Amazon said that it will allow third-party sellers to start shipping nonessential items again, coming several weeks after restrictions were implemented.
A spokesperson for the Seattle-based retailer told CNBC and the Wall Street Journal this week that it will accept more products in its warehouses. But the Amazon representative said products will be limited by quantity to allow the firm to prioritize essential products and protecting employees while “also ensuring most selling partners can ship goods into our facilities.”
“Later this week, we will allow more products into our fulfillment centers,” according to the statement.
“We appreciate our selling partners’ patience as we prioritize products for customers and adhere to extensive health and safety measures in our fulfillment centers to protect our employees,” the spokesperson said. “We will share more details with our selling partners later this week.”
On Monday, Amazon said it will hire another 75,000 employees to deal with the demand surge. It comes after about 100,000 new employees were hired over the past several weeks.
Amazon has increasingly become the go-to online portal for Americans who don’t want to go to supermarkets or other stores to purchase goods in an attempt to avoid the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, a type of novel coronavirus from China that has caused a worldwide pandemic.
And last week, the company announced it would suspend its branded Amazon Shipping service to handle a surge in orders.
“We understand this is a change to your business, and we did not take this decision lightly,” Amazon told shippers in a note obtained by the Wall Street Journal. “We will work with you over the next several weeks so there is as little disruption to your business as possible.”
