Sometimes You’ll get an Amazon order that immediately looks like something you can’t ship and your first thought is to cancel it. However, cancelling orders on Amazon can hurt your metrics, especially if you’re a new seller with few orders and no metrics established yet.
We recommend taking a few moments to really think out your decision before you hit that cancel button, because metrics matter! Here’s the most common reason that merchants feel they need to cancel an order:
- You don’t have the item in stock
- The Amazon listing is bad (multi-pack, wrong description)
- Incorrect pricing
If it’s a situation where you have the ability to ship the item but you’re going to lose money on it due incorrect pricing, the best option is to ship it anyway and make adjustments to your pricing immediately so you don’t continue to lose money on the item. Shipping the item and taking a hit on one or two orders will outweigh the hit you’ll take to your Amazon metrics if you cancel the order. This is especially important if you are a new seller with a small amount of orders and no metrics built up yet.
If you get an order for an item you don’t currently have in stock, the best option is to order it if you can then ship out the order once you receive the item. If it’s a superseded or discontinued item that you can no longer get, then you’ll need to cancel the order.
Our infographic below will help you decide if you should ship the order or cancel it.:
