Amazon merchants say some deliveries delayed

Amazon.com Inc. merchants around the U.S. say some products that normally reach customers in one or two days are now taking a week or longer just as the world’s largest online retailer heads intowhat’s expected to be a record-busting holiday shopping season.

Seven merchants and consultants from California, Texas, Wisconsin and Florida said they noticed a spike in orders requiring them to pack and deliver products themselves rather than using Amazon’s logistics service — which is typically faster and cheaper. To the sellers, that suggests the company’s warehouses and delivery stations are at full capacity.

The development, which began over theweekend and continued this week, worries the merchants because web shopping peaks from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, the biggest online spending weekend of the year. Their experience was echoed by more than a dozen additional sellers in merchant chat rooms viewed by Bloomberg.

Amazon continues to deliver most products in one or two days through its logistics service, the merchants said. But because the company has issued no warning or explanation, they said it’s hard to figure out if any specific product categories are being affected or whether the shift is happening more in some regions than others.

U.S. shoppers will spend $189 billion in November and December, up 33 percent froma year earlier and more than double the usual pace of growth, according to Adobe Inc.

Amazon has rushed to increase capacity since the pandemic hit — hiring 250,000 workers and spending billions on new warehouses and delivery stations. To ensure it has enough people to pick, pack and ship orders, the company has been offering signing bonuses of asmuch as $3,000 to new hires.

Amazon has been exhorting customers to shop early this season to prevent delivery delays.