What Is Pre-Fulfillment Cancel Rate?
The Pre-Fulfillment Cancel Rate, sometimes displayed as Cancellation Rate, measures seller-cancelled orders as a percentage of total orders during the applicable measurement period.
Amazon's guidance describes the metric as seller-cancelled orders divided by total orders during a given 7-day period.
What Can Cause a Pre-Fulfillment Cancellation?
Common reasons include:
An item is actually out of stock
Inventory quantity was incorrect
An item was sold on another marketplace
The seller cannot locate the item
The item is damaged and cannot be shipped
The seller discovers an inventory error after the customer orders
Why Is This Important?
Frequent seller-initiated cancellations can indicate that inventory is not being managed accurately.
For sellers who list the same inventory across multiple marketplaces, keeping quantities synchronized is especially important to prevent an item from being sold twice.
Does This Apply to FBA Orders?
Amazon's shipping-performance guidance notes that these shipping metrics are associated with seller-fulfilled orders rather than FBA orders.
How to Reduce Cancellations
Keep your inventory quantities accurate, remove unavailable items promptly, check merchant-fulfilled inventory regularly, and make sure items are actually available before listing them.