Due to an overwhelming demand of essential products and limited manpower during the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, e-commerce giant Amazon has announced that it will begin to put its U.S.-based new grocery delivery customers on a waitlist. The company will also cut back shopping hours

“To help, in the coming weeks, we will launch a new feature that will allow customers to secure time to shop. This feature will give delivery customers a virtual ‘place in line’ and will allow us to distribute the delivery windows on a first-come, first-served basis. Simultaneously, we will continue to add capacity as swiftly as possible,” Stephenie Landry, Vice President of grocery at Amazon, said in a statement on Sunday.

In the recent few weeks, Amazon has expanded Whole Foods Market grocery pickup from roughly 80 stores to more than 150.

“We are releasing delivery windows throughout the day and have made it easier for customers to see when the next delivery window is available by including it on the homepages of Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market,” she added.

The company is also planning to adjust store hours to select Whole Foods Market locations to focus exclusively on fulfilling online grocery orders during this time.

“We are temporarily asking new Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market delivery and pickup customers to sign up for an invitation to use online grocery delivery and pickup. We’re increasing capacity each week and will invite new customers to shop every week,” explained Landry.

The move illustrates that Amazon is now leveraging its online presence as well as its physical stores to handle increased demand and also to reach its previously fixed target of acquiring Whole Foods for $13.7 billion.

Amazon offers grocery delivery via its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Prime Now from its warehouses and Whole Food stores.

The e-commerce giant said while it has increased order capacity by more than 60 per cent due to COVID-19, it still expects the combination of restricted capacity due to social distancing and customer demand will continue to make finding available delivery windows challenging for customers.

At present, Amazon runs 487 Whole Foods stores in America. The company is hiring more people to expand its manpower and it also offers higher pay to encourage its warehouse staff to continue to work.

Previously, Amazon has said that it conducts daily temperature checks for all its employees and provide them necessary protection in forms of gloves, masks and others.