Amazon is suspending new fulfillment orders of non-essential products into it’s warehouses as they announced yesterday.

This decision came to give priority to household staples, medical supplies, and other high demand products, making sure these products reach in a timely manner in fulfillment centers so they can be restocked and shipped faster to buyers.

What does that all means for advertisers?

• every shipment created before March 17, 2020. will be received regardless of the product type.
• every shipment created after that date if it is not in the essentials category will get your shipment temporarily disabled.
• so far the suspenion of non-essential products will be lifted on April 5, 2020., but it could be longer so watch for notifications.
• all sales of non-essential product will not stop, only delayed in shipment.

What does it mean for businesses?

• if you are small business or you sell non-essential products, you might want to switch to self sulfillment as the best option to continue to sell things.
• if your inventory on Amazon is starting to go low, you should focus on selling your products directly from your website.

What this means for your ads for non-essential products?

• If you have campaigns running on Amazon products, watch your inventory so your ad spending would not be wasted. This is very important for your headline search ads.
• Competition may increase or decrease during this unpredictable time so watch your bids.
• Watch your competition especially if they are unable to replenish their product supply and consider expanding your Competitor strategy.
• Look for unique keyword opportunities for people who want some product but are out of stock and might be seeking alternatives.

If you find yourself out of stock on Amazon at this moment with no way to replenish until April 5, then you might think to utilize other paid advertising efforts to keep your business go on. Just keep in mind that every platform is experiencing high load right now. People are at home and are shopping like crazy, so it is good time to capitalize on every effort you can. Maybe try to focus on your remarketing to make sure you retain your loyal, repeat customers.