In Vendor Central Direct Fulfillment (DF), your lead-time bands determine everything: which ASINs get volume, how Amazon positions your offers, and whether you’re competing in the fast lane or stuck in the slow lane. Amazon’s DF program is their 1P dropship channel—Amazon sells the item retail (“Sold by Amazon”), but you ship it directly to the customer.

Get your lead-time bands right, and Amazon will push volume to your fastest-performing ASINs. Get it wrong, and you’ll watch your catalog slide into slower promise buckets, losing conversion and market share to competitors who can deliver faster.

This guide covers everything you need to know about DF lead-time bands: how Amazon categorizes your performance, what each band means, and practical strategies to move your catalog into faster bands where sales happen.

What is Vendor Central Direct Fulfillment?

Vendor Central Direct Fulfillment is Amazon’s 1P dropship program. Unlike Seller Central where you control the Buy Box, in DF Amazon controls the Buy Box—they’re the seller of record. But you control execution: you receive orders through Drop Ship Central or DF APIs, acknowledge them, and ship directly to customers within defined lead-time windows.

Amazon measures your performance aggressively. Every shipment, every promise, every delay gets tracked and categorized into lead-time bands. These bands determine how Amazon thinks about your catalog and where they’ll push volume.

How DF Lead Time Works

In DF, Amazon issues you a customer order through Drop Ship Central or DF APIs. You acknowledge the order, then ship within a defined window. These steps are formalized in Amazon’s DF workflow.

Amazon assigns each DF ASIN a lead-time band based on your demonstrated performance. Shorter bands equal better conversion and fewer cancellations. Amazon has pushed toward ASIN-level lead time for years so fast items stay fast and slow items don’t drag your whole catalog down.

The key insight: Amazon thinks in bands, not excuses. If you miss fast promises, Amazon doesn’t ask why—your catalog shifts into slower promise buckets and you lose the conversion advantage.

Understanding DF Performance Report Lead-Time Bands

Amazon’s DF lead-time distribution shows how they categorize your performance. Here’s what those columns mean:

Warehouse: ship-from node. Amazon measures each node separately.
Deliveries: number of packages promised (for promise metrics) and/or actually delivered, depending on the metric.
The remaining columns are lead-time bands showing how many of your deliveries fell into each promised-speed group:

GD GD eligible 1 day 1–2 days 2–3 days 3–5 days 5–7 days 1–2 weeks 2–3 weeks 3–4 weeks 3–5 weeks 4–6 weeks 6–7 weeks 7–8 weeks

“GD” and “GD eligible” are Amazon’s internal fast-delivery groupings. Treat them as “same/next-day capable” tiers that Amazon reserves for vendors who consistently hit ultra-short ship and delivery expectations. If your DF performance supports it, Amazon moves volume into those columns; if not, your volume slides rightward into longer bands.

What Each Band Means for Your Business

GD / GD Eligible: These are your hero offers. Amazon reserves these for vendors who consistently deliver same-day or next-day. Volume here means maximum conversion and Buy Box priority.
1 day / 1–2 days: Strong performance bands. These ASINs get good visibility and conversion rates. Most competitive products should aim for these bands.
2–3 days / 3–5 days: Viable but not optimal. You’re still competitive, but you’re leaving conversion on the table compared to faster bands.
5–7 days and beyond: These are slow bands. Amazon will still accept orders, but you’re losing significant conversion and may see volume throttled. Only defensible for truly custom, bulky, or made-to-order items.

How Amazon Assigns Lead-Time Bands

Amazon assigns bands based on your historical performance, not your promises. The system looks at:

On-Time Delivery Rate: Are you hitting your promised delivery dates?
Late Shipment Rate: Are you shipping within your promised handling windows?
Cancellation Rate: Are you canceling orders due to stockouts or capacity issues?
Valid Tracking Rate: Can Amazon track your shipments properly?

If you consistently perform faster than your current band, Amazon may move you into a faster band. If you miss promises, you’ll slide into slower bands.

The system is ASIN-level, which means:

Fast-moving items can stay in fast bands even if slower items are in slower bands
One problematic ASIN won’t necessarily drag down your whole catalog
You can optimize band placement SKU by SKU

Strategies to Move Into Faster Bands

1. Start With Realistic Promises

Don’t promise 1-day delivery if you can’t consistently hit it. Amazon will move you into slower bands based on actual performance, not promises. Better to start in a 2–3 day band and prove you can hit it consistently, then work toward faster bands.

2. Optimize Your Fastest ASINs First

Focus on getting your highest-volume, fastest-moving ASINs into GD or 1-day bands. These are your traffic drivers. Once they’re in fast bands, Amazon will push more volume to them, creating a positive feedback loop.

3. Separate Fast and Slow Operations

If you have some ASINs that can ship same-day and others that need 3–5 days, don’t let the slow ones drag down the fast ones. Use different fulfillment nodes or processes to keep them separate in Amazon’s measurement system.

4. Monitor Performance Weekly

Amazon’s DF performance reports update regularly. Check them weekly to see:

Which ASINs are moving between bands
Where you’re missing promises
Which warehouses are performing best

Catch issues early before they cause band downgrades.

5. Regionalize Inventory

Amazon rewards proximity. If most of your shipments are cross-country, you’re fighting physics. Consider:

West Coast fulfillment node for West Coast customers
East Coast fulfillment node for East Coast customers
This can cut effective delivery time by 1–2 days without changing your handling time

This requires solid inventory management and forecasting to ensure you have the right inventory in the right locations.

6. Weekend and Cutoff Discipline

A huge share of “late” shipments are operational sloppiness, not true capacity limits:

Publish your real daily cutoff internally
Scan by carrier pickup, not by label print
Don’t promise Saturday handoff if your dock is closed

This is boring, old-fashioned ops. It’s also where most DF vendors lose. Fixing it is a cheap win.

7. Keep Tracking Clean

Late scans often result from:

Buying labels but missing first scan
Using non-integrated carriers
Drop-offs without acceptance scans

If Amazon can’t see movement, it assumes you’re late. Use carriers that integrate well with Amazon’s tracking systems.

Common DF Lead-Time Mistakes

Promising faster than you can deliver
- Amazon will downgrade you based on actual performance anyway
- Better to start realistic and prove consistency
Not monitoring band changes
- Bands can shift based on performance
- Check reports weekly to catch downgrades early
Letting slow ASINs drag down fast ones
- Use separate fulfillment processes or nodes
- Keep fast and slow operations separate
Ignoring warehouse-level performance
- Amazon measures each warehouse separately
- One bad warehouse can hurt your overall profile
Not optimizing for proximity
- Cross-country shipments add days to delivery
- Regionalize inventory to cut transit time

DF Lead-Time Benchmark Targets

For healthy DF performance at scale, aim for:

GD / GD Eligible band: 20–30%+ of volume (for fast-moving consumer goods)
1–2 day bands: 50–60%+ of volume
3–5 day bands: 10–20% of volume (for slower items)
5+ day bands: <10% of volume (only for truly custom/slow items)

If most of your volume is in 5+ day bands, you’re either:

Understaffed or too centralized
Selling items that don’t fit the DF model
Not optimizing your operations

Closing: The Real Game

Amazon’s DF lead-time bands are a visible ranking system. Fast bands get volume, slow bands get sidelined. The system rewards consistency and speed, and punishes missed promises.

The direction is clear: Amazon wants faster delivery, and they’ll push volume to vendors who can deliver it. Handle lead time correctly—realistic promises, consistent execution, SKU-level optimization—and you’ll stay in the left-most “fast” bands where sales happen. Keep it loose, and Amazon will move you rightward until you’re irrelevant.

The good news? Once you understand how Amazon categorizes your performance into bands, you can optimize systematically. Start with your fastest ASINs, prove consistency, then work toward faster bands. Monitor weekly, separate fast and slow operations, and regionalize inventory where it makes sense. Your conversion rates and volume allocation will thank you.

References

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Ultimate Guide to Vendor Central Direct Fulfillment Lead-Time Bands