At a glance
Average all-in cost paid per Prime-eligible consignment in the period: base carrier rate plus zone surcharge plus fuel surcharge plus residential surcharge plus signature-required fee, divided by consignment count. The card is the per-shipment SFP economics dial; pair with ama_otd_rate and Amazon’s Concession metric to see whether the spend is buying you the Prime-badge-protecting service it should.
| What it counts | SUM(consignment_total_charge_usd) / COUNT(consignments) over rolling 30 days. Includes all surcharges. |
| Service level scope | Prime-eligible consignments (1-Day, 2-Day, Same-Day) across all carriers. |
| Surcharges included | Fuel surcharge (each carrier publishes monthly), residential delivery surcharge, peak-period surcharge (Q4), signature-required fee, additional-handling fee. |
| Carrier mix breakdown | UPS Ground 2-Day typically 8 per shipment; OnTrac 9; USPS Priority 7; Amazon Logistics 6 (lowest where coverage exists). The headline avg blends; per-carrier split on ama_route_otd. |
| B2B vs B2C | Almost entirely B2C. Amazon Business Prime is a small share of typical SFP volume. |
| Currency | USD. |
| Tariff change cadence | UPS publishes annual rate increases in January (typically +5 to +6% YoY). USPS Priority publishes annual increases mid-year. Fuel surcharges update weekly to monthly across carriers. Q4 peak surcharges typically active mid-November to mid-January. |
| Time window | 30D vsP |
| Alert trigger | +10% vsP. |
| Roles | owner, finance, operations |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your Amazon Prime Shipping (SFP) data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
A US apparel merchant on SFP shipping from Atlanta with carrier mix UPS Ground 2-Day (East/Midwest), OnTrac (West Coast), USPS Priority (rural), Amazon Logistics (limited zones). Reading taken at 09:00 ET on 02 Apr 26 for the trailing 30 days (02 Mar 26 to 01 Apr 26).| Carrier | Consignments | Total spend | Avg cost per shipment |
|---|---|---|---|
| UPS Ground 2-Day | 4,820 | $33,740 | $7.00 |
| OnTrac (West Coast) | 1,210 | $8,952 | $7.40 |
| USPS Priority (rural) | 580 | $3,712 | $6.40 |
| Amazon Logistics | 320 | $1,664 | $5.20 |
| Total / weighted avg | 6,930 | $48,068 | $6.94 |
- Most of the rise is January UPS tariff carry-forward. UPS’s January rate increase typically lifts blended SFP cost 4 to 6% YoY; expect this baseline.
- **Amazon Logistics at 1.50 to $2 per shipment. Where coverage is available, push more volume to Amazon Logistics; cost-and-OTD both improve.
- UPS Ground at $7.00 is the volume cohort. UPS dominates the weighted avg; rate-card moves on UPS reverberate through this card more than on any other carrier.
- USPS Priority cheapest on the 4-carrier mix but worst on OTD (recall earlier 91.7%). The economics question is “is the 1.50 saving per rural-ZIP shipment worth the SFP eligibility risk?” For a Prime-badge-dependent merchant, almost always no.
- Compare against
ama_otd_rate. Cost up 4.8% + OTD flat-or-down = renegotiate carriers (especially USPS Priority). Cost up + OTD up = paying for better service. Plus, factor Amazon Concession costs (Amazon-side credits to customers when Prime is broken) which run 10 per missed Prime promise. A 1-point OTD gain can offset $200 of Concession cost on a 200-miss month.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
Average shipping cost is the per-shipment SFP economics dial. Pair with these:| Card | Why pair it with Avg Shipping Cost | What the combination tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per Shipment Trend | 90-day shape vs 30-day point. | Step (tariff change) vs creep (mix shift). |
| Cost by Zone | Zone-distance split. | Mix-shift toward farther zones lifts the avg. |
| Shipments by Service | 1-Day vs 2-Day vs Same-Day mix. | 1-Day is roughly 1.4x 2-Day cost. |
| On-Time Delivery Rate | Service half of spend-to-service ratio. | Cost up + OTD flat = renegotiate carrier mix. |
| Open Claims | Carrier refund recovery offsets gross cost. | Net cost = gross minus recovered. |
| SFP On-Time Delivery vs 99% Threshold | Cost-vs-eligibility view. | Cheap-USPS-rural is false economy if it costs the badge. |
Cross-connector: amazon.az_concessions | Amazon-side concession costs (customer credits). | Concession cost is offset by reduced cost-of-Prime-miss; right balance matters. |
Cross-connector: shipbob.sb_avg_shipping_cost | Peer 3PL alternative. | Different orders. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look: Per-carrier invoices: UPS Quantum View, USPS Click-N-Ship monthly statement, OnTrac account portal, Amazon Logistics in Seller Central → Logistics → Invoicing. Card pools all carriers connected. Why our number may legitimately differ:| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Period boundary | Either | Carriers invoice on weekly or monthly cycles; card uses 30-day rolling. |
| Credit notes | Ours higher (gross) | Carrier refunds appear as credit notes on next invoice. |
| Surcharge timing | Either | Fuel surcharge changes mid-month. |
| Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence |
|---|---|---|
shipbob.sb_avg_shipping_cost | Peer 3PL. | Different orders. |
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
Why does our average rise every January? UPS publishes annual rate increase in early January; OnTrac follows mid-January. Combined with annual fuel-surcharge baseline reset, expect 4 to 7% YoY rise as structural baseline. Adjust YoY comparisons. Amazon Logistics is cheapest on coverage; how do we maximise it? Check Amazon’s coverage list quarterly (varies by ZIP). Set up your shipping rate logic to prefer Amazon Logistics where eligible, falling back to UPS for non-Amazon-Logistics ZIPs. Most rate-shopping rules engines (Shipstation, Shippo, Veeqo) support carrier preference rules. SFP rate negotiation: who do we negotiate with? Each carrier separately. UPS account managers will negotiate rate-card discounts above ~$5K monthly UPS spend. OnTrac similar. Amazon Logistics rates are largely fixed. Bring this card,ama_otd_rate, and Amazon Concession data to UPS / OnTrac negotiations as proof of operating discipline.
Why did avg cost spike but rate cards have not changed?
Service-mix shift (more 1-Day vs 2-Day), zone-mix shift (more rural / longer distance), or seasonal peak surcharge (Q4 mid-November to mid-January). Rare to be a true rate-card surprise on Amazon SFP cohort.
Carrier-claim recovery: how does that show up?
Not in this card. Card is gross spend; claim recovery is on ama_open_claims. To compute net, subtract recovered claims from gross. Net cost is what flows into your contribution-margin calculation.
SFP suspension during Q4: cost implications?
Suspending SFP for 6 weeks shifts all volume to standard non-Prime fulfilment. Customer-facing shipping cost can be lower (slower delivery, USPS Ground Advantage, Mercury Mail), but Buy Box win rate drops without Prime badge and revenue typically falls 20 to 40% during suspension. Cost-per-order falls, gross revenue falls more. Whether worth it depends on margin structure.
1-Day vs 2-Day Prime cost difference?
1-Day Prime carriage is roughly 1.4x 2-Day on UPS, 1.5x on OnTrac. Most merchants offer 2-Day as default Prime; 1-Day available for buy-time orders. The card pools both; if mix shifts toward 1-Day (e.g. promotional period), avg lifts proportionally.
During Q4 peak, what do carrier surcharges add?
UPS adds Peak Season Surcharge (typically 1.00 per Ground 2-Day shipment) from late November to mid-January. OnTrac adds similar. USPS Priority typically does not add peak surcharge; cost stays flat through Q4. Net peak-period uplift on this card: 5 to 12% depending on carrier mix.
Compared to FBA, what is the cost trade-off?
FBA absorbs storage cost (2.40 per cubic foot per month) plus per-unit fulfilment fee (7 typical). SFP avoids those but adds the merchant-warehouse overhead and per-shipment carriage cost. Hybrid models are common: FBA for high-velocity / Prime-Day-critical SKUs, SFP for slow-velocity / brand-experience SKUs.
Buy with Prime: same carrier costs?
Yes. Buy with Prime ships on the same carrier mix as SFP. Costs are comparable; the Buy with Prime program adds no carrier-side surcharge.