Amazon tells sellers it is suspending all shipments other than medical supplies and household staples amid coronavirus crisis

• Amazon told sellers on Tuesday that it's suspending shipments of all non-essential products to its warehouses to deal with the increased workloads following the coronavirus outbreak.
• Amazon is now prioritizing medical supplies, household staples, and other high-demand products to its warehouses until April 5.
• "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," the message said.
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Amazon is now blocking sellers from shipping non-essential products to its warehouses in response to the significant increase in orders it's seeing as the novel coronarvirus spreads across the country.

On Tuesday, Amazon told sellers in an email that it will only accept shipments of "household staples, medical supplies, and other high-demand products" to its warehouse until April 5 to deal with the high demand of those products amid the coronavirus crisis.

"We are seeing increased online shopping, and as a result some products such as household staples and medical supplies are out of stock," the email obtained by Business Insider said. "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."

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The move follows huge increases in orders of non-essential products on Amazon, like medical supplies, as more shoppers flocked to e-commerce sites like Amazon for their shopping. That's put huge strains on Amazon's supple chain, resulting in shipment delays, technical glitches, and labor shortages.

Here's the full message from Amazon:

"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 some 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.

For products other than these, we have temporarily disabled shipment creation. We are taking a similar approach with retail vendors.

This will be in effect today through April 5, 2020, and we will let you know once we resume regular operations. Shipments created before today will be received at fulfillment centers.

You can learn more about this on this Help page 534. Please note that Selling Partner Support does not have further guidance.

We understand this is a change to your business, and we did not take this decision lightly. We are working around the clock to increase capacity and yesterday announced 111 that we are opening 100,000 new full- and part-time positions in our fulfillment centers across the US.

We appreciate your understanding as we prioritize the above products for our customers.

Thank you for your patience, and for participating in FBA."