Amazon has revealed that the coronavirus outbreak may be impacting some of its Prime deliveries.
The company has said that due to the sudden spike in online purchases, many household items are going out of stock, and as its supply chain is also impacted currently, the “delivery promises are longer than usual”.
A notice has been added to the website informing customers that “Inventory and delivery may be temporarily unavailable due to increased demand. Confirm availability at checkout.”
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Coronavirus impact
In a blog post, Amazon revealed that it is working round the clock with its supplier partners to get the products back in stock, as well as getting additional capacity to cover increased demand.
Amazon has not revealed how much of the delay is caused due the unavailability of the staff. The company had advised its employees to work remotely like most other companies and also offered unlimited unpaid time off for the rest of March to its warehouse workers.
Amazon has also offered two weeks of paid “quarantine time” for the employees, both full time and part-time warehouse workers, who’re diagnosed with the coronavirus.
This could be one of the rare events when Amazon’s Prime delivery service, which offers one day and two-day deliveries, may face a disruption. Prime is a paid-for service where users pay an extra amount as a subscription or one-time charge to get the products delivered faster. As of now, there are approximately 150 million Prime members across the globe.
The virus outbreak has infused panic among the shoppers and has resulted in people hoarding products like bottled water, hand sanitizers, protective face masks, disinfectant wipes, and toilet papers etc.
Amazon has also banned sellers who were found abusing the marketplace policies and removed thousands of listings of products with high demand for price gouging.
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Via: Amazon
