In a surprising shift in the US logistics industry, Amazon shipped more parcels than FedEx in 2020, indicating that the e-commerce giant has unlocked a new market and will rule it soon.
For years, the US logistics market had been under the control of a few players; FedEx, UPS, US Postal Service. But the 2020 market numbers signal that a new sheriff is coming to town.
Per Axios, Amazon has 21% of the U.S. shipping market — right behind UPS (24%) and ahead of FedEx (16%). The USPS remains dominant with 38%, and all other shippers account for just 1% of the market, according to Pitney Bowes, which tracks the global shipping and e-commerce industry.
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Eventually, UPS’ 3% leadership is going to be trumped by Amazon, considering the swiftness the online store has climbed the market’s ladder.
As of 2014, Amazon was completely reliant on other players in the US logistics market; FedEx and UPS handled its deliveries. The tide turned in less than five years, after Amazon remarkably increased its market shares from 0 to 21%. Amazon’s delve into deliveries significantly cut the market shares of FedEx and UPS, as a large percentage of their shipments came from Amazon.
Awakened to the revenue benefits in logistics, Amazon has revved up commitment to lead the market, pouring in resources into building a network of warehouses, trucks, planes and delivery drivers.
“In 2019, Amazon had partnered with 800 companies with 75,000 drivers who picked items across Amazon’s then 150 Delivery Stations,” market research firm RBC Capital Market wrote in 2020. “Now, Amazon partners with 1,300 companies that employ 85,000 workers, across what we think are currently approximately 400 Delivery Stations in the US.”
As Axios noted, the company is now turning shipping from a cost to a source of revenue by offering its logistics capabilities as a service, and that means a huge revenue slump for other players in the market.
Compared to others, Amazon is in a league of its own in building logistics networks. RBC noted that the company has grown its logistics network over the last three years the same amount that Walmart has grown its network over the past 50 years.
With the supply chain requiring more boost as it expands e-commerce globally, Amazon shipping business is likely to rule not only in the US, but also in other countries.
However, other delivery companies will still generate revenue off Amazon’s shipping. Supply Chain Dive reports that the company still leans on legacy shippers for the last mile. That means even though more packages are coming from Amazon’s shipping apparatus, they’re getting passed off to other companies along the way.
In 2020, a record 4.2 billion parcels originated from Amazon, and about 2.8 billion of them were passed to other companies for last-mile delivery, according to data from Pitney Bowes.