Amazon India have announced that from today they will temporarily discontinue accepting orders for “lower-priority” products to prioritise urgent items such as household staples, health care, and personal safety products. It seems that Amazon are quickly limiting the services they offer around the globe and like most India will be updated by Amazon when they resume normal operations.
Amazon are also giving customers the option to cancel and be refunded for all pending “Lower-priority” items. This means any stock sold but pending not in one of the “essential” categories could be cancelled.
The essential categories
Amazon have stopped selling and replenishing the stock you have in India unless it falls under the following 6 categories:
- Baby Products
- Health & Household
- Beauty & Personal Care (including personal care appliances)
- Grocery
- Industrial & Scientific
- Pet Supplies
The negative impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the services of all online marketplaces is evident, and every company is taking their own set of measures to combat the spread and offer the most vital products to consumers. It is currently unclear for how long these restrictions will really need to be in place however, one thing is certain, sellers and merchants will remember who stood by them during uncertain times entirely out of their control.
“We recognize these are hard decisions that may impact some of our sellers’ business – we appreciate their understanding and continue to work for ways to enable small businesses to meet customer requirements during this time.”
– Amazon
Will Amazon put in further restrictions?
The best course of action at this time is to just assume further restrictions could take place around the world and prepare for them as best you can.
In the UK we’re seeing the FBA restrictions taking effect with the earliest date for shipment on many items set for the 20th April.
