Amazon vendors up in arms over FBA shipment freeze

Back in mid-March, Amazon notified sellers in the US and EU that it would no longer be receiving non-essential shipments of Fulfilled-by-Amazon (FBA) inventory.

While the freeze for these marketplaces was originally set to end on April 5, in its FAQ, Amazon states: “Given that the impact of COVID-19 is still developing, we do not have an exact date when operations will be fully restored. Instead, whenever possible we will allow more products to be received, while still ensuring our fulfillment centers are able to process high-priority products.”

A new report from Jungle Scout has revealed that at least 53 percent of Amazon sellers are affected by the freeze. Almost all third-party sellers sell their products through FBA and only select sellers are currently allowed to sell products in allowed categories.

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Currently the categories the ecommerce giant is accepting include baby, health & household, beauty & personal care, grocery, industrial & scientific and pet supplies.

FBA shipment freeze

As of now, Amazon FBA sellers in the US and EU markets will not be able to create shipments to be received at Amazon's fulfillment centers through Seller Central until the freeze is lifted.

In all markets except for Italy, India and France, FBA sellers can still sell non-essential products. However, they cannot send their non-essential inventory into the company's fulfillment network. This means that sellers must ship any inventory that is not already a part of Amazon's FBA supply chain themselves or use another third-party fulfillment network.

On a more positive note though, the company is waiving the long-term storage fee for April for sellers in the US, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Sellers can still sell essential products if they're able to create listings for them. Although sellers trying to list products in one of the six essential categories may need Amazon's approval to do so.