Amazon Suspends Warehouse Shipments for “Non-Essential” Products due to COVID-19

By Charlie Becker, on March 17, 2020

On March 17th, Amazon released a support document on their website announcing they will stop accepting shipments to their warehouses for non-essential items through its Fulfillment by Amazon service, due to high coronavirus-related demand for medical supplies and household staples.

This suspension will last through at least April 5, and the company noted they will be taking a similar approach with their retail vendors.

See the company’s full statement below:

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“We are closely monitoring the developments of COVID-19 and its impact on our customers, selling partners, and employees.

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

For products other than these, we have temporarily disabled shipment creation. We are taking a similar approach with retail vendors.

This will be in effect today through April 5, 2020, and we will let you know once we resume regular operations. Shipments created before today will be received at fulfillment centers.

You can learn more about this on this Help page 950. Please note that Selling Partner Support does not have further guidance.

We understand this is a change to your business, and we did not take this decision lightly. We are working around the clock to increase capacity and yesterday announced 200 that we are opening 100,000 new full- and part-time positions in our fulfillment centers across the US.

We appreciate your understanding as we prioritize the above products for our customers.

Thank you for your patience, and for participating in FBA.”

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Amazon has taken other steps to address the increased demand as more cities and countries implement isolation and quarantine measures, such as shelter-in-place orders. The company also announced on Monday that it would be looking to hire as many as 100,000 additional warehouse and delivery employees to address the increase.

Stay tuned as things further develop.