Amazon Has Paused Non-Essential Orders. Retail Bloom's FBA Onsite Can Help!

As previously communicated on March 17th, 2020, Amazon released a statement that they will be prioritizing shipments of medical supplies and household essentials into their fulfillment centers ahead of other categories. Any "non-essential" items in other product categories will not be accepted by fulfillment centers at this time. As of March 17th, vendors should expect the following: 

Reduced Purchase Orders: They have temporarily paused ordering for products that are not household staples, medical supplies, or other high demand products. 

Extended delivery windows for existing purchase orders: They have extended the shipment/delivery windows for some existing purchase orders to give vendors more time to fulfill the order and have asked that vendors ship products toward the end of the extended window. This will be in effect until April 5th, 2020, and Amazon will alert vendors and sellers once they resume regular operations. 

If you are seeing fewer orders, here are steps to help you negate risk of stocking out at Amazon: 

First, confirm you are receiving fewer purchase orders. Amazon is still placing orders for the following categories: 

1. Groceries
2. Health and Household
3. Baby Products
4. Beauty and Personal Care (including personal care appliances) 
5. Industrial & Scientific Products 
6. Pet Supplies 
7. Books

Second, if you have any orders in “working” status, you still will be able to send those into Amazon. That said, you will likely see delays at Amazon fulfillment centers. We are seeing essential orders still take priority over non-essential categories even as shipments arrive at their designated fulfillment centers. 

Third, plan for stockouts. Here are three options to keep you in stock while Amazon warehouses are not receiving or placing orders:

1. Leverage Existing Customers as 3P Sellers - If you have other online retailers with your products, ask them if they are able to temporarily sell your products as an Amazon 3P seller. Keep in mind, if the seller is not approved for FBA Onsite or Seller Fulfilled Prime, your products will not be Prime eligible.  
2. Retail Bloom as Fulfillment by Merchant - If you are unable to ship orders from your own warehouse and do not want to leverage other 3P sellers, Retail Bloom has the ability to act as your temporary fulfillment by merchant provider. You send us inventory, and we ship orders Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) through our own Seller Central account. FBM orders are not Prime eligible. However, with the increase in volume at FBA warehouses, our FBM orders typically have a faster delivery date and sometimes win Buy Box over Prime offerings. 
3. Retail Bloom FBA Onsite - If you want to ensure your products are Prime eligible, we are approved for FBA Onsite and can ship your orders through our account. You would ship products to our warehouses in Rochester Hills, MI. We would list your products in our Seller Central account. As orders are placed, we pay you sales less Amazon fees and a Retail Bloom commission fee. It works as a consignment or revenue share option. 

If you’d like to learn more about options 2 or 3, please fill out the below form, and a Retail Bloom team member will be in touch shortly.