Amazon is not primarily known as a logistics company, but there is one fact that should be considered a signal, not even a weak one, of the future "expansionist aims" of the giant founded by Jeff Bezos. And the signal is simple, for those who want and know how to read it: in the USA, in 2020 the Seattle company shipped more packages than FedEx.
Why is this important, in my opinion? Logistics is a $1,5 trillion business and has long been controlled by a handful of key companies. “Few but good” (in some cases not even good). In the USA these players are called FedEx, UPS and the national postal service. Since last year it has been clear that Amazon has decided to conquer this sector.
A look at the data
Amazon now has 21% of the US shipping market, just behind UPS (24%) and already abundantly in front of Fedex (16%). The USPS, the US Postal Service, remains dominant with 38%. Until? All the other players in the logistics sector represent only 1% of the market.
Amazon's rise in the logistics industry is remarkable and telling. Until 2014 it relied on FedEx and UPS for its deliveries, and had ZERO market share. Since then, Bezos has poured resources into building a network of warehouses, trucks, planes and delivery personnel. He even designed and built the Rivians, its vehicles with dimensions and internal divisions optimized for logistics.
Cannibal strategy
Having strengthened its "armed" arm in the shipping field, Amazon has simultaneously taken orders (and money) from other shippers. Now, the company is transforming shipping from a cost to a source of revenue by offering its logistics capabilities as a service.
Currently Amazon still leans on other forwarders for last mile deliveries. In 2020, of the 4,2 billion packages sold by Amazon, 2,8 billion were passed on to other companies. Its campaign of conquest is not over yet: if I were to tell you, however, what competitors should do to react to this state of affairs, I wouldn't know where to start. Their fate seems simply sealed to me.
What to say? Amazon dominates in the e-commerce sector. More than half of every dollar spent in the US on e-commerce goes into this company's pockets.
