Amazon is ending its waitlist for most new customers wanting to use itsonline grocery services.- Amazon put this initiative in place in April as a way to handle the sudden surge in demand.
- The news of the waitlist being lifted indicates that the company has begun to cope with the surge in demand after going on a hiring spree in the past few months.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Amazon is ending its waitlist for new online grocery customers, indicating that it has got a handle on demand.
In a statement shared with Business Insider, Amazon said that it had removed the waitlist in most cities: "More than 80% of eligible Prime members are able to shop without requesting an invitation. We continue inviting new customers every week," it said. CNET was first to report the news.
Amazon put this initiative in place in April as a way to handle the sudden surge in demand for its online grocery services during the pandemic and prioritize its existing online grocery customers. While it said it had increased its order capacity by more than 60% during the pandemic, existing customers have also still found it difficult to secure a delivery slot.
The news of the waitlist being lifted indicates that the company has come to grips with demand after going on a hiring spree in the past few months.
In a Bloomberg report on Monday, Amazon said that customers can also expect to see its speedy one and two-day shipping guarantees return in the next few weeks.
Some Prime members had been facing delivery delays of as much of a month on items that were deemed as non-essential.
And experts say this has been damaging for the company and it encourages shoppers to go elsewhere.
"Loyal Amazon shoppers left the site when they saw long delivery times or items were out of stock," Anthony Ferry, CEO of market intelligence platform PriceSpider, told Bloomberg. "Buy-online, pickup-in store has become a much more enticing and desirable solution when people want something now."
Read the original article on Business Insider