Amazon restarts Amazon Shipping, its UPS and FedEx competitor that handles packages from other websites, after pausing the US service earlier in the pandemic
Sebastian Herrera / Wall Street Journal :
Context & Ripple Effects
Amazon Shipping’s return reverses the pandemic-era suspension of its seller delivery service, reviving an effort to use Amazon’s delivery infrastructure for parcels originating beyond its own marketplace.
The restart follows a recent overhaul of Amazon’s US logistics network that improved delivery operations and inventory flow. It also extends a long-running effort to reduce reliance on traditional carriers, including earlier attempts to attract shippers from FedEx and UPS with lower fees.
First-order effects
- Amazon can again offer delivery service to businesses selling on other websites, expanding the potential use of its logistics network beyond Amazon-originated orders.
- UPS and FedEx face a renewed competitor for eligible US e-commerce parcel volume, while merchants gain another carrier option.
Second-order effects
- A broader merchant-facing service can put pressure on incumbent carriers to defend service levels and pricing for e-commerce shippers, particularly where Amazon can bundle fulfillment and delivery capabilities.
- Amazon’s logistics investments can be utilized across a wider parcel base, making network efficiency—not only retail delivery speed—a more important competitive lever.
Third-order effects
- If Amazon Shipping scales, the parcel market could become more vertically integrated: a major retailer’s delivery network would increasingly compete for third-party merchant traffic as well as serve its own orders.
- The move points toward e-commerce logistics competition centered on control of fulfillment, inventory placement, and last-mile delivery rather than carrier capacity alone.
The trend: Large e-commerce platforms are turning internally built delivery networks into external logistics products, challenging traditional parcel carriers for merchant relationships.