Amazon.com Inc. today said it will stop shipping some items to speed up delivery of essential supplies such as food and toiletries to people doing their shopping online.

Meanwhile, other tech giants are also taking new steps to help stem the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Amazon will temporarily stop shipping many nonessential products sold by third-party merchants to enable its warehouses to process orders for basic household items faster. That means those merchants can’t send items to the e-commerce giant’s warehouses for processing, but they may still deliver merchandise to customers via other means. The restriction applies to sellers across both the consumer and business-to-business versions of Amazon’s marketplace.

Shipments of nonessential items will be limited until April 5. The policy is in effect in the U.S. and the European Union. 

“We are seeing increased online shopping and as a result some products such as household staples and medical supplies are out of stock,” Amazon said in a notice to sellers. “With this in mind, we are temporarily prioritizing household staples, medical supplies and other high-demand products coming into our fulfillment centers.” 

The company’s decision to adjust shipping policies comes hours after it said it will hire 100,000 additional warehouse workers in the U.S. as well as raise supply chain personnel’s pay by at least $2 an hour across the U.S., the U.K. and parts of Europe. Other tech companies, in turn, are offering financial support for employees to help mitigate the impact of the crisis. Enterprise software giant Workday Inc. said on Monday that it will provide most staffers a bonus equivalent to two weeks’ pay and Facebook Inc. is reportedly upping employee bonuses as well. 

Tech companies have found themselves in the spotlight as the world works to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Earlier this week, Facebook, Twitter Inc., Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Reddit Inc. signed a pledge to fight misinformation shared on their platforms. Microsoft has also helped create a dataset of coronavirus-related research for scientists working to stop the pandemic.

Tech stocks are up slightly today amid a marketwide rebound that has helped recoup a portion of the past few days’ steep losses. Amazon’s shares are trading more than 6.7% higher, Apple Inc. has gained about 4.5%, Microsoft is up 6.9% and Facebook and Google are both up more than 1.7%. The gains follow massive selloffs on Monday that dragged both the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index and the S&P 500 to their biggest one-day losses since 1987.

The Dow is up nearly 700 points, or 3.5%, and the S&P 500 has climbed 4.2% today as investors await more information about a fiscal stimulus from the Trump administration, which is reportedly proposing a $850 billion package to Congress. Other countries including the U.K. and France have unveiled their own stimulus plans, while Canada is expected to announce measures to boost its economy as early as Wednesday. 

Photo: Amazon