Online retail giant Amazon has continued to operate online throughout the pandemic, supplying households with millions of items a week, as shoppers turn to online amid a high street lockdown.
Under Government guidelines, online stores are allowed to trade as normal, however with a focus on key items, such as food and medication, to manage demand and safeguard employees.
Households are also being warned to only shop where absolutely necessary - to ensure vulnerable people get access to the essentials they need during the pandemic.
But what's classed as a priority order and what items will now take longer to arrive?
We asked Amazon for a list of these core items, which it said included items such as household products, work from home essentials, groceries and medication.
The grocer added that these lists are constantly changing in line with where demand is rising.
Those classed as 'essential' items will be dispatched on a priority basis - while non-essential items will be shipped at a slower pace.
"We believe our role serving customers and the community during this time is a critical one," the retailer explains online.
"As COVID-19 has spread, we've seen an increase in people shopping online. To serve our customers while also helping to ensure the safety of our associates, we’ve changed our logistics, transportation, supply chain, purchasing, and third-party seller processes to prioritise stocking and delivering items that are a higher priority for our customers. This has resulted in some of our delivery promises being longer than usual.
"While Amazon will continue taking orders and shipping items from across our store, customers ordering items they don’t need immediately have the opportunity to help others by selecting shipping options that enable us to consolidate orders and make fewer stops in neighbourhoods throughout the week, and most importantly, serve customers with the most critical needs first."
A statement told Mirror Money: " We have increased our capacity allowing most sellers to send products into our fulfillment network.
"Similarly, we are increasing purchasing from our Retail vendors. At the same time, we are improving delivery speeds in all categories, especially for products most highly demanded by customers.
"We continue to adjust our processes in response to COVID-19 to return to full capacity and Prime delivery speeds as quickly as possible."
