Amazon is banning all sellers from shipping any non-essential items to its warehouses as demand for basic staples grow because of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
“Amazon is not accepting new products to its warehouse service except household staples, medical supplies and other high-demand items through April 5, according to an announcement obtained by NBC News. Amazon confirmed the authenticity of the announcement,” NBC reported.
“We are seeing increased online shopping and as a result some products such as household staples and medical supplies are out of stock,” the company announced on its seller platform called Seller Central. “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 ship these products to customers.”
The company said that high-demand goods include baby products, health and household items, beauty and personal care products, groceries, industrial items and pet supplies.
Sellers who use the “Fulfillment by Amazon” program generally send their goods to Amazon’s warehouses, which then delivers them for a fee.
Goods in high demand include baby products, groceries, pet supplies and personal care products.
On Monday, Amazon announced plans to hire 100,000 more warehouse and delivery workers to deal with the spike in orders. The company also said it would raise the pay rate for its current workers by $2 an hour through the end of April.