Almost every shipper I talk to references their company’s Amazon strategy. I have yet to hear one that sounded vaguely impactful enough to even rise to the level of rounding error
First of all, why is Amazon such a legacy retail assassin?
Much has been written on different aspects of Amazon’s secret sauce. For example: Free delivery (be it 2 days, 1 day or eventually 0 days), AWS, Prime, Prime Air, Scout delivery robots, its own delivery fleet/DSPs, Flex, Lock, Fulfillment by Amazon, its marketplace, private label brands, Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s antitrust noises, President Donald Trump’s non-bromance with Jeff Bezos, and of course logistics overall, aka the next front in the great ecommerce wars.
The thing that makes my brain throb is when people talk about logistics as a solo anti-Amazon strategy. Let’s say that a logistics superhero from the planet Brandazonia magically teleported to Earth and matched Amazon’s logistics prowess chapter and verse. Even then, Brandazonia Man with all his awesome superpowers would not be able to keep retailers from getting crushed like a bug.
Why? Amazon is a unique blend of a consignment and regular retailer (marketplace), the most pervasive loyalty program EVER (Prime), a technology company founded with itself as the biggest customer (AWS), and increasingly a logistics powerhouse the likes of which our industry has never seen. From a logistics point of view, they are a 1PL, 2PL, 3PL, 4PL, and yes, when some consultant invents it in the future, the first 10PL.
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