Amazon Opens Its Logistics Network to Outside Businesses, Challenging UPS and FedEx

Amazon.com is opening its supply chain infrastructure to companies outside its own marketplace, a move that puts the e-commerce giant in direct competition with logistics incumbents UPS and FedEx.

The new service, branded "Amazon Supply Chain Services," allows businesses across retail, healthcare, manufacturing, and other industries to use Amazon's network to move, store, and deliver goods ranging from raw materials to finished products.

The offering extends capabilities Amazon has built over decades to support its own operations and thousands of third-party marketplace sellers. Companies signing up can access distribution, fulfillment, and parcel shipping services, with delivery timelines of two to five days.

Clients will also be able to tap Amazon's warehousing and inventory forecasting tools, and apply those services across all their sales channels — including their own websites, social media platforms, and brick-and-mortar stores, the company said.

Amazon confirmed that Procter & Gamble, 3M, and American Eagle Outfitters have already signed on to use the supply chain services.

Underpinning the new offering is a logistics footprint that includes a fleet of more than 100 cargo planes alongside a wide network of warehouses and sorting hubs. That physical infrastructure could position Amazon as a meaningful competitor in an industry long dominated by FedEx and UPS, analysts say, with the potential to intensify pressure on both pricing and delivery speed.

The expansion echoes the trajectory of Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud computing division. AWS launched in 2006 initially to overhaul Amazon's own internal IT infrastructure before evolving into the world's largest cloud services provider. Amazon is now applying a similar logic — monetizing internal capabilities by selling them to outside customers — to its physical logistics arm.

For Amazon's e-commerce unit, the move opens a new revenue stream at a time when the company is seeking growth avenues beyond its core retail and cloud businesses. Opening its supply chain to third parties converts a cost center into a potential profit engine, reflecting a broader pattern in how Amazon has commercialized its operational investments over time.

Whether the new service can meaningfully challenge FedEx and UPS at scale will depend on customer adoption and Amazon's ability to handle the added volume without degrading service quality across its existing network — a threshold that will become clearer as more enterprise clients come online.

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