Upcoming changes to the buyer-initiated order cancelation process

Effective May 23, 2022, we are changing the way sellers manage buyer-initiated order cancelations for seller-fulfilled orders.

Seller Central-Manage orders page changes

Cancelation process:

To request an official order cancelation, a buyer must go to Your Account, click Your Orders, and select Request cancelation.

• If the buyer requests a cancelation after 30 minutes of placing their order, you receive an email notification and will also be able to view the cancelation request on the Manage Orders page, right above the order information, with a banner stating The buyer has requested that this order be canceled. Canceling this order will not affect your cancelation rate metric.
• When canceling the order, select the cancelation reason as Buyer Canceled which will exclude this order from your cancelation rate metric.
• After you cancel the order, you and the buyer will receive separate emails confirming the order has been canceled.

To cancel an order requested by a buyer, follow the steps mentioned below:

1. Sign in to your Seller Central account. Go to Orders,click Manage Orders.
2. View orders with buyer-initiated cancelation by looking for the banner stating The buyer has requested that this order be canceled. Canceling this order will not affect your cancelation rate metric.
3. Click Cancel order under the Action column.
   Note: The Cancel order option is available for Unshipped orders only.
4. On the Order details page, select the reason for cancelation as Buyer Canceled.
5. Click Submit.

The images below show example of Step 2 and 3. On your Manage orders page, select the order you want to cancel and click Cancel order.

Example of Step 4. From the dropdown menu select the reason for cancelation as Buyer canceled.

Unofficial buyer-initiated cancelation process that will impact your cancelation rate metrics

A buyer requesting a cancelation solely via the Buyer-Seller messaging service without following the official cancelation process is considered an unofficial channel for buyers to cancel orders. Accordingly, if you cancel an order in response to a request from a buyer via the Buyer-Seller messaging service, this unofficial cancelation will impact your cancelation rate metric.

To avoid canceling an order in a manner that impacts your metrics, you can respond to the buyer's message, and request the buyer to submit a cancelation using the official process above.

Use the following instructions in your response: “You can find the order in your Amazon account. Go to Your Account, then click Your Orders, and select Request cancelation."

Order report changes

For sellers who use order reports to process orders, an optional additional field called is-buyer-requested-cancelation is available on your order reports. The is-buyer-requested-cancelation column will have a TRUE value if there is a buyer cancelation request for the order and FALSE otherwise.

You can view the image below.

You can view all orders which have buyer-initiated cancelation requests in your order reports by switching on the toggle option for the field called Buyer Requested Cancel available by accessing Add or remove order report columns.

You can view the image below.

API Changes (MWS API and Selling Partner (SP) - API)

Orders API

To highlight buyer-requested cancelations to sellers, Amazon will be updating the Orders API section.

Marketplace Web Service (MWS) API

When a buyer initiates an order-cancelation request:

1. The Order will be updated (LastUpdateDate) and the ListOrders operation will return the orders updated during the specified time.
2. The ListOrderItems operation will include an isBuyerRequestedCancel flag and buyerCancelReason string for each OrderItem in the response when the order has a buyer-initiated cancelation.
3. The isBuyerRequestedCancel flag will be set to True if the order has a buyer-initiated cancelation request.
4. The buyerCancelReason will display the reason for cancelation specified by the buyer.

Selling partner (SP)-API

Similar to the orders API, for SP-API, when a buyer initiates an order cancelation request:

1. The ordersV0GettOrderItemsList operation will include an isBuyerRequestedCancel flag and buyerCancelReason string for each OrderItem in the response when the order has a buyer-initiated cancelation.

2. The isBuyerRequestedCancel flag will be set to True if the order has a buyer-initiated cancelation request.

3. The buyerCancelReason will display the reason for cancelation specified by the buyer.

1. Why did you make these changes?

We received feedback from sellers saying they would like to be notified of buyer-initiated order cancelations in a way that they wouldn’t miss these requests, thereby reducing returns and refunds.

2. How is the cancelation rate metric calculated? Has anything changed?

There are no changes to the cancelation rate policy or how the cancelation rate metric is calculated. For more information, go to Cancelation rate.

3. Is there a change in the way I get notified if a buyer requests a cancelation via the official cancelation process?

Yes. You will be notified of the official buyer-initiated cancelation request via:

1. Email
2. Manage orders page on Seller Central
3. Order reports
4. Orders API response (MWS & SP-API)

4. Do I have to download order reports to be able to see buyer-initiated cancelations?

No. If you don’t use order reports, you will be notified of buyer-initiated cancelations through email, the Manage orders page on Seller Central, and via APIs. The advantage of downloading order reports is that you are able to see all buyer-initiated cancelations in a single report. You will need to switch the toggle option to enable the field called Buyer Requested Cancel.

5. Will I continue to receive order cancelation requests from buyers via the Buyer-Seller messaging service?

If a buyer requests an order cancelation via the Buyer-Seller messaging service only, it is considered an unofficial request. If you cancel the order, your cancelation rate metric will be impacted.

6. What should I do if I receive a cancelation request on Buyer-Seller messaging service?

Buyer-Seller messaging is considered an unofficial channel for buyers to request an order cancelation. To avoid canceling an order in a way that affects your metrics, respond to the buyer's message and request them to submit a cancelation request using the official process.

Use the following instructions in your response: “You can find the order in your Amazon account. Go to Your Account, click Your Orders, and select Request Cancelation.

7. Will I be able to use the Buyer-Seller messaging service to send messages to buyers after this change?

Yes, you can continue to communicate with the buyers using Buyer-Seller messages in the same way you currently do today.

Messages about cancelation are considered a critical message, and will be delivered to a buyer even if they have opted out of non-critical messages.

8. What happens if I choose not to accept the buyer’s order cancelation request?

At this time, if the buyer initiates the order cancelation and you choose to go ahead and ship the order, it will not negatively impact your cancelation rate metric.

9. Will this update change the kind of cancelations that will negatively affect my cancelation rate metric?

No, this update will not change the kind of cancelations that can negatively affect your cancelation rate metric.

Resources

Order cancelations

Cancelations FAQ