On Tuesday, March 17, Amazon notified its US and EU sellers that it will prioritize shipments of the following categories until April 5, 2020:

  • household staples
  • medical supplies
  • baby products
  • health and household
  • beauty and personal care
  • Grocery
  • industrial and scientific
  • pet supplies.


Overall, this is good news for consumers in quarantine who are still trying to get essential supplies.
With Amazon’s 750,000+ employees focusing on essential items, and another 100,000 being hired to help, goods may still ship on time and reach those who need it most.

Who will be affected by the change?


This change will affect sellers out of these essential categories and whose products are shipped by Amazon (FBA, Fulfilled by Amazon). In details, through the FBA program, sellers ship their products to an Amazon warehouse, where the company stores the inventory and ships orders out to customers.
Now, due to Coronavirus outbreak, until April 6 Amazon would no longer be receiving further shipment and would only accept essential items such as household staples and medical supplies.
If a FBA seller created a replenishment order before March 17, Amazon will still receive it and will still pick, pack, and ship it.
However, non-essential orders may ship more slowly than normal.
This change will affect at least 53% of Amazon sellers (Jungle Scout’s data). Of the top 10,000 sellers on Amazon’s marketplace, 87% of them use FBA services, while 13% ship products on their own (Marketplace Pulse).

How are Amazon FBA sellers reacting?

This change has caused many concerns among sellers who are now preparing for the worst. Many of them had already been affected by Coronavirus outbreak as many of their Chinese suppliers were offline and they had to look for supplies elsewhere.
Now they fear that their products going out of stock will compromise their listings on Amazon Search results. They do not know how and if to prepare a future replenishment to Amazon (in order to grant prime delivery, sellers must order extra-inventory with months in advance).
Many of them dramatically reduced their advertising investment on Amazon.

What should Amazon sellers do?


Amazon still remains an effective online store and it might be the case for FBA sellers out of the essential categories to switch FBM (Fulfilled by Merchant) program and to the use their own resources and carriers for shipping products.
Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) is a method of selling on Amazon in which a seller lists their products on Amazon, but manages all storage, shipping, and customer support themselves (or through another third party).
FBM Sellers would not benefit from Amazon warehouse and shipment and would not also benefit from Amazon prime delivery but could keep control in the sale and in the shipment of their items to customers.