Amazon’s Dominance: Disrupting the Entire Retail Value Chain – What Lies Ahead?
Yesterday, Amazon launched Supply Chain by Amazon: they opened up their end-to-end suite of supply chain services to third-party sellers – across all sales channels, incl. outside Amazon
Amazon’s service package is pretty rad:
- Pick up inventory from the sellers’ manufacturing facility
- Ship cross-border
- Handle customs
- Manage ground transportation
- Store inventory
- Provide automated inventory replenishment
- Last mile delivery
Sellers will be able to outsource pretty much their entire supply chain logistics to Amazon, both for the products they sell in Amazon’s store and through other sales channels, including online + physical stores…
Amazon’s latest expansion will offer even more convenience to customers & businesses Users will benefit from a wide selection of products, fast shipping, and various services all in one place. While businesses can access a (growing) suite of services through Amazon – dealing with less partners than before
But it’s not all roses
The market dominance of Amazon is becoming absurd. Is this another aggressive step to eat up the entire retail value chain?
The retail giant will now disrupt multiple logistics providers (probably take over 10s of the in the process) and grow even more exponentially
Amazon’s increasing power might raise concerns about antitrust issues & potential monopolistic behavior. It can stifle competition and limit choices for consumers and businesses
And we’re not even talking about the company’s control over the already vast amounts of data (which is ever growing), that gives it an unfair advantage in the market
Amazon’s expansion into the entire retail value chain brings both + and –
While it offers convenience, efficiency, and market access, it also raises concerns about market dominance, data privacy, and its impact on small businesses
Where will this stop?
I think: “never”.
Source: Nick Vinckier