Amazon’s new service expansion encroaches on partners UPS and FedEx
Seattle — Amazon.com is expanding a service launched to make more groceries, cleaning supplies and other products available for quick delivery directly from merchants without overwhelming the e-commerce giant’s warehouses with additional inventory, documents show. The trial pushes Amazon’s logistical reach beyond its own facilities and into those of its merchants, encroaching on services of long-time delivery partners United Parcel Service (UPS) and FedEx. Amazon is enticing the sellers who use the company’s online marketplace with lower delivery costs, logistics software, warehouse inspections and recommendations. Bloomberg first reported on the trial in October, which was called "seller flex". Amazon will oversee the pick-up of packages from warehouses of third-party merchants selling goods on Amazon.com and the delivery to customers’ homes, work that is now often handled by UPS and FedEx. Amazon could still use these couriers for delivery, but the company will decide how a packag...
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