Orders are gone! Many Amazon warehouses are unable to deliver!

In the past two days, the cross-border circle has been flooded with news such as "extreme weather in the United States" and "California wildfires".

A fire in Los Angeles, California this year caused a major crisis in Amazon's logistics!

At the same time, many parts of the United States were suddenly hit by extreme weather, with wildfires and blizzards taking turns. Many warehouses were damaged by the disasters, and the delivery of goods was hindered, which brought unprecedented damage to Amazon's logistics system.

Specifically, wildfires continue to rage in southern California, surrounding Los Angeles, causing a large number of evacuations and serious property losses, and power outages in some areas. As of the afternoon of the 8th, the wildfires have killed at least five people, destroyed at least 1,100 houses, and forced more than 150,000 people to evacuate. The California government has declared a state of emergency in California.

As one crisis continues, another one arises. Wildfires in the western United States are still raging, and blizzards are hitting the eastern United States. Many states in the central and eastern regions have been affected by polar cold waves and heavy snowfall. Governments, post offices, logistics, and schools have all been closed, and Amazon's order delivery has been in trouble.

The LBG8-LAX9 warehouse has lost power and stopped accepting goods. A fire has also broken out near LGB8.

At present, FBA warehouses are affected in all aspects, from warehousing, receiving, putting on shelves to distribution, after-sales service, etc. At the same time, emergency evacuation orders and some road restrictions have been issued in many places, resulting in delays in terminal pick-up and truck delivery.

The fire caused the closure of some major roads and highways in Los Angeles, such as the Pacific Coast Highway, Highway 10, and Highway 210. Road repair and cleanup takes time, which has led to a significant decline in cargo transportation efficiency, and transport trucks cannot reach warehouses on time, affecting the warehousing and delivery of goods.

While the wildfire was raging in Los Angeles, several states including Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and others were also affected by severe snowstorms.

The processing, transportation and delivery services of mainstream logistics companies such as UPS and FedEx also face severe challenges in the relevant regions, and delays of varying degrees are expected .

As Los Angeles is an important node in international trade, logistics delays may lead to poor logistics. Goods may not arrive at their destination in time, resulting in inventory backlogs in Chinese warehouses and increased storage costs.

Many orders cannot be delivered on time, and Amazon's "late delivery penalty" makes things worse for sellers. If the order delay or cancellation rate is too high, the account performance will be limited or even closed, and sellers may lose the most important sales channel .

Due to the fire, warehouses with more serious damage may have to suspend delivery services, which will not only affect orders from FBA warehouses in California, but may also cause delays or even cancellations in delivery of orders from surrounding states , further exacerbating the return rate.

On the other hand, as sellers' order shipments and delivery times were significantly delayed, some buyers began to return or cancel their orders , worrying about the arrival time or safety of the goods . According to Google satellite maps, the delivery of this year's hot-selling products was interrupted by the fire, resulting in an increase in cancellation rates.

However, we cannot ignore that after the peak sales season, some sellers will encounter inventory backlogs due to excessive stock. If these goods piled up in the warehouse are destroyed by fire, then these originally difficult-to-sell goods will be converted into profits due to Amazon's compensation based on the selling price.

This sudden crisis is undoubtedly a heavy blow to Chinese sellers who rely on Los Angeles as a logistics hub. Sellers in related regions have to face longer waiting times and rising logistics costs, and the impact may even spread to order processing in overseas markets.

Faced with this sudden disaster, affected sellers need to respond quickly. According to the development trend of the fire and logistics dynamics, they need to conduct real-time assessments and make decisions on inventory, sales and logistics risks, such as adjusting sales strategies, transferring inventory or finding alternative logistics solutions .

As of now, Amazon has not officially responded to the countermeasures, and sellers can only "wait" for the development of the situation.

In addition, during this period, all emergency products related to the order is booming, such as tents, emergency power supplies, lamps, etc. During the post-disaster reconstruction phase, consumer demand in the Los Angeles area may change, and the demand for some commodities will surge, such as home outerwear, daily necessities, emergency supplies , etc.

Sellers may consider increasing the inventory of these products to meet market demand.

This crisis is like a mirror, reflecting the fragility of the logistics system under extreme challenges. In order to build a more indestructible logistics defense line, sellers need to deepen supply chain risk management.