Operator glossary
VTR (Valid Tracking Rate)
The share of seller-fulfilled packages with carrier-confirmed tracking — 95% per category is the line, and below it Amazon restricts your ability to sell seller-fulfilled at all.
VTR counts packages whose tracking numbers show carrier scans, measured per category over 30 days, with 95% as the enforcement threshold. It exists because untracked packages generate where-is-my-order contacts, claims, and refund fraud exposure — so Amazon simply mandates the data.
Failures cluster in three causes: economy shipping methods without scan integration, letter-mail for small items, and manual tracking-number typos. The cure is structural — Buy Shipping or integrated carriers make valid tracking automatic, and genuinely untrackable methods (certain letter formats) have narrow exemptions worth reading before relying on.
The numbers
- Threshold: ≥95% valid (carrier-scanned) tracking per category, trailing 30 days; enforcement restricts seller-fulfilled selling.
- Buy Shipping and integrated carriers make compliance automatic; manual entry and unscanned economy mail are the failure sources.
Related terms