#Coronavirus: Amazon Stopping All Deliveries Except Medicine, Household Goods: Will This Impact India?

Amazon is restricting all shipments of nonessential products to its warehouses in response to the significant increase in orders it’s seeing as the novel coronavirus spreads across the US, according to reports.

What Does Amazon Say?

This Tuesday, Amazon told sellers and vendors that it would accept only shipments of “household staples, medical supplies, and other high-demand products” to its warehouse until April 5 to deal with the high demand for those products amid the coronavirus crisis.

It means, the sellers who use Amazon’s storage and delivery network for a fixed fee, through a program called Fulfillment by Amazon, will no longer be able to ship nonessential products to Amazon. 

Further, the same restrictions apply to vendors who wholesale their products to Amazon, who then resells them at a markup.

According to them, it doesn’t affect last-mile shipments of those products to consumers.

How Is It Going To Affect?

In an email to sellers, Amazon said that it was now prioritizing shipment in the following six categories – baby product, health and household (including personal-care appliances), beauty and personal care, grocery, industrial and scientific, pet supplies.

The email said, “We are seeing increased online shopping, and as a result, some products such as household staples and medical supplies are out of stock,”.

It further said, “With this in mind, we are temporarily prioritizing household staples, medical supplies, and other high-demand products coming into our fulfillment centers so that we can more quickly receive, restock, and deliver these products to customers.”

Why Would This Happen?

Basically, this move follows huge increases in orders of certain products on Amazon, like face masks and toilet paper.

Because more shoppers flocked to e-commerce sites like Amazon for their shopping. 

Moreover, this has put huge strains on Amazon’s supply chain, resulting in shipment delays, technical glitches, and labor shortages.

CEO of Prime Guidance, an agency that helps Amazon sellers, Steven Yates, said “Amazon is taking drastic measures to address logistical challenges faced amid the coronavirus pandemic,”.

 “Amazon has struggled to keep up with demand on essential items, so this move will allow them to focus more available resources to meet this increased demand,” he added. 

Amazon said that vendors would see “reduced purchase orders” as it “temporarily paused” orders for all non-essential products until April 5. 

Further, it also extended the delivery windows for existing orders, giving vendors more time to deliver those products to Amazon.

While talking about the situation with vendors, Amazon wrote “We understand this is a change to your business, and we did not take this decision lightly,” in the note. 

“We appreciate your understanding as we prioritize the above products for our customers,” the company added.

With the way coronavirus is spreading, Amazon may come up with a similar kind of strategy in the future for the Indian market.