How Amazon Is Prioritizing Orders Right Now
Many people are turning to online retailers to fulfill their shopping needs. But high demand is slowing things down. Here’s how Amazon is prioritizing its orders.
Amazon’s Essentials
If you’ve tried to order anything from Amazon over the past week, you’ve likely run into delayed shipping and delivery timelines. That’s understandable, with the sudden surge in online shopping in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many states and municipalities are asking people to limit interactions via social distancing and shelter-in-place orders to prevent the spread of the virus. Grocery stores and other essential services are still open, but many people are turning to online retailers like Amazon to fulfill their shopping needs.
To handle this upswing in orders, Amazon is taking steps to ensure that they don’t run out of essential products. In a statement on its Seller Central website, Amazon says it’s “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. For products other than these, we have temporarily disabled shipment creation. We are taking a similar approach with retail vendors.”
This policy will be in effect through at least April 5. Amazon is prioritizing the shipments of products in these categories:
- Baby products
- Health and household
- Beauty and personal care (including personal care appliances)
- Grocery
- Industrial and scientific
- Pet supplies
In addition, Amazon says it is trying to increase the supply of these products by “working around the clock with our selling partners to ensure availability of these essential products, and continue to bring on additional capacity to deliver customer orders.”
The aim is to keep their warehouses stocked with the items people need, such as toilet paper, bleach and sanitizing wipes. The online availability of essential products is especially important considering state and local government officials are encouraging people to stay at home for at least the next few weeks.
If you’re curious about the status of your Amazon order, you can track your packages here. From the “Your Orders” tab, find tracking information in your order details. You can also sign up to receive notification about your order here.