Amazon Opens Its Supply Chain Empire To All — But Is It A Fit For Your Business?

Amazon's Logistics Network Is Now Open for Business — Yours

For decades, Amazon quietly built one of the most sophisticated and scalable logistics operations the world has ever seen. Now, the company is opening the doors of that empire to any business willing to use it. According to ShipMatrix data from 2025, Amazon has officially surpassed the US Postal Service, FedEx, and UPS to become the largest parcel carrier in the United States by volume. Globally, Amazon delivers an estimated 13 billion packages every year. That is not just a statistic — it is an infrastructure achievement that rivals national postal systems.

The big question for entrepreneurs, retailers, and brand owners is not whether Amazon's supply chain is impressive. It clearly is. The real question is whether plugging your business into that machine makes strategic sense for you.

What Is Amazon's Supply Chain as a Service?

Amazon has been quietly evolving beyond a marketplace and a cloud computing giant. Its logistics capabilities — once reserved exclusively for its own fulfillment operations and third-party sellers using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) — are now being packaged and sold as a standalone service to outside businesses through what the company calls Supply Chain by Amazon.

This end-to-end service covers the entire journey of a product: from the manufacturer's factory floor, through Amazon's global freight and customs operations, into its warehousing and distribution network, and finally out to the end customer — regardless of whether that customer bought the product on Amazon.com or anywhere else online.

The service includes several key components:

• Amazon Global Logistics: International freight forwarding that handles ocean and air cargo, customs clearance, and cross-border compliance, giving businesses access to the same freight infrastructure Amazon uses for its own inventory.
• Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD): Bulk storage solutions designed for upstream inventory management, allowing brands to hold large quantities of product closer to fulfillment centers at lower cost than traditional FBA storage.
• Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF): Perhaps the most compelling piece for off-Amazon sellers, MCF allows businesses to fulfill orders from their Shopify store, WooCommerce site, TikTok Shop, or any other sales channel using Amazon's pick-pack-and-ship infrastructure.
• Buy with Prime: A feature that lets non-Amazon websites offer the Prime badge and Prime-speed delivery, a proven conversion driver that can lift purchase rates significantly.

Why Amazon Is Making This Move Now

Amazon's decision to open its supply chain capabilities mirrors the playbook it used with Amazon Web Services. AWS began as an internal infrastructure project and later became the company's most profitable business unit by selling those same capabilities to the market. Supply Chain by Amazon follows the same logic: Amazon built a massive fixed-cost infrastructure, and selling access to external businesses helps amortize those costs while generating a new, high-margin revenue stream.

There is also a competitive dimension. As Shopify, TikTok Shop, and other platforms pull merchant attention away from Amazon's marketplace, offering logistics services creates a new way for Amazon to remain central to ecommerce operations even when the sale does not happen on Amazon.com. The company effectively becomes infrastructure, not just a storefront.

The Real Advantages for Businesses

For businesses that are already deep in the Amazon ecosystem, Supply Chain by Amazon is a natural extension. If you are already using FBA, the integration with AWD and Global Logistics can reduce your total cost to serve by consolidating freight, storage, and fulfillment under one provider at negotiated rates you could not easily achieve independently.

Speed is another genuine advantage. Amazon's delivery network is optimized for consumer expectations, and its same-day and next-day capabilities are difficult for most third-party logistics (3PL) providers to match at scale. For categories where delivery speed is a purchase driver — consumer electronics, health and wellness, pet supplies — plugging into Amazon's network can directly improve conversion rates and reduce cart abandonment.

The Buy with Prime program in particular has shown measurable results. Early adopter data has indicated double-digit improvements in conversion rates for direct-to-consumer sites using the feature, driven largely by shopper trust in Amazon's delivery promises and return policies.

The Risks and Trade-Offs You Need to Consider

Despite the advantages, Supply Chain by Amazon is not a universal solution, and the trade-offs are real. The most significant concern for many brands is data. Every transaction processed through Amazon's infrastructure gives Amazon visibility into your sales volume, your customers' purchasing patterns, your bestselling SKUs, and your pricing strategy. For brands that compete directly with Amazon's private label products or that consider customer data a strategic asset, this visibility is a serious risk worth weighing carefully.

Cost structure is another consideration. While Amazon's rates are competitive at volume, smaller businesses or those with slower-moving inventory may find that storage surcharges, long-term storage fees, and MCF per-unit fulfillment costs erode margins that a regional 3PL might preserve more efficiently.

There is also the question of dependency. Once you integrate your operations, inventory, and customer experience promises around Amazon's infrastructure, switching costs become substantial. A change in Amazon's fee structure, service terms, or operational priorities could put your business in a difficult position with limited leverage to negotiate.

Is Supply Chain by Amazon Right for Your Business?

The honest answer depends on your scale, your category, your competitive positioning, and your comfort with sharing operational data with one of the most powerful companies in global commerce. For high-volume, Amazon-native brands looking to expand to other channels without building separate logistics infrastructure, the offering is genuinely compelling. For challenger brands building customer relationships and proprietary data moats outside the Amazon ecosystem, the trade-offs may outweigh the convenience.

What is clear is that Amazon's move changes the competitive landscape for logistics providers, 3PLs, and ecommerce platforms alike. Businesses that do not use the service will still feel its effects as customer delivery expectations continue to be shaped by Amazon's standard of speed and reliability.

The supply chain empire is open. Whether you walk through the door — and on what terms — is a strategic decision that deserves careful analysis rather than a reflexive yes or no.