders	5%	10%
30 orders	Approx. 3.3%	Approx. 6.7%
50 orders	2%	4%
100 orders	1%	2%
200 orders	0.5%	1%

With 30 orders in 7 days, a single cancellation puts you at about 3.3%, which on its own is enough to miss the "under 2.5%" target. By this calculation, a single cancellation stays under 2.5% only when you have 41 or more orders in the 7 days; at exactly 40 orders, it comes to 2.5%.

The expedited shipping standard and how the metric relates to your health score

For the expedited shipping programs, a seller-caused cancellation rate below 1% is one of the eligibility requirements, and performance is evaluated over the period from 10 to 40 days ago (that is, excluding the most recent 10 days). On the other hand, the cancellation rate does not appear in the list of policies covered by the Account Health Rating (アカウント健全性の評価), the score shown on a scale of 0 to 1,000. Even if your score is green, check the cancellation rate under Shipping Performance (出荷パフォーマンス) separately. For how to read the score, see how to review your Account Health Rating.

Does that cancellation count? A quick reference table

Whether a cancellation affects your rate depends on who canceled it, through what process, and for what reason. The table below is based on the list in Amazon's Help.

Initiated by	Specific situation	Effect on the metric
Buyer	You canceled after receiving a formal cancellation request	No effect
Buyer	The buyer asked only by message, and you canceled in response	Affects the rate
Seller	Out of stock; errors in pricing, listing information or shipping settings; orders received because you forgot to turn on vacation settings; an undeliverable address; no reply from the buyer	Affects the rate
Amazon	Canceled automatically because no shipment confirmation was sent by the deadline	Affects the rate
Amazon	Buyer fraud was detected, or payment verification failed	No effect

The second row is easy to overlook: even when the buyer asked for the cancellation, it counts if you handle it based on a message alone. Also, if a cancellation wasn't initiated by the buyer, selecting "Buyer Canceled" (購入者によるキャンセル) as the reason still affects your cancellation rate. You can't adjust the number by choosing a different reason.

What to do when a buyer asks you to cancel

For seller-fulfilled orders, buyers can cancel on their own within 5 minutes of ordering (except for orders that haven't been paid for yet, such as those paid at a convenience store). After 5 minutes, the buyer submits a request through Your Account (アカウントサービス) > Your Orders (注文履歴) > Request cancellation (キャンセルをリクエスト), and the seller is notified by email. On the seller side, handle the request as follows.

1. On the Unshipped (未出荷) tab in Manage Orders (注文管理), click Show filters (フィルターを表示) and, under Pending actions (保留中のアクション), check Buyer requested cancellation (購入者がキャンセルをリクエストしました)
2. Confirm that a banner above the order states that canceling it will not affect your metric
3. In the Action (アクション) column, select Cancel order (注文キャンセル; the wording varies by page). The reason will already be set to Buyer Canceled
4. Click Submit (送信) to finalize. The buyer is sent a confirmation email

If a buyer asks only by message, don't cancel right away; instead, point them to the formal process. Here is a sample reply we wrote.

Thank you for contacting us. We understand that you would like to cancel your order. Sorry for the extra step, but could you please go to Your Account > Your Orders on Amazon and select "Request cancellation" for the order in question? Once we've confirmed your request, we will cancel the order promptly, provided it hasn't shipped yet.

On the other hand, if you can't ship for reasons on your side, such as being out of stock or a settings error, you must not ask the buyer to send a cancellation request. Cancel the order yourself, choosing the reason that reflects what actually happened ("Out of stock" (在庫切れ) if you have no inventory).

Identify the orders behind the rate using the dashboard and reports

When your cancellation rate starts rising, identify, one order at a time, which orders were canceled and why before you add more inventory. If the cause is missed orders or settings errors, adding inventory won't solve the problem.

1. On the Account Health page, click View details (詳細を表示) under Shipping Performance and open the Pre-fulfillment Cancel Rate tab
2. Scroll down and use Download report (レポートをダウンロードする) to get a list of the affected orders
3. For each order, compare it against your Manage Orders records and your internal inventory ledger, and write down the cause

As your records build up, patterns start to emerge, such as "most involve products from one particular supplier," "they spike after holiday breaks," or "some automatic cancellations are mixed in."

Six paths to cancellations and how to address them

Most pre-fulfillment cancellations stem from stockouts caused by a gap between the quantity you list and the quantity you can actually ship. Below, we've organized the common causes listed in Amazon's Help by path.

Path	What happens	Countermeasures and useful features
Sharing inventory with other sales channels	An order comes in on Amazon before a sale on another channel has been reflected	Use a system that manages inventory in real time, and calculate how much stock to reserve based on each channel's sales history
Supplier stockouts	You place an order with your supplier after receiving an order, only to find the item is out of stock	Streamline inventory management with software or similar tools, and don't list inventory you haven't secured
Inflated inventory counts	A figure like "9999" has been entered, orders flood in, and you can't ship them all	Enter only the quantity you can actually secure
Orders received while you're away	You forget to change your listing status before a vacation	Use the vacation setting, adjust your handling time, and notify buyers
No per-order limit	A single order requests more units than you have in stock	Set Max Order Quantity (最大注文数) in your inventory file (this can't stop the same buyer from purchasing repeatedly)
Mismatched condition descriptions	After ordering, the buyer reads the description of a used item and asks to cancel (canceling in response to a message-only request counts toward the metric)	Register the accurate condition in line with the guidelines

Key points to check

• Enter inventory as the quantity you can actually ship: Enter only the quantity you have on hand and can reliably ship within your handling time. Add incoming stock only after it has actually arrived and been inspected.
• Check how your inventory is synced: If you update manually, check how often it's done and by whom; if you use an integration tool, check the sync interval and whether it's set up so that you'll notice failures. Until the issue is resolved, listing a smaller quantity is one option.
• Don't buy from another retailer and have it shipped directly: When you're out of stock, buying the item from another retailer, from Amazon or from another seller and having it shipped directly to the buyer is prohibited without exception, and violations may lead to restrictions on your seller-fulfilled listings. Even when you have a supplier handle shipping, it is not allowed unless it's clear to the buyer that you are the seller of record. For details, see points to check in your dropshipping operations.
• Be specific in used-item descriptions: Accurately describe the information buyers use to decide, such as where any scratches are and whether accessories are included. How to review new and used condition listings may also help.
• Correct your inventory right after a cancellation: For any SKU you canceled because it was out of stock, immediately adjust the listed quantity to match your actual stock so that you don't receive another order. If you process cancellations with a cancellation file, the canceled quantity may be returned to inventory depending on the reason code, so check your inventory count after processing.

Note that the order limit setting (注文数の上限), whose name resembles Max Order Quantity, adds one day to the handling time for orders beyond the number you can process; it doesn't prevent stockouts. Measures against delays are covered in how to improve your Late Shipment Rate.

Review your daily order processing to prevent automatic cancellations

Even if you have the stock, if you don't send a shipment confirmation within 7 business days of the expected ship date, the order is canceled automatically, even if you actually shipped it, and you won't be paid. These automatic cancellations also count toward your cancellation rate. Because different sources describe the number of days differently, it's safest to adopt "send the shipment confirmation before the expected ship date passes" as your operating rule.

The Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement also requires, among other things, that you ship by the expected ship date and check your order information at least once every business day. Here's how that translates into daily tasks.

When	What to check
Start of the workday	Don't rely solely on order confirmation emails; check the Unshipped tab in Manage Orders for new orders and cancellation requests
When allocating inventory	Set aside the physical item for each order. If you find that you can't ship an order, cancel it right then and apologize to the buyer (buyers tend to accept this more readily than a cancellation after the expected ship date has passed)
When shipping	Send the shipment confirmation after handing the package to the carrier (never before)
Before the end of the workday	Check for unshipped orders nearing their expected ship date and for any shipment confirmations you haven't sent

"Pending" orders and sending shipment confirmations too early

"Pending" (保留中) is a status in which, for example, the payment method is still being verified. You can't ship the order, and the shipping address isn't displayed. Even if the buyer contacts you directly, don't ship; instead, direct them to Amazon Customer Service. Verification can take up to 21 days, so manage these orders separately from orders that are simply waiting to be shipped.

Also, sending a shipment confirmation before handing the package to the carrier is treated as "pre-confirmed shipment abuse" (出荷通知事前送信の乱用, or PCSA), which can lead to enforcement action. Once a shipment confirmation has been sent, the order can no longer be canceled and must be handled as a refund. For how to review your procedures, see dealing with gaps between shipment confirmations and actual dispatch.

Settings to take care of before time off and busy seasons

For periods when you can't ship, such as vacations, use the vacation setting, which changes your listing status to Inactive (停止中). Within an hour of the change, your listings disappear from product detail pages and search results, and they reappear within an hour of switching back to Active (出品中). Help describes two ways to do this: Settings (設定) > Account Settings (アカウント設定) > Store Status (ストアのステータス), or Edit (編集) for Listing Status (出品ステータス) under Account Info (出品用アカウント情報). Use whichever one appears on your screen.

If you want to keep accepting orders while you're closed, extend your handling time (出荷作業日数: the number of days from the order to handing the package to the carrier). You can set it for each product, up to a maximum of 30 days, from Edit details (詳細の編集) in Manage Inventory (在庫管理), and you'll need to change it back when you return. Changes usually take effect within 15 minutes but can take up to 24 hours at busy times, so set it well in advance.

However, for products with Seller Fulfilled Prime (マケプレプライム) or the expedited shipping programs enabled, the ship date is determined separately from the handling time, so Help recommends switching them to standard shipping in your shipping settings. Help also notes that orders that can't be shipped within 30 days of the order date are canceled automatically, so for longer closures, the vacation setting is the safer choice.

During peak shopping seasons, secure inventory on the assumption that orders will increase even without a sale, and list only products you can ship by the expected ship date.

What to do if the metric worsens or your listings are suspended

What you need to do depends on which stage you're at. If the rate gets too high, you may receive an email from the Seller Performance team, and it may notify you that your selling privileges have been temporarily suspended or revoked. Amazon hasn't published sample wording, so check the email itself together with what the Account Health page shows.

Stage	Where you'll see it	Main response
The metric is rising	The figure on the Pre-fulfillment Cancel Rate tab	Use the report to identify the orders behind it, and fix each path
You're at risk of suspension	A quiz appears in a banner at the top of the Account Health page (only for sellers it applies to)	Answer it within 72 hours
Your seller-fulfilled listings have been suspended	The notice and the Account Health page	Submit a plan of action through an appeal
A specific product's listing has stopped	Shown as "Inactive" on the Manage Inventory page	Check the reason and reactivate it following the instructions

According to Amazon's Japanese Help, the quiz consists of five questions about the cancellation rate policy; if you answer within 72 hours and pass, no plan of action is required and your listings won't be suspended. It is shown only to sellers it applies to, and even after passing, you must continue to meet the metric, so work on fixing the underlying causes at the same time.

Appeals and plans of action after a suspension

If your seller-fulfilled listings are suspended, file an appeal from the Account Health page and submit a plan of action (改善計画, POA). The button may be labeled "Submit reconsideration request" (再審議請求を送信), "Submit an Account Health appeal" (アカウント健全性の申し立てを送信する), or something similar. How to confirm the scope of the suspension is covered in what to check when merchant fulfillment is disabled.

Amazon's guidelines for appeals include keeping them factual and concise, identifying the root cause, and describing the actions you took along with the dates and any related documents. For the cancellation rate, don't stop at "out of stock" as the root cause; dig into why your inventory and listed quantities fell out of sync. Below is a skeleton example. It is a hypothetical example, not an actual case. Don't copy the actions in the example as they are; write only the actions you actually took and the dates you took them. Never recreate or alter records or documents after the fact.

[Root cause] Of the [X] orders we canceled for reasons on our side during the period in question, [X] were due to stockouts caused by shared inventory, and [X] were canceled automatically because we forgot to send shipment confirmations. The stockouts occurred because we shared inventory between our own website and Amazon and updated our Amazon inventory counts manually once a day, so orders came in on Amazon before sales on our website had been reflected.
[Actions taken] On [date], we identified all canceled orders and recorded their causes. On [date], we introduced an inventory integration tool, configured it to sync inventory counts automatically, and adjusted the counts for all SKUs to match our actual stock (attached: the integration tool's settings screen and the corrected inventory list).
[Preventive measures] At the start and end of every business day, we check and record unshipped orders, the status of shipment confirmations, and the status of inventory syncing. Once a week, we take a physical inventory count to check for discrepancies between actual stock and the listed quantities.

We explain how to structure a plan in how to build a plan of action, and what to check before sending it in checks to run before submitting a plan of action.

Product-level deactivation, and a similar but separate action

Listings with repeated cancellations may be removed, and the affected ASINs are shown as "Inactive" on the Manage Inventory page. Amazon's Japanese Help says you can reactivate them by updating the price from Edit details, but explanations differ between sources, so follow the instructions on your screen. Before relisting, match the product's inventory count to your actual stock and resolve the cause of the cancellations.

There is also a separate action in which a seller-fulfilled account is placed "Under Review" (審査中) for up to 30 days for reasons such as a sudden spike in sales or missing tracking information. The account is reactivated automatically once delivery of recent orders is confirmed. Because this differs from a suspension based on the cancellation rate, first confirm which action your notice refers to.

What not to do

The following actions only make the numbers look better; they don't fix anything and invite other problems.

• Asking buyers to submit cancellation requests, or misstating the reason: Neither lowers your cancellation rate, and both mean you've followed a procedure that goes against the rules.
• Sending shipment confirmations for unshipped orders: This simply swaps a cancellation rate problem for a PCSA violation and may lead to restrictions on selling orders you ship yourself.
• Opening a new account to keep selling: Under the Seller Code of Conduct (出品者行動規範), you may have only one Seller Central account for each region where you sell, unless you have a legitimate business need and all of your accounts are in good standing. A separate account created to get around a suspension or restriction is not allowed and may make things worse, including for any related accounts.

Frequently asked questions

Q. If my rate goes over 2.5%, will my listings be suspended right away?

A. Amazon's Japanese Help says your listings "may be suspended," and a quiz may be shown to sellers it applies to. Check your notices and the Account Health page to confirm whether a suspension has taken place and its scope, and in the meantime, identify the orders that caused the problem.

Q. How many days does it take for a cancellation to drop out of the metric?

A. Amazon hasn't officially specified this. Rather than assuming it will "disappear after X days," record the figure on your screen regularly and track how it changes over time.

Q. I received a formal cancellation request, but I've already packed the order. Can I ship it?

A. Amazon states that if the seller chooses to ship, there is currently no negative impact on the cancellation rate. However, that comes with the qualifier "currently," and the buyer does want to cancel, so if the order hasn't shipped yet, the sensible course is to honor the request.

Q. I shipped an order but forgot to send the shipment confirmation, and it was canceled automatically. What should I do?

A. An automatic cancellation can't be reversed. Amazon's guidance is to explain the situation to the buyer and ask them to place a new order; if the shipment was completed within the past 30 days, you can send a shipment confirmation for the new order using the original tracking number.

Summary

The pre-fulfillment cancellation rate is the share of seller-fulfilled orders in a 7-day period that were canceled for reasons on the seller's side, and the target is under 2.5%.

• Cancellations made in response to message-only requests count. Direct buyers to submit requests through the formal process
• Use the report to identify the orders behind the rate one by one, and record which path each one came through
• List inventory at the quantity you can actually ship, and check syncing with other sales channels and your suppliers' stock status
• Check orders every business day, and cancel orders you can't ship early on and apologize. Send shipment confirmations only after handing packages to the carrier
• Before time off, review your vacation setting and handling time; if you're suspended, appeal with specific details of the root cause and the actions you took

The fewer orders you have, the more a single cancellation moves the number, so consistent daily checks are the foundation of prevention. If you're unsure about anything, go through the recommended steps one at a time, based on the notices you've received and what the Account Health page shows.

*This article provides a general explanation. The appropriate response in individual cases depends on the circumstances.

Further reading

Improving Amazon's Valid Tracking Rate: carriers, tracking numbers and shipment confirmations Read article → Improving Amazon's Late Shipment Rate: identifying delays and reviewing dispatch procedures Read article → When Amazon shipment confirmations do not match dispatch: reviewing orders and procedures Read article →