Spain: Amazon prioritizes hygiene products considering its food platform’s collapse
Prime Now, the platform that Amazon and the Spanish retail chain DIA launched five years ago, has collapsed due to the strong demand. The US multinational recognizes that it has been forced to prioritize basic personal hygiene and household care products.
Prime Now is the Amazon app to sell non-perishable foodstuffs and cleaning and home care items. Its launching, in September 2015, was a step to strengthen its position in Spain, facing mayor retailers such as El Corte Inglés, Mercadona or Carrefour.
More workers
Amazon has reinforce its staff with the addition of 1,500 new workers to cope with the increase in online demand, after the state of alarm was declared in Spain to stop the expansion of the Coronavirus. In this way, it calls on workers in the sectors most affected by this crisis, such as those related to hospitality, foodservice and travel industries, to join the company.
“We want these people to know that we welcome them on our teams until things return to normal and their previous employer can bring them back”, they said from the platform.
Pay rise
In addition, the e-commerce giant wants to reward its partners as they deliver critical supplies directly to the doorstep of the people who need them. In Spain, for example, its employees will be paid an additional 2 euros per hour worked from now until the end of April.
New boost to online shopping
The Coronavirus crisis has forced the more than 47 million inhabitants of Spain to radically change their daily activities. The prohibition to leave their homes except in case of force majeure and the general closure of most shops have forced households to adapt to the new reality marked by the health emergency. A context that has given wings to the purchases through Internet and to the alternative methods of payment to the physical money.
In the week of February 24 to March 1, online sales in mass consumption shot up 62.5% over the same period last year, according to data from Nielsen.
Waiting lists for online shopping at the supermarket
Many Spaniards are opting to order on the Internet, but the capacity of shops to suddenly cover this unusual peak in demand is limited and many chains have either suspended this service because they cannot offer it with guarantees or are giving priority to people who really cannot go out on the street.
So that, most supermarkets are giving priority to the elderly, pregnant women and those in quarantine when it comes to home shopping.