IN Brief:
- Amazon Supply Chain Services is now available to external businesses.
- The offer includes freight, storage, fulfilment, distribution, parcel shipping, and customs support.
- Early customers include Procter & Gamble, 3M, Lands’ End, and American Eagle Outfitters.
Amazon Supply Chain Services has been opened to businesses beyond Amazon sellers, giving external companies access to the logistics network that supports Amazon’s retail operation and independent marketplace partners.
The service covers freight, distribution, fulfilment, bulk storage, parcel shipping, and customs-related support. Amazon said the offer is available to retail, wholesale, and commercial businesses of all sizes across sectors including healthcare, automotive, manufacturing, electronics, apparel, food, and consumer goods.
Procter & Gamble is using Amazon freight services to move raw materials to production sites and finished goods through its distribution network. 3M is using Amazon freight to transport products from manufacturing sites to distribution centres worldwide. Lands’ End is using a unified inventory pool across Amazon’s network for multi-channel fulfilment, while American Eagle Outfitters is using Amazon’s parcel shipping network for ecommerce orders from the American Eagle and Aerie websites.
The service gives Amazon a broader role in third-party logistics. Its fulfilment and delivery operations have long been available to sellers on Amazon, but the expanded offer moves further into end-to-end logistics for businesses that may not sell through the marketplace.
Amazon’s logistics infrastructure spans fulfilment centres, sortation facilities, linehaul, air freight, trailers, intermodal containers, parcel delivery, and software. Opening that network to outside businesses adds a new competitor to an already pressured logistics services market.
The model is built around integration. Many companies still manage freight, storage, fulfilment, parcel shipping, customs, and inventory through multiple providers and platforms. Each additional handoff creates cost, data gaps, and accountability issues. Amazon is offering a more centralised service structure, supported by the operational systems it has developed for its own network.
The competitive impact will vary by sector and customer type. Retailers and consumer goods businesses may use Amazon’s network to manage peak demand, ecommerce fulfilment, and multi-channel inventory. Manufacturers may be more interested in freight movement, distribution, and storage.
The launch also extends a pattern already seen in technology markets. Amazon built infrastructure for internal scale, then turned that capability into services for external customers. Supply chain is now following a similar path, with physical logistics assets and software being commercialised as a broader business platform.
Established 3PLs face pressure around visibility, service integration, cost, and speed. Amazon’s entry does not remove the need for specialist logistics providers, particularly in regulated, industrial, heavy, or complex environments. It does raise expectations for how quickly logistics networks should move goods, share data, and connect inventory across channels.
Amazon Supply Chain Services gives businesses another route into large-scale logistics infrastructure, while adding a major new force to the market for outsourced supply chain operations.
