The e-commerce giant is experimenting with its own delivery service, in which it will oversee the pickup of packages from warehouses of third-party merchants selling goods on its platform and their delivery to customers’ homes, Bloomberg reported.
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The service was introduced in U.S. West Coast states this year on a trial basis, and a broader rollout is planned in 2018.
Amazon.com Inc. is testing out its own delivery service intended to make more products available for free, two-day delivery and relieve overcrowding in its warehouses, according to two people familiar with the plan, Bloomberg said Thursday.
The plan will push the Seattle-based e-commerce giant deeper into tasks handled by parcel giants UPS and FedEx.
Dubbed “Seller Flex,” the service involves Amazon overseeing the pickup of packages from warehouses of third-party merchants selling goods on its platform and their delivery to customers’ homes. “Amazon could still use these couriers for delivery, but the company will decide how a package is sent instead of leaving it up to the seller,” Bloomberg said.
The service launched two years ago in India, and it has been gradually marketed to merchants in the U.S. in preparation for a national expansion. It began on a trial basis this year in West Coast states, and a broader rollout is planned in 2018.
“Given the investments that Amazon is making in fulfillment infrastructure and transportation to support its own retail business, we view it simply a matter of time until they offer these services to third parties more broadly,” Baird Analyst Colin Sebastian wrote in an email, according to NBC. “This is the same strategy that Amazon has successfully utilized in retail (third-party marketplace) and technology (AWS) where they offer as a service the same platforms built to run their business.”