With rising health concerns due to Coronavirus, brands all over the world are suffering. As the disease has been declared a pandemic by most countries, people are now avoiding coming out of their homes.
Reports reveal that almost 32% of people have reduced their outdoor movements, and 52% are avoiding crowds. Even the stock market has become extremely volatile due to this global pandemic.
Not just the brick and mortar brands, rather the B2B, B2C, and eCommerce platforms are suffering a lot due to the impact of Coronavirus. Amazon is no exception.
Although the sellers in this marketplace are using TMS software to maintain the flow of products, the situation is getting troublesome with disruption in supply.
The Covid-19 outbreak happened in China recently in the month of December, and it took very little time to spread all over the world.
As people are avoiding visiting their local stores, the load on online delivery platforms is very high. For Amazon, the biggest trouble in this situation is the disruption of the supply chain.
It is just because almost 70% of the sellers on the Amazon marketplace collect their products from China. But most of the workers in China are living in quarantine, so they are not able to manufacture goods to meet the rising demands of customers overseas.
As per the reports gathered recently on 17th March, most of the Amazon FBA sellers are failing to create new shipments due to coronavirus impact.
Also, those who are still selling may suffer the same situation in the few days depending upon the product and supply.
So, what can we say about the impact of Coronavirus on Amazon? Without any doubt, it is getting critical with each passing day. And the customers are also being affected equally.
A survey was recently conducted on 681 Amazon sellers who source most of their products from China to understand how the business has been affected; the key findings reveal:
- 50% of the sellers are now looking for the source of a product outside China.
- 11% of the sellers are raising the price tags for their products.
- 36% of the sellers are now declining sales.
Below we have discussed these conditions in detail:
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The decline in sales due to Coronavirus:
Most of the sellers have already lost sales due to the coronavirus outbreak. 36% of these started declining orders even before Amazon announced the closure of new FBA shipments.
Even if some of them have not lost the sales yet, 48% of them are pretty sure that they will lose it in the near future.
Depending upon the type of products, almost 13% of the sellers are still not worried about coronavirus outbreak as they say it is not going to affect their kind of supply. Many of them are already experiencing a rise of 8% in their sales.
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11% of sellers have raised prices due to Coronavirus:
We cannot say that prices are being raised in all stores, but reports say that almost 11% have raised their product prices on Amazon.
However, Amazon is currently penalizing sellers for the unnecessary rise in price, especially for the high demand products such as hand sanitizers and toilet papers.
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Search for a new source of products outside China due to Covid-19:
As supply chains from China are suffering greater delays, many sellers are now looking for product sources at some other places.
49% of the imports from China have slowed down, and 32% of sellers said that suppliers have already closed the services. The other 31% reveal that they are facing difficulties in building connections with the suppliers.
Sellers on the Amazon marketplace are now importing products from a few other countries. For instance, 4% are considering UK based suppliers, 9% are preferring products from Taiwan, 10% are engaged with Mexico based suppliers, 17% are connected to Vietnam, 21% are considering Indian suppliers, and 24% are looking for suppliers in the US.
With the rising complications in meeting demands and supply requirements, many sellers on the Amazon marketplace are worried if Amazon will shut down their fulfillment centers.
They are trying to use TMS software as much as possible for planning, executing, and optimizing shipment of essential products from different locations.
Although Amazon has currently not disclosed the estimated delays caused by the unavailability of staff, it may be high. The company is currently advising employees to work remotely, and the warehouse workers are also being offered unlimited unpaid time off until the end of March.
The great news is that Amazon has also shown positive gesture towards employees by announcing two weeks of paid quarantine time for their Covid-19 affected employees.
In this scenario, the prime delivery service, which usually takes only one to two days, may also suffer a lot. At present, there are more than 150 million Amazon Prime members all over the world. But the deliveries are facing major disruption due to the unavailability of staff.
Due to the virus outbreak, people are getting more panic, and they are trying to place bulk orders for hand sanitizers, bottled water, disinfectant wipes, protective face masks, and toilet papers.
It has become difficult for the sellers to meet the demands, and many of them are even violating the policies. To maintain control of the situation, Amazon has started banning sellers that are showing bad behavior in the marketplace.
The sellers are using TMS software to maintain their supply chain so that an adequate track of orders and deliveries can be maintained. The dedicated Amazon sellers are now trying to find new sources for products to maintain their supply requirements.
But at the same time, customers are advised not to make unnecessary storage of products at home. As news channels are over-dramatizing Coronavirus impact, instead of getting panic, people need to follow adequate guidelines to stay safe.
Amazon management has also advised agents and support teams to handle concerns and enquires with sensitivity.
The app downloads have also surged due to coronavirus impact, so people are suffering varying levels of difficulties. If the pandemic continuous, the situation may get worse with time.
The virus may impact many big brands and the common people as well. Everyone just needs to stay prepared for critical times.
Author Bio: I’m Jaylin: SEO Expert of Leelija Web Solutions. I am a content manager, and the author of freeopenbook.com and a full time blogger. Favourite things include my camera, travelling, caring my fitness, food and my fashion. Email id: [email protected]