Amazon Pending Orders Freeze UK Sellers' Stock

Amazon sellers in the UK are facing a crisis as a surge of high-value orders gets stuck in pending status, tying up their stock and blocking genuine customers from buying affected products.

The issue began on September 20 when merchants started describing the problem on Amazon Seller Central forums. Sellers reported that the pending orders involved products priced at £100 or more, with some saying their entire supply of a product had moved into pending orders within days.

A seller reported 30 pending orders for a single product over about 52 hours, while another reported 72 pending orders worth around £25,000 over three days. The sellers suspect that buyers may be using the checkout process to reserve stock and prevent other customers from placing orders, which could be compared to a denial-of-service attack.

The effect puts small merchants in a difficult position as they cannot release the units through Seller Central, and genuine buyers may see the product as unavailable. Amazon has not provided a public explanation for the pending orders or said whether it considers the activity malicious.