Amazon is banning sellers from shipping any non-essential items to its warehouses as it deals with the overwhelming demand for basic staple items as the COVID-19 pandemic grows.
They sent an email to sellers on Tuesday announcing that they will only be accepting “household staples, medical supplies, and other high-demand products” for the next three weeks so that it can “more quickly receive, restock, and deliver” the products to customers. “We are seeing increased online shopping, and as a result some products such as household staples and medical supplies are out of stock,” Amazon told sellers, according to an email obtained by NBC.
Sellers who use the Fulfillment by Amazon program normally send their goods to Amazon’s warehouses, which store and deliver the products for a fee.
Amazon on Monday announced plans to hire 100,000 additional warehouse and delivery workers to deal with the surge in orders. It also said it would raise the pay for its current workers by $2 an hour through the end of April.
Shares of Amazon were up 6.4% Tuesday morning, at $1,796.38.