Amazon to launch its own delivery service

Well, we knew it was coming. Amazon looks to be launching its own delivery service.

Initially the service, dubbed "Shipping with Amazon", will become available for Amazon’s third-party merchants, before expanding to businesses across the USA. This means it wouldn’t only be for Amazon packages, but would become a direct competitor of FedEx and UPS.

There hasn’t yet been an official announcement: the Wall Street Journal report, from which this news originates, cites unnamed sources.

Credit: Adamajreynolds (CC BY-SA 4.0)

But Amazon itself did not issue a denial, saying: "We’re always innovating and experimenting on behalf of customers and the businesses that sell and grow on Amazon to create faster lower-cost delivery choices."

In the past, the major courier companies have brushed off fears that Amazon might be entering the delivery space. Two years ago, FedEx pointed out that any industry newcomer—even one as huge as Amazon—would have to spend years and billions of dollars in capital to replicate the scale and density of existing networks.

But Amazon is at this point fairly notorious for consuming everything in its path. Most recently, it acquired Whole Foods and launched Amazon Go, its checkout-free brick-and-mortar convenience store.

(Source: Gizmodo)