Amazon is growing its shipping service for companies like Etsy and Walmart using its efficient logistics network, gaining a slice of its competitors' businesses
to fulfil orders for customers around the world, regardless of where the transaction occurs.” https://www.ft.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This story sits mid-way through a decade-long arc of Amazon turning an internal capability into a sold service. Amazon announced it was building a global delivery business to take on Alibaba back in 2016, and by 2019 nearly half of its US packages were delivered by itself rather than the Postal Service. The 2021 move to fulfil orders for Etsy and Walmart sellers extends that network outward from Amazon's own marketplace.
The trajectory only steepened afterward: Amazon later opened bulk storage via Warehousing & Distribution, let Walmart sellers use Multichannel Fulfillment, and ultimately packaged raw-material-to-final-product logistics as Supply Chain Services. What reads here as an odd competitive accommodation — handling a rival's orders — is the early template for that platform strategy.
First-order effects
- Etsy gains access to fulfillment infrastructure it could not build itself, while Amazon books revenue on volume generated by transactions occurring entirely off its own marketplace.
Second-order effects
- Walmart faces a paradox it will later resolve by embracing the same network for its own sellers — competitors become customers because opting out means matching Amazon's logistics spend alone.
Third-order effects
- If rivals keep outsourcing fulfillment to Amazon, the industry converges on one company operating shared retail infrastructure, with pricing power over merchants who no longer control their own delivery economics.
The trend: Retailers are unbundling their logistics networks into sellable platforms, converting internal cost centers into revenue lines even when the customers are direct competitors.