Amazon confirmed it laid off some people in its FBA fulfillment organization (a small percentage of the organization globally, it said) after The Information reported the layoffs on Thursday. While the article is behind a paywall, reporter Theo Wayt tweeted: “Amazon has laid off around 200 staff who worked with merchants that use its warehousing and delivery service.”
An Amazon spokesperson provided the following statement to EcommerceBytes on Friday:
“We regularly review our team structures to ensure we’re best set up to serve customers. Following a recent review, we’ve eliminated some roles in the FBA organization. We’ve already notified employees whose roles are impacted, and we’re committed to supporting them through their transition. We will also continue to offer the same level of support and services to our selling partners; they will not be impacted by these changes.”
In Wayt’s tweet, he also noted that “Last fall, Amazon unveiled a chatbot called Project Amelia that can help resolve issues for merchants, including with tracking and monitoring inventory.”
Amazon said the layoffs were not connected to Project Amelia and said it continues to invest in FBA to help sellers grow.
In the following video Amazon posted to YouTube, it shows sellers can ask the Project Amelia chatbot questions, such as, “How is my business doing?” and it will respond with key metrics, such as dollar and units sold, average selling price, traffic (page views) feature offer percentage, and conversion rate – including the year-over-year change.
Another question an FBA seller might ask “Amelia” is, “What’s my cotton T-shirt inventory status?” The chatbot will return information including Total quantity; Fulfillable quantity; Inbound working quantity; Inbound shipped quantity; Inbound receiving quantity; Reserved quantity; and Researching quantity.
In that scenario, a seller can ask a follow-up question such as, “I have 300 units on the way, and I don’t see it reflected in the report. Can someone look into this?”
The video shows the chatbot responding to the hypothetical question with the response, “Sure, I can take a deeper look at this for you. I can summarize and send the details you provided to the right team. I’ll make sure you’re updated when we have more information. Would you like me to do that? If not, here are some call or chat support options.”
Many sellers are leery of chatbots and prefer to speak to humans in their native country – but according to Amazon’s statement, it will continue to offer the same level of support and services to selling partners, who would not be impacted by the layoffs.
Feel free to leave a comment if you’ve interacted with Amelia.