Amazon Vendor Suspends POs due to Covid-19
News today from Amazon revealed that Amazon POs are being suspended for non-essential healthcare and home items. This is effective immediately until April 5th.
Amazon are Halting POs for non-essential items. This is effective immediately until April 5th.
This means that for some, POs will drop off completely or be at very reduced volume.
Below statement from Amazon: (Dated 17th March 2020)
Temporarily prioritizing products coming into our fulfillment centers
We are closely monitoring the developments of COVID-19 and its impact on our customers, selling partners, and employees.
We are seeing increased online shopping, and as a result products such as household staples and medical supplies are out of stock. With this in mind, we are temporarily prioritizing household staples, medical supplies, and other high demand products coming into our fulfillment centers so that we can more quickly receive, restock and deliver these products to customers.
Beginning today you will see:
Reduced Purchase Orders: We have temporarily paused ordering for products that are not household staples, medical supplies, or other high demand products.
Extended delivery windows for existing purchase orders: We have extended the shipment/delivery windows for some existing purchase orders to give you more time to fulfill the order. Please ship your products toward the end of the extended window.
This will be in effect today through April 5, 2020, and we will let you know once we resume regular operations.
We understand this is a change to your business, and we did not take this decision lightly. We appreciate your understanding as we prioritize the above products for our customers."
We fully support all our vendors during this time and work alongside all our clients to ensure their operations are running fully and quickly.
Update 20th March 2020: There are unofficial (ie. word of mouth) reports that Amazon will still trickle POs for these more luxury goods to assist suppliers in this time. Please contact your vendor manager for more details.