Covid19 Update: Amazon FBA’s limited services
If you’re selling on Amazon, you may have received a notification saying that Amazon is “temporarily prioritizing products coming into our fulfillment centers” due to covid19.
Hopefully, this move from Amazon will help to flatten the curve so that things return back to normality soon.
In the meantime, we wanted to share a quick update with what this means for us at the moment and how we can best manage the situation.
So firstly – what does this mean for us as Amazon sellers?
1. It’s not possible to send any more stock into the FBA warehouses
…unless your product fits within the following categories:
- Baby
- Health & Household
- Beauty & Personal Care
- Grocery
- Industrial & Scientific
- Pet Supplies
2. If you created your shipping label before 17th March – Amazon will still receive it.
Your products won’t be prioritized (unless they fit in the ‘essential’ categories) – but they will still be unpacked and your products will be available to sell.
3. The Amazon warehouse is still open & orders are still being shipped (across all categories)
Orders will be prioritized if your product fits in the categories above.
However, good news – even if your products aren’t categorized as ‘essential’, they will still be shipped if people order them (they may take a little bit longer due to limited carrier options though).
4. Amazon FBM (Fulfilment-by-merchant) is still running
…So if you were planning to send your product to the FBA warehouse (but now can’t due to Amazon not accepting new shipments), you could send your stock to your home or a 3PL warehouse if you still want to continue selling your products.
Please note that if you do plan to send it to a 3PL warehouse, you’ll need to make sure you choose a warehouse that is likely to stay open.
As it’s hard to predict which areas will be affected the most, it’s probably safer to get your stock shipped to your home. This will mean you might have to do the post-office runs, but at least you can still make some sales through Amazon FBM.
(If you’d prefer to wait it out and not sell through FBM, you could ask your supplier to hold onto your stock or find a cheap storage warehouse near your factory – and ship as soon as the warehouse opens again)
5. If you’re running out of stock on FBA
If you are running low on stock in the FBA warehouse, try to slow down your sales so that you’re not out of stock for too long. Turn off your ads & increasing your price can be a great way to do this!
6. And finally – try to stay positive
We know there’s a lot of uncertainty and worry at the moment. And it’s easy to get swept up in the panic – but this won’t help our mental wellbeing. While you’re staying at home, you can keep your brain stimulated by spending the time catching up on training which you never had time to do before, reading, or even doing some at-home workouts.
With all these changes, it’s likely that some of the dominated rankings will drop due to products selling out. This will open up the floor for new sellers to come in, so if you execute correctly, there may be more opportunities for new sellers to swoop in and steal some of the pie.
Don’t forget – we’re in it together and are here to help you the whole way.
Sending you & your families all our love.
