Warehouse fulfillment policy frequently asked questions

To help merchants best leverage the product-level shipping settings functionality such as “max delivery days” for products in applicable warehouses (Primary or Secondary warehouses), Wish’s Warehouse Fulfillment Policy provides fulfillment requirements for merchants to ensure on-time delivery of orders and improve customer trust and satisfaction.

This article details the policy and provides examples for merchants.

1. Orders of products with max delivery days set by merchants must be confirmed delivered on time.

As merchants are able to set max delivery days for their products in relevant warehouses (Primary or Secondary warehouses for merchants based outside of Mainland China, and Secondary warehouse(s) only for merchants based in Mainland China), merchants are bound by the shipping speeds that they set.

Note that if no “max delivery days” is set by merchants for their products in the Secondary warehouses, it defaults to Wish Express-required delivery timeline, and merchants are still subject to the Warehouse Fulfillment Policy. No default max delivery days will be set by Wish for products in the Primary warehouse.

Therefore, based on the max delivery days for a product (either set by merchants or default as the Wish Express-required delivery timeline if not set/updated by merchants), the warehouse it’s in, and the destination country/region at the time a corresponding order is released, the order must be confirmed delivered within the merchant-set max delivery days after the order released time.

Note that a product may qualify for Wish Express depending on the max delivery days set for specific destination countries. If a product’s “max delivery days” set by merchants is indeed on par with or within the Wish Express delivery timeline requirements per Wish Express policy, merchants are bound by the exact max delivery days that they set, even though it is shorter than the required timeline per Wish Express policy.

For example, if the max delivery days shipping to the US is set as 3 business days for a product, this is shorter than the normal Wish Express required delivery timeline for the US, which is 5 business days. In this case, corresponding orders must be confirmed delivered within 3 business days in order to comply with the Warehouse Fulfillment Policy.

2. Payments for certain types of orders arriving later than the merchant-set max delivery days may be withheld.

There are two situations where payment for an order arriving later than max delivery days may be withheld:

• If the order is delivered late on any day in a current Monday - Sunday calendar week, and the weekly Warehouse Late Delivery Rate* of the warehouse from which this order is shipped during one of the following 7-calendar-day time periods represents more than a nominal percentage of total orders, the late-arriving order’s payment may be withheld:
  • The most recent Monday - Sunday calendar week immediately prior to the confirmed delivery date, if the confirmed delivery date falls on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday in the current week. OR
  • The Monday - Sunday calendar week immediately prior to the calendar week before the confirmed delivery date, if the confirmed delivery date falls on a Monday or Tuesday in the current week.
• If an order arrives significantly later than the merchant-set max delivery days, regardless of whether the weekly Warehouse Late Delivery Rate is high or low.
  • For orders where the merchant-set max delivery days is ≥ 5 business days: If the order is confirmed delivered in 5 or more business days after the merchant-set max delivery days, the order is considered significantly late.
  • For orders where the merchant-set max delivery days is < 5 business days: If the order is confirmed delivered in a number of days ≥ twice the merchant-set max delivery days, the order is also considered significantly late.

Merchants may dispute the payment withholding within 30 calendar days from the date the order’s payment is withheld. On the Orders > History page, merchants may click on the Order ID and navigate to the specific order’s “Order details” page, scroll down to “Payment information” and click “View Details”.

In the popup modal, merchants may click “Dispute Tracking Validity” in the “Withhold Reason” line item (see screenshot below), and follow the process from there to dispute the payment withholding.

Payments withheld for two types of late-arriving orders defined above may be released to merchants once the following two conditions have been met simultaneously:

• a minimum of 12 consecutive Monday - Sunday weeks have passed since the order is first deemed late-arriving and the order’s payment is first withheld (these two actions occur approximately at the same time);
• Merchants are able to consistently maintain an acceptable Warehouse Late Delivery Rate over the last 4 consecutive Monday - Sunday weeks for the warehouse the late-arriving order was fulfilled from.

* Warehouse Late Delivery Rate is measured on a per-warehouse, per-N-calendar-day basis (N > 1). Specifically, for any given warehouse, during a period of 5 calendar days from Date X to Date X+4 as an example (i.e., N = 5):

• A = the number of all orders that should have been confirmed delivered from Date X to Date X+4, based on the order released date and merchant-set max delivery days; 
• B = the number of orders that arrived late among all orders defined in A above;
• Warehouse Late Delivery Rate during the N calendar days from Date X to Date X+4 = B/A.

Detailed examples of this policy can be found below.

 

3. Merchants are responsible for any refunds on orders that are confirmed delivered later than the merchant-set max delivery days

Whenever an order is delivered later than the merchant-set max delivery days for the corresponding product and destination country/region, the merchant will be responsible for 100% of the cost of any refund on that order.

 

4. If merchants are unable to achieve an acceptable Warehouse Late Delivery Rate 24 weeks after the payment of an order is withheld, the order will no longer be eligible for payment

If 24 consecutive Monday - Sunday weeks have passed since the payment of an order is first withheld (per No. 2 above and the "Warehouse Fulfillment Policy"), and the merchant has still not met the criteria for payment release (i.e., the payment of the order is still withheld 24 weeks after it was first withheld), the order will no longer be eligible for payment, permanently.

 

Examples:

Scenario 1: Wish Express and Warehouse Fulfillment Policy

1. A merchant based in Mexico sets the max delivery days as “4 business days” for Product A in her Secondary warehouse shipping to the United States, with a shipping price of $10. 
2. She also sets the max delivery days as “10 business days” for Product A in her Primary warehouse shipping to the United States, with a shipping price of $5. 
3. Inventory quantities for Product A in both warehouses are set to above 0.
4. US-based customers in Wish app will see an orange truck icon indicating express shipping option is available for the product.
5. This product qualifies for Wish Express benefits because one of the shipping options it offers has the max delivery days (4 business days) set within the Wish Express-required delivery timeline for the US (5 business days, per Wish Express policy).
6. US-based customers can choose from paying $10 for shipping and receiving the order in 4 business days VS. paying $5 for shipping and receiving the order in 10 business days.
7. Let’s assume that a US-based customer chooses the $10 shipping + arriving 4 business days option, and places an order accordingly.
8. This order is released to the merchant on January 25, 2021; she ships the order from her Secondary warehouse accordingly, and the order is confirmed delivered to the customer on January 28, 2021, only 3 business days after the order released date.
9. This merchant is in compliance with the Warehouse Fulfillment Policy, as the order is arrived within the max delivery days (4 business days) that she set.

Note that the order in the example above is considered a Wish Express order. And even though the general Wish Express delivery timeline requirement for the US is 5 business days per Wish Express policy, the merchant, in this case, must deliver the order within 4 business days as indicated by the max delivery days she sets, according to the Warehouse Fulfillment Policy.

 

Scenario 2: Late-arriving orders, Warehouse Late Delivery Rate, payment withholding, and merchant refund responsibility

1. A merchant based in Mainland China sets up a Secondary warehouse for some overseas inventory he has. This Secondary warehouse is set up to ship to France.
2. The merchant doesn’t have any inventory for this product shipping from Mainland China to France, so the inventory quantity for Product B in his Primary warehouse is set at 0.
3. The merchant sets the max delivery days for Product B in this Secondary warehouse as “9 business days” for France, with a shipping price of $8.
4. A France-based customer sees that she can pay $8 for shipping and expect the order to arrive in 9 business days. No orange truck icon is shown to the customer, as “9 business days” does not meet the Wish Express-required delivery timeline for France (6 business days, per Wish Express policy). The customer places an order.
5. The order is released to the merchant on February 1, 2021. He ships out the order from the Secondary warehouse.
6. The order is confirmed delivered to the customer on February 17, 2021, on a Wednesday, which is 12 business days after the order is released
7. This is later than the max delivery days of 9 business days set by the merchant.
8. This order is considered late and violates the Warehouse Fulfillment Policy.
9. Because the order’s confirmed delivery date falls on a Wednesday* (February 17, 2021), to determine whether this order’s payment will be withheld, according to the Warehouse Fulfillment Policy, we will need to look at the Monday - Sunday 7-calendar-day weekly Warehouse Late Delivery Rate for the week immediately prior to February 17, 2021, i.e., February 8 - February 14, 2021.
• The Warehouse Late Delivery Rate for this Secondary warehouse during February 8 - February 14, 2021 is 5% - this is a nominal percentage of the total orders that should have been confirmed delivered during this week, as 95% of all orders that should have arrived during this 7-calendar-day window actually arrived on time.
10. As such, based on the Warehouse Fulfillment Policy, even though this order is confirmed delivered late, payment for this order will NOT be withheld.
11. However, based on the Warehouse Fulfillment Policy, if the customer requests a refund on this order due to late arrival, the merchant is responsible for the refund.

* NOTE: If this example order is confirmed delivered on February 15, 2021, Monday, then we need to look at the Warehouse Late Delivery Rate for the Monday - Sunday 7-calendar-day window of February 1 - February 7, 2021 (i.e., the fixed Monday - Sunday week immediately prior to the week before order’s confirmed delivery date) to determine whether to withhold payment for this late-arriving order.

 

Scenario 3: Significantly late-arriving orders, payment withholding, and merchant refund responsibility

1. A Canada-based merchant has a Secondary warehouse set up to ship to Germany.
2. The merchant sets the max delivery days for Product C in this Secondary warehouse as “5 business days” for Germany, with a shipping price of $10.
3. A Germany-based customer sees an orange truck icon indicating express shipping option is available for this product (as “5 business days” is within the Wish Express delivery timeline requirement for Germany, per Wish Express policy). 
4. This customer places an order, pays $10 for shipping, and expects the order to arrive within 5 business days.
5. The order is released to the merchant on February 10, 2021.
6. The order is confirmed delivered to the customer on March 3, 2021 (Wednesday), 15 business days after the order released time.
7. This order is considered significantly late, as the merchant-set max delivery days is ≥ 5 business days, and this order is confirmed delivered more than 5 business days after the merchant-set max delivery days.
8. The weekly Warehouse Late Delivery Rate for this Secondary warehouse during the Monday - Sunday 7-calendar-day window of February 22 to February 28, 2021 is 3% - this is a nominal percentage of the total orders that should have been confirmed delivered during this week, as 97% of all orders that should have arrived during this 7-calendar-day window actually arrived on time.
9. However, because this particular order is confirmed delivered significantly later than the merchant-set max delivery days, regardless of the Warehouse Late Delivery Rate, payment for this order may be withheld, according to the Warehouse Fulfillment Policy.
10. Based on the Warehouse Fulfillment Policy, if the customer requests a refund on this order due to late arrival, the merchant is responsible for the refund.

 

Scenario 4: Order payment release after withholding

1. An order’s payment is withheld on March 1, 2021 (Monday) based on violating the Warehouse Fulfillment Policy.
2. On April 19, 2021 (Monday), 6 consecutive Monday - Sunday weeks have passed (counting starts on Monday, March 8, 2021 in this case). Even though the Warehouse Late Delivery Rate for the most recent 4 consecutive Monday - Sunday weeks (March 22 - April 18, 2021) is 5% (considered low and acceptable), only 6 weeks have passed so the order’s payment is still being withheld.
3. On May 31, 2021 (Monday), 12 consecutive weeks have passed. The Warehouse Late Delivery Rate for the most recent 4 consecutive weeks May 3 - May 30, 2021 is 6% (also considered low and acceptable). Therefore, the order’s payment will be released.