With the whopping increase in the number of online orders for grocery deliveries due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon is having a hard time meeting the significant increase in demand. As a result, the e-commerce goliath has announced that Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods will be putting several measures in place to fulfill its orders. The plan is to introduce a waitlist for new customers until the company can meet demand from existing customers.
In order to combat the slow delivery issue, the tech giant is working on a new feature to help its system cope with the sudden increase in demand. It aims to create a virtual checkout line for online grocery orders. Amazon hopes to implement this feature in the weeks to come. Additionally, the Seattle-based multinational company will choose certain Whole Foods outlets to exclusively meet online orders for a specific number of hours every day.
Although available empty slots are posted on Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market websites daily, Amazon is currently asking new customers to "sign up for an invitation to use online grocery delivery and pickup". Meanwhile, the physical outlets remain open for customers to shop from.
Amazon has promised that it will increase its order capacity in the days to come, despite having increased it by over 60% already. Furthermore, having hired over 100,000 new employees in the last month due to the crisis caused by the novel coronavirus, the e-commerce platform will be employing another 75,000 people for different roles including delivery drivers.