Amazon isn’t going into the 3PL business; it’s already there

ID 143836577 © Andrei Gabriel Stanescu | Dreamstime.com

Fascinating op-ed from Freightwaves detailing Amazon’s push into freight forwarding and other logistics services. The author argues that the development of the e-commerce giant’s Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) is its supply chain equivalent to Amazon Web Services, which comprises over 85 different services for running applications, storing data and managing networking, computing and developing.

A similarly holistic end-to-end approach can be seen at work in FBA: “Amazon has the ability and fulfilment and distribution infrastructure to offer 3PL services for hire, independent of FBA. Considering Amazon’s proven strategy of entering a new space for itself and growing it into a service for customers, 3PL is not a stretch by any means; it’s a matter of when.”