Cancellations FAQ

A buyer wants to cancel an order. What should I do?

Both cancellations and returns are a normal part of most sales operations.

Depending on the stage for processing the order, the following options may help you to determine next steps:

1. If you haven’t shipped or confirmed shipment for this order, you can cancel it in Manage Orders, or use an Order Cancellation feed to cancel orders by uploading a file or through an API. To cancel an order from the Manage Orders page, follow the steps mentioned under What is the official cancellation process for buyer-initiated order cancellations that will not count against your Cancellation Rate metrics?
2. If you already shipped, but haven’t confirmed shipment, you should confirm shipment and then contact the buyer through the Buyer-Seller Messaging service and advise them to either refuse the shipment or initiate a return.
3. If you haven’t shipped, but you already confirmed shipment, you can no longer cancel the order. You should begin a refund process and not ship the product.

For more information, see Cancel an order or multiple orders.

What is the official cancellation process for buyer-initiated order cancellations that will not count against your Cancellation Rate metrics?

The official process by which a buyer can request an order cancellation is by finding the order they want to cancel in their Amazon account > Your Account > Your Orders > Request Cancellation

1. If the buyer requests a cancellation more than 30 minutes after placing their order, you will receive an email. You will be able to view the cancellation request on the “Manage Orders” page, right above the order information with a banner stating “The buyer has requested that this order be cancelled. Cancelling this order will not affect your Cancellation Rate metric.”
2. Cancelling this order will not affect your Cancellation Rate metric if you select the reason for cancellation as “Buyer Cancelled”.
3. After you cancel the order, you and the buyer will receive separate email confirmations that the order has been cancelled.

To cancel an order as requested by a buyer, follow these steps:

1. From the Orders drop-down on Seller Central, select Manage Orders.
2. The orders which have a buyer-initiated cancellation will show up with a banner stating “The buyer has requested that this order be cancelled. Cancelling this order will not affect your Cancellation Rate metric.”
3. Click Cancel order under the Actions column.
   Note: The Cancel order button is available only for Unshipped orders.
4. On the Order Details page, select the reason for cancellation as Buyer Cancelled.
5. Click Submit.
6. After you cancel the order, you and the buyer will receive separate email confirmations that the order has been cancelled.

The image below shows an example of Steps 2 and 3. On your Manage orders page, select the order you want to cancel and click Cancel order.

Example of Step 4: Select the reason for cancellation as Buyer cancelled from the drop-down menu.

Unofficial cancellation process that might count against your metrics:

A buyer requesting a cancellation solely via the Buyer-Seller Messaging tool without following the official cancellation 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 tool, this unofficial cancellation will affect your Cancellation Rate metric.

To avoid cancelling an order in a manner that affects your metrics, you can respond to the buyer’s message and request that the buyer submits an official cancellation.

Use the following instructions in your response: “You can find the order in your Amazon account by clicking Your Account > Your Orders > Request Cancellation”

To review your Cancellation Rate metrics and policy requirements, go to Cancellation Rate

Where can I find orders where the buyer officially requested cancellation?

You can see officially-requested buyer-initiated cancellations on:

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

Do I have to download order reports to be able to see buyer-initiated cancellations?

No. If you don’t use order reports, you will be notified of buyer-initiated cancellations 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 cancellations in a single report. You have to switch the toggle option to enable the field called Buyer Requested Cancel.

What kind of cancellations negatively affect the Cancellation Rate metric?

Cancellation initiated by	Cancellation scenario	Negatively affects Cancellation Rate?
Buyer	1. I am cancelling because the buyer submitted an official cancellation request	No
	2. I am cancelling because the customer asked me to through the Buyer-Seller Messaging tool (unofficial cancellation processes)	Yes
Seller	1. I am cancelling because my item went out of stock	Yes
	2. I am cancelling because the address was undeliverable	Yes
	3. I am cancelling because the buyer was unresponsive	Yes
Amazon	1. The order was automatically cancelled by Amazon because the seller did not confirm shipment within 7 days of the ship-by-date	Yes
	2. The order was automatically cancelled by Amazon because we detected the buyer as fraudulent	No
	3. Payment verification failed so the order was cancelled by Amazon	No

I mistakenly cancelled an order. What should I do?

If the buyer reaches out to you saying they still want the product, ask them to place a new order.

An order is in “Pending” status. Can I cancel it?

Orders are listed as “Pending” while Amazon is verifying the payment method provided by the buyer. Pending orders do not include the buyer's shipping address or contact information and should not be shipped, even if the buyer contacts you directly. If buyers contact you while their order is in “Pending” status, refer them to Amazon Customer Service.

Once the payment method has been verified, the Confirm shipment and Cancel order buttons will become available in Manage Orders. In addition, the order will appear in both the Orders Report and the Unshipped Orders Report. At this point, the order should be shipped (or cancelled, if necessary).

To learn more, go to Pending Orders .

An order has been cancelled, but neither the buyer nor I took action to cancel this order. Who cancelled the order?

Amazon can automatically cancel orders if 7 days have passed after the expected shipping availability date and you have not yet shipped and confirmed the shipment.

How long can an order be in Pending status before it gets cancelled?

In some cases, payment and order detail verification processes may potentially extend order processing times for up to 21 days.

How do I cancel partial orders?

You can issue full and partial refunds for each item in an order by using either the Refund Orders tool or the Order Adjustments Feed.

Occasionally, you may need to cancel part of an order with multiple items and refund the items that are cancelled.

For more information, go to Cancel an order or multiple orders .

What do I do if buyers contact me to update the address in the order?

If you have not yet shipped the order and the buyer says they cannot receive the order at the address they provided originally, ask the buyer to cancel the order. The buyer can then return to Amazon to place a new order using the correct address. Amazon’s policy requires sellers to ship only to the address provided in their seller account.

What should I do if I cannot fulfil this order because the address is undeliverable?

If you have not yet shipped the order you can reach out to the buyer by contacting them through the Buyer-Seller Messages to cancel this order and place new order for correct address.

If the order is shipped, you can contact the carrier service asking them to return the product and when the product is returned, you can deduct the restocking fee from the order and refund the buyer.

What should I do if I need more details to fulfil this order and the buyer is unresponsive?

If you have shipped the order, you can contact the carrier service and ask them to return the product because the buyer is unresponsive. When you receive the product, you can deduct the restocking fee from the order and refund the buyer.

See also

Order Cancellations

Cancellation Rate