Amazon is reportedly inching closer to have its own delivery service as an extension to its massive retail presence. The company currently works with FedEx and UPS to manage its transportations at various levels and this move will put Amazon in direct competition with its partners. As per the report, the third-party delivery service will be called “Shipping with Amazon” and it will be launched in the coming weeks. The service will kick off in Los Angeles, and will be later expanded to other parts of the US. At its initial stage, the service will only be offered to the third-party sellers on Amazon’s own platform and will cover other businesses not on Amazon’s platform at a later stage.
With that said, Amazon’s delivery service won’t be dealing with the customers directly, at least initially, it will utilize a business-to-business (B2B) model. Under this service, Amazon will pick up goods from third-party sellers’ warehouse and transport them to Amazon’s fulfillment centers. From there, the goods will follow the usual transportation and delivery methods via third-party delivery services. As of now, sellers are required to ship the goods themselves to the nearest Amazon fulfillment center. Amazon will also try to have an upper hand in the market by keeping its prices lower than the competition and offering faster deliveries once the service expands beyond sellers on Amazon’s platform. The online retail giant is investing heavily to expand its delivery network which will give the company a greater control over the customer experience. Delivery by drones is also on the cards with the Amazon’s great focus on Prime Air, company’s division that is responsible for making it a reality.
Just last week, Amazon announced to deliver products from Whole Foods, which the company acquired in July, within two hours. This service is available for free to the Prime members via Prime Now and is available in four markets at the moment – Cincinnati, Dallas, Austin, and Virginia Beach. This service will be rolled out to other markets in the coming months. Last year, Amazon went a step ahead and introduced in-home delivery that gave users an option to get their products delivered not at their doorstep, but inside their actual home. Users are required to purchase the Amazon Key In-Home Kit for $249.99 to get started with in-home delivery.