Amazon Will Lift Ban on Non-Essential Inbound FBA Shipments This Week

Amazon will lift the ban on third-party marketplace sellers sending non-essential items to its fulfillment centers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“Later this week, we will allow more product into our fulfillment centers,” a spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal.

The move comes after last month Amazon surprised sellers without warning that it would temporarily prioritize household staples, medical supplies, and other high-demand products coming into its fulfillment centers.

This left many third-party marketplace sellers out in the cold that regularly send items to Amazon to sell their products on the online marketplace.

Sellers were immediately barred from creating inbound shipping labels unless the products they were sending in belonged into one of the allowable categories.

“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.”

Some Amazon FBA Limitations Still Apply – U.S. or Global?

However, there is still a limit to the number of products seller can store at Amazon warehouses.

“Products will be limited by quantity to enable us to continue prioritizing products and protecting employees, while also ensuring most selling partners can ship goods into our facilities,” Amazon told the Wall Street Journal.

Also, unclear from the information provided to the Wall Street Journal is if the company plans to open up FBA shipments in the U.S. only or if it intends to allow shipments to its fulfillment centers globally.

Loosening the restrictions on inbound shipments appears to be related to the company increasing its workforce by 100,000 workers over the last few weeks. Separately, Amazon announced Monday that it will hire 75,000 more workers to support its operations.

Even with restrictions, this news will be welcomed by many small business sellers that were left stranded by the company in March.

While this is good news for sellers, the abrupt suspension on inbound shipments of non-essential items left a sour taste with many of them.

If Amazon can salvage its reputation with sellers is a question that will take some time to sort out. Certainly, many will have lingering doubts and may use other marketplaces such as eBay and Etsy as a hedge from this point forward.

[post-cta]

If you liked this article and would like to engage with other small business entrepreneurs selling on marketplaces, join our . You can also find us on , , , and or sign up for our newsletter below.