Amazon Opens Supply Chain

Amazon just threw open the doors to its global logistics network, letting any business—not just marketplace sellers—tap into the infrastructure that powers its famously fast deliveries. With its new Amazon Supply Chain Services (ASCS), businesses from giants like Procter & Gamble and 3M to retailers like Lands’ End can now access everything from ocean freight to AI-powered inventory management. This is more than filling spare capacity: Amazon is gunning for the $1.4 trillion third-party logistics market, directly challenging UPS and FedEx, whose stocks tumbled 10% on the news. The stakes? If Amazon can pull off multi-year, multimode deals at scale, it could become the backbone of global commerce, bundling shipping, warehousing, and logistics software into one powerful package.

But here’s the catch—channel conflict and data privacy loom large. Will brands hand their logistics over to a retail rival? Some, like manufacturers, may play it safe by moving only goods, not customer data. The network’s ability to maintain its 96.4% on-time rate under bigger loads, transparency around pricing, and hard data separation between ASCS and Amazon’s own retail business will make or break trust. Meanwhile, labor rules in cities like New York threaten to raise last-mile costs and test Amazon’s margin story.

In Europe, Amazon’s €15 billion bet on France aims to cement goodwill with regulators and cut last-mile costs through local hubs and greener delivery methods. But with EU gatekeeper laws and wary retailers, the real question is whether Amazon can convince enough partners to truly scale up—before the incumbents strike back.

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