Amazon, the e-commerce titan, has unveiled a significant expansion in its logistics operations with the introduction of ‘Supply Chain by Amazon,’ an end-to-end, fully automated suite of supply chain services. This innovative system aims to offer sellers a comprehensive solution for moving products straight from manufacturers to customers worldwide. By leveraging Amazon’s advanced logistics, sellers will be able to gain to transport better, gain fulfillment, keep products in stock, ship faster and more reliably and much more at lower costs.
Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s Vice President of WW Selling Partner Services, elaborated on this expansion, stating that this platform will make Amazon directly collect sellers’ inventory from their factories and handle the entire supply chain logistics up to delivering to customers’ doorsteps. Sellers will be able to delegate the complexities of their supply chain logistics to Amazon, for products sold on either Amazon’s platform or sales channels, be it online or physical stores.
The exclusive logistics expansion offers several key benefits:
- Automatic Cross-Border Discounts for Amazon Global Logistics (AGL): Utilising Supply Chain by Amazon will grant sellers extra discounts on the existing 25 per cent for all cross-border transportation headed to Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD).
- Streamlined Domestic Inbound Transportation to AWD with Partnered Carrier Program (PCP): By the end of 2023, sellers can utilise PCP to simplify domestic transportation into AWD centers.
- Expanded AWD Offering with Reduced Prices: AWD is now accessible to all selling partners, enabling them to store in bulk at discounts of up to 80 per cent compared to Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) storage fees.
- New Multi-Channel Distribution (MCD) Capability: Sellers’ products will be moved in bulk from AWD to any sales channel, empowering selling partners to restock across all their sales and fulfillment channels, not limited to Amazon, from a unified inventory pool.
- Automatic Inventory Replenishment with FBA: Amazon will employ advanced machine learning and supply chain optimisation to automatically restock inventory into optimal Amazon fulfillment centers, supporting anticipated customer demand. This allows sellers to benefit from faster speeds through FBA and fulfill customer orders for off-Amazon channels via Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF).
The service is presently in a testing phase and is limited to a select group of sellers. It is anticipated to become accessible to all sellers by the end of 2023. This development comes as rival companies like Walmart, Shopify, and Flexport, set up their e-commerce fulfillment capabilities.
