Amazon Reputation During Coronavirus Takes Another Blow – #ThingsAmazonWontDeliver

The last month has been challenging for Amazon as it struggles to maintain inventory and services to customers and sellers alike.

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) health emergency ramped up in March, more consumers flocked to Amazon buying sanitizing and household items that were flying off the shelves at their local supermarket or mega-mart.

With its vast marketplace of products from its own inventory and the inventory of thousands of small business marketplace sellers, for many shoppers, it has become the go-to place online to buy items.

But this almost “blind-faith” in Amazon has been shaken over the past few weeks as the company had to take actions, few ever expected.

• The massive surge on household goods prompted the company to restrict its marketplace sellers from sending products to warehouses that didn’t fit into the primary high-demand categories, angering many small business owners that rely on Amazon sales.
• The company had to shut down a returns warehouse as some employees tested positive for the coronavirus. There were problems at other warehouses that slowed down operations as well.
• Amazon had to shut down Prime Pantry apparently in another move to streamline operations for the moment.
• Regular Amazon Prime deliveries went from 1-2 days to sometimes weeks. Just last year, the company brought next-day delivery to more people and more products in the U.S.
• The Amazon Prime Day sales event appears to have been pushed back to at least August. Not confirmed, but all signs point in that direction.
• In another move that upset some small business sellers as it again came without notice, Amazon extended the returns delivery window by almost a month.
• And last week Amazon announced it was suspending its third-party delivery service, which competes with UPS and FedEx.

While most of these measures are temporary, the unprecedented coronavirus (COVID-19) health emergency has taken a toll on the company.

These actions have tarnished its reputation with consumers, but especially with many small businesses that sell on its marketplace as they were shut out overnight.

#ThingsAmazonWontDeliver

Over the weekend, a new hashtag emerged on Twitter, #ThingsAmazonWontDeliver, apparently started with the hashtag game on iPhone and Android phones called Hashtag Roundup.

Besides a fair share of political comments and expected digs at the company…

#ThingsAmazonWontDeliver Toilet Paper

— Amit#FromHome (@AmitFromHome) April 11, 2020

many of the tweets using poked a bit of fun. (Yes, people are stuck home and bored!)

A winning season #ThingsAmazonWontDeliver pic.twitter.com/9bdYs3J1R7

— Shari Bee (@Lavendermee3) April 11, 2020

#ThingsAmazonWontDeliver
Replacement children, I think mine are broken. pic.twitter.com/5mrnFvozhv

— Gaviscon’ nowhere ? (@stgavalot) April 11, 2020

#ThingsAmazonWontDeliver a domesticated husband. Apparently they’ve been out of stock for a while now?

— Rushy?? (@rushna24) April 11, 2020

Amazon Problems Are Opportunity For Other Marketplaces

It hasn’t been the best of times for Amazon as it will need to do a lot of damage control after this public health emergency is over.

For many small business sellers, this has been a wake-up call that they cannot put all of their eggs into one basket. After promoting for years their marketplace as a means to “ecommerce success,” the company slammed the door shut without notice.

Some sellers have listed inventory (if not tied up at Amazon FBA warehouses) with competing marketplaces as a means to maintain sales.

The #ThingsAmazonWontDeliver hashtag is an indicator consumers are finding (or rediscovering) there is a world of online commerce besides Amazon.

That is good news for sellers on other marketplaces as they struggle with the headwinds of an economy in turmoil.

My Etsy order! #ThingsAmazonWontDeliver pic.twitter.com/jInnLPXJJr

— @RoyalCityRaucous (@RoyalCityRauco1) April 11, 2020

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