Amazon’s logistics network, now open to every business

Amazon has built one of the most reliable and efficient supply chains on Earth – from freight that moves cargo across air, land, and sea, to fulfilment centres that pick and pack millions of orders a day, and a parcel shipping network that delivers packages every day of the week.

Now, the company is announcing Amazon Supply Chain Services (ASCS), opening its full portfolio of freight, distribution, fulfilment, and parcel shipping capabilities to businesses of all types and sizes, not only Amazon sellers. With this launch, it is expanding its third party logistics capacity to support businesses in industries such as healthcare, automotive, manufacturing, and retail.

‘Amazon is bringing the infrastructure, intelligence, and scale of its supply chain services – proven over decades – to businesses everywhere, much like Amazon Web Services did for cloud computing,’ said Peter Larsen, vice president of Amazon Supply Chain Services. ‘Supply chain wasn’t just a function at Amazon – it was core to providing an exceptional shopping experience. Our differentiator. The reason we could offer fast, dependable delivery that nobody else could. And with the launch of ASCS, we are confident we can give any other business access to the same cost efficiency, reliability, and speed that we have built for Amazon customers.’

Since 2006, independent sellers have shipped more than 80 billion units with Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). Sellers found fulfilling orders on their own – picking, packing, shipping, handling returns – was operationally intense and expensive. With FBA, they could hand that work to Amazon and focus on building their businesses. It worked.

But the company knew fulfilment was only part of the challenge. Getting products to  fulfilment centres in the first place – shipping from overseas factories, clearing customs, storing inventory in bulk, and distributing across multiple sales channels – was just as complex. Each of these steps meant a different provider, a different contract, and limited visibility into what was happening with their products.

So, Amazon kept building to help sellers solve those problems – adding new capabilities at each stage of the supply chain and then connecting them into a fully automated set of services that move sellers’ products from factory to customer doorstep through a single network. Today, it supports hundreds of thousands of sellers, moving billions of items worldwide annually. Sellers using these end to end solutions see nearly 20% higher sales.

‘Amazon has added value at every stage of our supply chain from cross-border logistics to warehouse storage and parcel shipping,’ said Todd Bairstow, founder of Finer Form. ‘We have been able to save money, eliminate operational complexity, and it is given us more time to focus on what matters: building our brand. Honestly, there wouldn’t be a Finer Form without Amazon.’

This success with selling partners led Amazon to a natural next step: gradually making individual logistics services available for retail, wholesale, and commercial businesses of all types. Over the past three years, hundreds of thousands of sellers have trusted the company’s logistics network to move, store, and deliver hundreds of millions of packages across third party facilities, warehouses, and sales channels beyond the Amazon store. And these results gave the company the conviction to go further and offer these same services to any type of business.

Whether you are a small retailer looking to grow your customer base on the Amazon store or a global manufacturer looking to efficiently distribute raw materials to production facilities – ASCS gives you the flexibility to choose the services and level of support you need.

Procter & Gamble is using Amazon’s freight services to transport raw materials to production facilities and move finished goods across its distribution network, whilst 3M is using the freight services to move products from its manufacturing sites to distribution centres worldwide.

Lands’ End is using a unified inventory pool within Amazon’s network to fulfil orders across multiple sales channels, and American Eagle Outfitters, Inc is using  parcel shipping network to deliver online orders from its American Eagle and Aerie website directly to customers nationwide.

‘Amazon is one of our key e-commerce partners, and we are excited to leverage Amazon Supply Chain Services to position inventory closer to customers so we can reach them even faster,’ said Andrew McLean, CEO of Lands’ End. ‘This consistency is central to our solutions based approach, enabling us to serve customers with confidence and agility, especially during peak seasons.’

Core offerings of the new service include:

Freight: Amazon’s transportation network spans ocean, air, ground, and rail freight, built to help businesses move goods quickly and reliably at scale. It offers dependable capacity with a range of speed and service options, including time sensitive shipments, simplified booking, customs clearance, and end to end shipment visibility.

Distribution and fulfilment: Amazon enables businesses to import, store, and position inventory closer to demand – and fulfil customer orders across their sales channels, all within a single network. By using a unified inventory pool and advanced forecasting capabilities, businesses can improve delivery speed and accuracy across their own website, ecommerce marketplaces, social media channels, and physical stores.

Parcel shipping: Amazon provides shipping solutions for orders placed across all sales channels, with predictable two to five day delivery speeds and seven day a week service. Businesses can benefit from flexible pickup from their own warehouses or third party providers and track shipments from label creation to customer doorsteps.