Amazon has expanded its third-party logistics capacity and opened its full portfolio of freight, distribution, fulfillment, and parcel shipping capabilities to businesses of all types and sizes, with the launch of its Amazon Supply Chain Services (ASCS).

Amazon explains that proof its logistics network could work for others, came from its own selling partners, with more than 80 billion units shipped by independent sellers since 2006 with Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA).

“Sellers came to Amazon because fulfilling orders on their own—picking, packing, shipping, handling returns—was operationally intense and expensive,” the logistics behemoth states. 

“With FBA, they could hand that work to Amazon and focus on building their businesses. It worked.”

Amazon adds that fulfilment is only part of the logistics challenge, with the process of getting products to Amazon’s fulfilment centres proving to be complex, from shipping overseas to clearing customs, storing inventory and distributing across multiple channels.

“Each of these steps meant a different provider, a different contract, and limited visibility into what was happening with their products,” Amazon states.

“So Amazon kept building to help sellers solve those problems—adding new capabilities at each stage of the supply chain and then connecting them into a fully automated set of services that move sellers’ products from factory to customer doorstep through a single network. 

“Today, Amazon supports hundreds of thousands of sellers, moving billions of items worldwide annually. Sellers using these end-to-end solutions see nearly 20% higher sales.”

Peter Larsen, vice president of ASCS, explains Amazon is “bringing the infrastructure, intelligence, and scale of its supply chain services - proven over decades - to businesses everywhere, much like Amazon Web Services did for cloud computing”.

“Supply chain wasn’t just a function at Amazon—it was core to providing an exceptional shopping experience,” he continues. “Our differentiator. The reason we could offer fast, dependable delivery that nobody else could. 

“And with the launch of ASCS, we’re confident we can give any other business access to the same cost efficiency, reliability, and speed that we’ve built for Amazon customers.”