Amazon Now Controls Your FBM Order Handling Capacity

What's Happening

Amazon now automatically sets minimum order handling capacity for Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) sellers. You can increase your capacity above this minimum, but you can no longer decrease it below what Amazon calculates. This change removes manual control over capacity floors and directly impacts your delivery promise accuracy. What we observe from running these dashboards: the SKUs at the edge of the catalog move first, not the hero ASINs.

The feature rolled out in early 2025 for US sellers and has since expanded globally. Amazon uses your historical order data to determine the minimum capacity threshold, recalculating it on a rolling basis. If your actual performance drops below the threshold, it can trigger late shipment warnings and affect your account health.

Key Numbers at a Glance

How Order Handling Capacity Works Now

Your order handling capacity determines the maximum number of orders Amazon will assign to you for delivery within a specific timeframe. This directly affects the delivery promises shown to customers at checkout.

Who's Affected Most

What You Should Do Now

1. 1.

   Check Your Current Capacity Settings

   Go to Seller Central → Settings → Shipping Settings → General Shipping Settings. Review your current handling capacity and compare it to your actual fulfillment capabilities.

2. 2.

   Analyze Your Late Shipment Rate

   Check Account Health → Customer Service Performance → Late Shipment Rate. If you're already at risk, the automatic minimum will compound the problem. Address fulfillment bottlenecks now.

3. 3.

   Build Capacity Buffer

   Plan for your capacity minimum to be based on your best 30-day performance. Ensure you can consistently meet that level, even during staff shortages or supplier delays.

4. 4.

   Consider FBA for Volume Spikes

   For peak seasons, consider sending inventory to FBA to avoid capacity constraints. This lets Amazon handle fulfillment spikes without affecting your FBM metrics.

How Nova Helps

Nova's Day-to-Day Performance Dashboard lets you track revenue and profitability trends in real time. When capacity changes affect your sales volume, you can spot margin shifts early and adjust your operations accordingly.

With Custom Analytics, you can build reports comparing revenue and profitability across different time periods. This helps you understand how handling capacity changes impact your bottom line and plan inventory accordingly.

Sources

• Amazon Seller Central Forums: Automatic Minimum Threshold Discussion
• Cahoot.ai: Amazon Handling Capacity Guide
• Ordoro: Multi-Channel Order Management