Drastic measure: Amazon is Suspending inbound FBA Shipments and stops shipping non-essentials in Italy and France
Amazon Restrictions to FBA Shipments
You'll see a never-ending loading icon in seller central when you try to access FBA shipments. Without any warning, Amazon just made a drastic announcement that will impact many sellers of products. They are blocking inbound shipments to their warehouse except for a few specified categories.
Here is the full announcement:
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 to 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 57. 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 12 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.
New Information from FAQ Amazon Provided
The following categories are the high priority categories for which they are still accepting most products:
- Baby Products
- Health & Household
- Beauty & Personal Care (including personal care appliances)
- Grocery
- Industrial & Scientific
- Pet Supplies
The FAQ also states this applies to US and EU marketplaces. We have confirmed the same information is being provided to UK sellers.
Further, shipments created before March 17, 2020, will be received.
Amazon is also saying they plan to account for this situation in the Inventory Performance Index (IPI) score.
This step will push a lot of sellers to use a 3PL (third-party logistics provider) and will impact the availability of their products under the prime label.
Amazon.com to stop shipping non-essentials to consumers in Italy and France
Last Saturday, March 21, Amazon.com announced the stopping of B2C shipments of non-essential products in Italy and France. This decision was the company’s response to the escalating coronavirus situation in these regions.
According to the Amazon spokesman, there was a spike in orders and the necessity to follow anti-coronavirus safety measures in the workplace.
The following categories have high priority status and available for shipping:
· baby products
· health and household items
· beauty and personal care
· groceries
· industrial, scientific, and pet supplies
Consumers in Italy and France can still purchase non-essential products from Amazon sellers who use other than Amazon logistics to fulfill and ship orders. However, the delivery might take extra time.
The Channelengine team and fulfillment partners Montapacking Fulfilment, Dimass Group B.V., BME DSV Multi-Channel Fulfilment can keep your marketplace orders running smoothly. Book a demo to know about further details.
