The sheer size of Amazon is mind boggling. Is there anywhere they've opened their logistics network to other operators yet? Like AWS but for their logistics.
Isn't "logistics as a service" pretty much what Fulfillment By Amazon is?
I could be totally wrong, but based on the past stories I've read about Amazon's negotiations with UPS and their growth of their own delivery network, I'd be surprised if they have much spare logistics capacity to open up to anyone outside the immediate Amazon ecosystem.
> Isn't "logistics as a service" pretty much what Fulfillment By Amazon is?
There is a lot of crossover between FBA, and a UPS or FedEx, but it's not 100%. FBA is basically B2C, as opposed to B2B or C2C.
Back during the "peak lockdown" of April/May 2020, a little birdie told me about some of the steps that Amazon was taking to give the warehouses and delivery network a break from the increased demand. In other words, Amazon saw lots of unexpected growth due to the pandemic. It wouldn't surprise me if plans to launch "Amazon Logistics" or whatever as a separate line of business got pushed back due to the pandemic.
Edit: I know for a fact that the leadership of the Logistics part of Amazon has expressed a desire to become the "4th flywheel" of Amazon, which is Amazon-speak for being a self sustaining, revenue generating line of business. But as you allude to, they have to soak up all the demand generated from the Amazon consumer business first.
>Logistics part of Amazon has expressed a desire to become the "4th flywheel" of Amazon
I'm not surprised at all if this is the long term game plan. I'm curious though, what are the first three flywheels? AWS, retail sales, and what? Alexa/Kindle devices? Prime Video? Advertising? All of those seem like strong contenders but I'm not sure they really rival the AWS/retail arms (yet).
The three are: Prime, Marketplace (3rd party), AWS.
> After two decades of risk taking and teamwork, and with generous helpings of good fortune all along the way, we are now happily wed to what I believe are three such life partners: Marketplace, Prime, and AWS. Each of these offerings was a bold bet at first, and sensible people worried (often!) that they could not work. But at this point, it’s become pretty clear how special they are and how lucky we are to have them.
> With good execution and a bit of continuing good luck, Marketplace, Prime, and AWS can be serving customers and earning financial returns for many years to come.
It's kinda interesting that Devices (Alexa/Kindle) and 1st party retail are not called out as flywheels. Advertising and Alexa are other candidates for the next flywheel I believe. I think the reason they're not there yet is that they're not self-sustaining, i.e. like Logistics, they're growing but their growth is driven by the other flywheels.
Kind of the opposite of your suggestion, but I have a long time friend who owns an audio / video production company. He has been using his box trucks to drive routes for Amazon this year (not last mile), as his core business is quite light due to COVID.
