Good news for Amazon merchants and customers alike this week. As the Wall Street Journal reports, Amazon will resume shipping non-essential items later this week. This news arrives on the heels of recent reports that the online retail giant is pausing its Amazon Shipping service dedicated to third-party deliveries.
“Products will be limited by quantity to enable us to continue prioritizing products and protecting employees, while also ensuring most selling partners can ship goods into our facilities.” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement to WSJ.
Although third-party sellers could sell non-essential products on Amazon, logistics option Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) was on hold. This shipping service lets merchants store their products at one of Amazon’s warehouses and Amazon would deliver their products to customers and collect a commission per sale.
Unlike merchants who use drop-shipping methods, third-party Amazon sellers own the merchandise Amazon stores at its warehouses. This ban lift is surely welcome news for third-party merchants who rely heavily on Amazon's warehouse facilities for storage.
Amazon customers, even Prime membership holders who’ve been waiting weeks for orders can also breathe a sigh of relief. Not only are shipping restrictions lifted, the Jeff Bezos-owned company announced that it would be hiring 175,000 more employees to speed up deliveries between now and Prime Day 2020.
