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The e-tailer will allow third-party merchants to resume sending nonessential goods to its warehouses later this week, per The Wall Street Journal. This follows Amazon's move to stop accepting nonessential inventory in March to prioritize product categories like baby products, grocery, health, and household to meet consumers' needs during the coronavirus pandemic.
Even as merchants regain the ability to send Amazon nonessential goods to sell on its marketplace, vendors will only be allowed to send a limited number of each product so the e-tailer can ensure it has enough space for essential items.
This move should help Amazon speed up its lagging delivery times and help its merchants survive the pandemic. Some orders on Amazon have had delivery windows that stretch longer than usual during the pandemic, and handling more nonessential orders through its warehouses should allow Amazon to shorten those timelines, attracting more sales in the process.
And as Amazon hires thousands of workers to meet demand, it should be setting itself up to raise its order capacity and fulfill more nonessential and essential orders. Additionally, many third-party merchants rely heavily on Amazon to make sales, so if they were unable to sell on its marketplace for an extended period they may have moved to other platforms or gone out of business. By accepting more nonessential products, Amazon may be able to keep more of these sellers around and continue to rack up volume from third-party vendors on its platform.
Meanwhile, brick-and-mortar retail is facing new restrictions on the sale of nonessential goods, potentially pushing more sales to platforms like Amazon if they offer what consumers are looking for.
- Some US states have prohibited essential retailers from selling nonessential goods, frustrating consumers in the process. Michigan and Vermont have ordered some retailers that are still operating to close sections that feature nonessential goods or otherwise stop selling such products, in an effort to prioritize the sale of essential goods in-store. Although these rules are likely meant to promote safety during the pandemic, some consumers became frustrated when they found they weren't able to purchase certain products at Walmart stores anymore, per Business Insider. This will limit the appeal of in-store shopping and could cause some consumers to visit stores less often.
- If more local governments adopt such rules, and platforms like Amazon ramp up their ability to deliver nonessential goods, e-commerce sales could surge. Retailers that aren't allowed to sell nonessential goods in-store can still sell them on their websites, so consumers can still access the products they want online, especially as Amazon accepts more products from its merchants. This could lead consumers to move more of their spending online for the duration of the pandemic since they may not be able to get everything they want in-store.
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