Heavy and Bulky Shipping Template
What is a Heavy and Bulky (HB) product?
At Amazon, we define a Heavy and Bulky product/ASIN as one that meets at least one of the following characteristics:
- Weight is greater than or equal to 23 kg
- Longest side is greater than or equal to 175 cm
- Girth > 360 cm [Girth = Length + 2*(Height) + 2*(Width)]
Based on dimensions and weight, we further classify HB products into two categories:
| HB Category |
Weight Criteria |
Dimension Criteria |
Girth* Criteria |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy non-sort (HNS) | >=23 kg and <31.5 kg | Not Applicable | Not Applicable |
| Heavy Bulky | >=31.5 kg | Longest side >=175 cm | Girth >=360 cm |
*Girth = Length + 2*(Height) + 2*(Width)
What is a Heavy and Bulky (HB) shipping template?
The Heavy and Bulky (HB) shipping template is a shipping template that enables you to offer a great customer experience when delivering HB items. The template allows you to offer your customers at least one of the following two shipping options, depending on your carrier’s capability:
- Arranged Delivery: For this shipping option, the carrier must contact your customer at least 48 hours before the promised delivery date via any of the communication channels such as call/text/email to arrange the delivery, while allowing your customer to reschedule for a later date.
- Scheduled Delivery: This shipping option allows your customer to choose a specific date and time slot at checkout, and your carrier must attempt the delivery in the chosen slot.
What are the benefits of using the Heavy and Bulky (HB) shipping template?
Using the HB shipping template for delivering Heavy and Bulky products (such as refrigerators and furniture) is beneficial to both customers and sellers:
-
Customer benefits:
- Using the HB shipping template enables customer-facing communications on the product detail page (PDP), whereby the carrier will contact the customer to set a delivery date (Arranged Delivery) or the delivery will happen on a scheduled date/time as selected by the customer (Scheduled Delivery).
- Using the HB shipping template allows customers to update their phone number during checkout for a particular delivery, reducing missed deliveries. As a result, the HB shipping template offers an improved customer experience, as customers will now be contacted for the delivery through either a call, text message or email.
-
Seller benefits:
- Using the HB shipping template can help improve conversion because you communicate to the customers before the actual purchase that they will be contacted for the delivery.
- Engaging with customers to set a delivery date helps mitigate the risk of missed deliveries, cancelled orders and negative customer feedback (thereby lowering your Order Defect Rate (ODR)).
- Reduction in customer contacts (buyer-seller messages) saves your resources/time in handling them.
Therefore, the HB shipping template enables you to offer the best customer experience for HB products, where the customer needs to be at home to receive the package.
How can you access the HB shipping template?
You can create/edit a new HB shipping template for free, similar to the Fulfilled by Merchant Standard/SFP shipping template. To access it, follow the below steps:
- From the Settings drop-down, select Shipping Settings.
- From the Shipping Template List, click Create a new template for Large and Heavy Items, and then click OK.
- Enter the template name (for example, "Arranged Delivery for Heavy/Large items").
-
Choose the rate model for your delivery rates:
- Per item / weight-based
- Price banded or
- Weight-tiered
- Edit the template as needed
- Click Save
- Assign SKUs to the shipping template
FAQs
FAQ 1: Am I eligible to offer Arranged Delivery/Scheduled Delivery?
If your carrier uses Arranged Delivery or Scheduled Delivery, you are automatically eligible to use the Heavy Bulky shipping template. If you are unsure of the way your carrier delivers HB items to customers, we would advise you to contact them to confirm. Be aware that in the UK, most of the main carriers can implement Arranged Delivery at no additional cost.
FAQ 2: Is there any cost to use the HB shipping template?
There is no additional fee to use the HB shipping template.
FAQ 3: I use two carriers to ship HB items, but only one of them offers Arranged/Scheduled Delivery. What should I do?
Use HB shipping template only for products that are shipped by the carrier that offers Arranged Delivery/Scheduled Delivery. Bearing in mind the benefits for customers and sellers, and with a view to striving to offer the best customer experience, you might want to consider only using a carrier that offers Arranged Delivery or Scheduled Delivery for all of your HB products.
FAQ 4: Which carriers should I use to offer Arranged/Scheduled Delivery?
We recommend using any carrier that is integrated with Amazon and also offers Arranged Delivery/Scheduled Delivery services for HB products.
The following carriers are integrated with Amazon and also offer Arranged Delivery/Scheduled Delivery services for HB products. However, we would still recommend that you check directly with your carriers whether they offer Arranged Delivery/Scheduled Delivery:
Tuffnells, DPD, Panther, DX Freight, AO
FAQ 5: My preferred carrier is not integrated but offers Arranged Delivery/Scheduled Delivery. Can I still use the HB template?
Yes, you are eligible to use your preferred non-integrated carrier as long as they meet the minimum requirements (carrier must contact the customer within 48 hours of the promised delivery date via any communication channel. For example, call/text/email to arrange the delivery, while allowing them to reschedule for a later date).
However, we encourage you to use a carrier that offers Arranged Delivery/Scheduled Delivery and is also integrated with Amazon. The benefit of using an integrated carrier is that it gives end-to-end tracking to the customer by providing them with the tracking ID (as the carrier is integrated) and delivery date (as the carrier either arranges or schedules delivery). This helps reduce customer anxiety, thereby reducing the number of contacts that customers make to you and Amazon, and helping improve seller feedback ratings. For more details on tracking and integrated carriers, visit the following pages:
FAQ 6: Can I edit or copy my existing standard template to include the HB shipping template functionalities?
No, you must follow the steps described above (“How can you access the HB shipping template?”) to create a first HB shipping template. You can later copy the HB shipping template to create multiple templates if desired.
FAQ 7: What does the product detail page (PDP) and checkout page look like if I use the HB shipping template?
The product detail page (PDP) and checkout page will vary based on whether you choose the Arranged Delivery or Scheduled Delivery shipping option from the HB shipping template. Below are the screenshots for both of the shipping options:
Arranged Delivery: Product Detail Page
Arranged Delivery: Checkout Process
Scheduled Delivery: Product Detail Page
Scheduled Delivery: Checkout Process
