On August 23, Amazon UK announced that it will extend the delivery commitment to customers for all seller-fulfilled products (including seller-fulfilled Prime) in the next few weeks. The reason for this is to mitigate the negative impact on sellers as the Royal Mail strike action and disruption to delivery services across the UK are expected to cause significant disruption to sellers.

The UK postal strike, involving 115,000 postal workers, is not only the biggest strike of the summer, but the largest. The strike will last for 4 days, the specific time is: August 26 (Friday), August 31 (Wednesday), September 8 (Thursday), September 9 (Friday).

Unions have warned that deliveries and pickups will be closed across much of the UK during the strike. During the strike period, it is difficult to guarantee the delivery of goods on time, and it is reported that some special deliveries, tracking packages, new coronavirus test kits and medical prescriptions will be given priority.

To minimize the impact on seller operations, Amazon UK recommends:

Operators are notified in advance of volume forecasts and demand changes.

Consider using multiple carriers to ensure products can be shipped on time.

Provide customers with correct tracking information and regular updates if their orders are delayed beyond the expected delivery date.

To avoid potential damage to cancellation rates, please continue to ship orders as soon as possible.

If the seller is unable to process buyer orders at all, please update the listing status for holidays and other absences to disable all seller-fulfilled listings in the UK. Sellers must still process and fulfill all orders received until listings are disabled.

Judging from the content of the announcement, Amazon did not specify the specific time for extending the delivery, nor did it explain how to deal with the negative impact of the strike on sellers.

Therefore, under the announcement, some sellers have questions, such as:

1. When will service disruptions across the UK occur?

2. How long will the service interruption last?

3. Is the delivery extension promise only for sellers using Royal Mail? Or also include sellers using DPD?

In addition to Amazon, eBay UK also issued an announcement recently, stating that it will provide protection measures for sellers affected by this incident, and eBay will automatically protect sellers' transactions from Monday, August 22 to Monday, September 18. Specifically, for transactions with an estimated delivery date between the above dates, the platform will automatically remove the seller's delayed delivery rate calculation; at the same time, the seller's "unreceived package" count in the service metrics dashboard will be automatically removed, During this period, the platform will also remove and delay any negative and neutral feedback related to or resulting from non-delivery.

Compared with the announcement of eBay UK station, the announcement of Amazon UK station did not explain the specific implementation process very clearly. Whether Amazon will reply to the seller's question in the future, Yien will continue to pay attention.