Amazon Prime

Global e-commerce giant Amazon introduced a new offering geared towards helping sellers on its platform utilize new purpose-built technologies for bulk inventory storage and automated distribution. Entitled, Amazon Warehousing & Distribution (AWD), the company said its objective is to address critical supply chain challenges and help sellers grow and manage their businesses while cutting costs by a significant amount.

As Amazon Prime Day continues today, it comes at a time when the e-commerce supply chain continues to hum along and make needed adjustments on the fly, which has largely been the case going back to the onset of the pandemic in early 2020.

During this podcast, Rick Watson, Founder and CEO, RMW Commerce Consulting, discusses the ongoing emergence of Amazon as a competitive threat to the parcel duopoly of UPS and FedEx; Peak Season prospects; the impact of the e-commerce supply chain on all aspects of logistics; and pricing and service levels, among other topics.

With day two of Amazon Prime Days wrapping up today, many consumers, at this point, may view this event differently than in the past, or before March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic initially took hold on a wide scale in the United States.

With e-commerce activity reaching unprecedented levels, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it has brought an increased focus on this week’s Amazon Prime Days, which are Tuesday, October 13 and Wednesday, October 14. The global e-commerce titan has often described Amazon Prime Days as “a 2-day parade of epic deals,” and there is no question that remains the case today, too. Now in its sixth year, Amazon Prime Days have become an event eagerly awaited and anticipated by consumers, and, from...

For shippers, the importance of “know your service provider” has never been more relevant. You must understand how your freight will be delivered. You are the one who promises “free next-day service,” and the buyer assumes you have figured out how to do this.

In case you have not noticed, there is really only way global e-commerce giant Amazon likes to do things: big. In fact, that may be the understatement of the year. The most recent reason, or example, of that stems from the Seattle company’s third quarter earnings announcement that was issued yesterday.

Half of the nearly 3,000 consumers surveyed said they avoid retailers that do not offer free shipping, and 84% said they’ve specifically made a purchase because shipping was free.

With its one-day Prime delivery program made available “coast-to-coast” to consumers on July 15, many supply chain managers are concerned about its impact on demand cycles in the future.