Amazon rolls out end-to-end global supply chain service

Amazon.com Inc. said Tuesday that it is rolling out an end-to-end global supply chain service across all channels called Supply Chain by Amazon.

Under the service, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) will pick up inventory from manufacturing facilities worldwide, ship it across borders, handle customs clearance and ground transportation, manage inventory replenishment and handle final delivery.

The service is available to shippers that aren’t in Amazon retail channels, the company said.

Amazon’s prices now reflect discounts up to 25% on all cross-border transportation that is bound for Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD), the company’s storage service that provides sellers the ability to store their inventory in Amazon distribution centers and distribute products in bulk. This will reduce costs for selling partners using Supply Chain by Amazon, the company said.

Amazon has also rolled out streamlined domestic inbound transportation to AWD with its Partnered Carrier Program (PCP). Later this year, sellers can use PCP to streamline domestic transportation into AWD centers. Sellers can count on reliable and fast transit times with trusted carriers at up to 25% lower costs compared to alternatives, Amazon said. 

AWD is now open to all selling partners, giving sellers the ability to store in bulk at discounts of up to 80% compared to Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) storage fees. With no peak pricing during the fourth quarter, sellers can more efficiently manage inventory levels, even during the holiday season. Coming soon, sellers will also be able to reserve low-cost, long-term bulk storage months in advance at even deeper discounts, Amazon said.

In addition, Amazon will move sellers’ products in bulk from AWD to any sales channel, including online stores and physical store locations, allowing selling partners to replenish across all their sales and fulfillment channels from a single inventory pool. The program is currently in pilot with an initial set of sellers and is expected to be available to all sellers later this year.

Amazon will now use its advanced machine learning and supply chain optimization capabilities to automatically replenish inventory into the optimal Amazon fulfillment centers to support expected customer demand. This will allow sellers to benefit from even faster speeds from the company’s Fulfillment by Amazon product and deliver customer orders for off-Amazon channels through Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF), the company said. 

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Editor: Mark Solomon