Amazon have recently lifted the ban which stopped third-party merchants in the US from using FedEx Ground and FedEx Home as a delivery option for Prime. The ban was initially set in place over the Christmas period after Amazon expressed concerns that the courier services drop in performance put customer satisfaction during the high-volume festive period at risk.
At the time concerns were raised over the possibility of the ban affecting cost-conscious small business owners who relied on FedEx’s cheaper service to qualify for Prime and the accompanying badge. The Prime badge gives better visibility to sellers and sellers were either forced to disable their badge and keep using Home & Ground or use more expensive shipping services whilst it was displayed. It was a controversial move around such a busy period.
Amazon have stuck to their word and since they are once again happy with FedEx’s delivery performance the ban has been lifted and sellers offering Prime can once again use the shipping services.
FedEx cut ties with Amazon
Last year FedEx decided to end its contracts with Amazon for both it’s Express & Ground shipping services. This hasn’t caused any major issues for Amazon who have a private fleet of planes criss crossing the US, along with thousands of independent courier companies, each with hundreds of drivers, forming part of Amazon Logistics fleet. As Amazon build out more warehouse capacity, increase stock volumes to enable them to split inventory and hold it in smaller quantities closer to customers and roll out their one-day delivery across the US, their reliance on third party carriers shrinks.
We’ve already seen in the UK the vast majority of Amazon’s own deliveries are now via Amazon Logistics, putting them as one of the top three carriers in the country and the largest private delivery firm. Amazon are doing all they can to keep a close eye on their delivery network as to improve and expand in the best way possible for the success of their company.
One Response
In the UK from what I can see Amazon use DPD for their deliveries that are a little more important or time sensitive – does that mean even they don’t trust their own delivery network.
We do SFP and we are forced to use the Amazon Buy Shipping process which uses DPD – and of course pay 90p more per label than if we used them directly.
Is Amazon logistics another Hermes?