Delivery dates for many products in Amazon FBA that were immediately pushed out to a four-week delivery expectation are coming down to around five days. Amazon appear to be getting back on track in what will be good news for merchants who have relied on Amazon FBA for their income. Now there are rumours, at least in the US, that Amazon FBA may reopen for what they classify as non-essential products. WSJ and CNBC report that Amazon will start contacting merchants next week to invite them to re-commence shipments.
By effectively quarantining stock, Amazon put merchants’ income on hold. Not only were their products not selling due to the extended delivery times but they have also been pushed down in visibility with the Buy Box gifted to those merchants self fulfilling. Worse still, merchants couldn’t retrieve their stock from Amazon’s warehouses to sell themselves.
As delivery dates get down to around five days, still not the next day delivery promise that Amazon once offered, merchants should see sales start to tick upwards and their income streams start to recover.
Amazon FBA may reopen… but will you trust them again?
The question that merchants will now have to wrestle with is how much do they trust Amazon? Having had their income cut off at the most severe crisis for a century, Amazon haven’t shown the care for their merchants that they’ve partnered with to grow to the incredible selling machine that they are today.
It’s not just enough to be a supplier of orders – a company needs to have a heart and stand alongside their selling partners and sadly Amazon failed to do this in spectacular fashion. No one can argue that nappies for a new born baby are more important to ship than a jigsaw for someone furloughed from work and simply bored. However it should never be forgotten that every merchant who lost their income for the last month due to Amazon quarantining their stock is also a real person with bills to pay and food to buy and they also might have a new born baby and need their income in order to purchase nappies.
As Amazon start to reopen for incoming FBA shipments, will you start sending in pallets of stock again or is it a case of once burnt twice shy? What happens if the expected plateau in Coronavirus cases fails to materialise or if the biggest fear of the country going back to work just for a second outbreak to arise and Amazon once again quarantine your stock? Is this a risk you’re willing to take in order to win the Buy Box, or will be keeping control of your own stock in the future, qualifying for Seller Fulfilled Prime and carry on shipping your own goods and keep them in your own warehouse?
