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Amazon Takes to High Seas of Freight Shipping
Giant online retailer Amazon is stealthily moving into the high seas of ocean freight shipping through Amazon Logistics. Since October, some 150 containers of goods have been shipped to its U.S. warehouses from Chinese customers that sell on its site.
Previously, Amazon hasn’t integrated third-party logistics services into its domain, leaving that role to companies such as UPS and FedEx Corp., as well as larger freight forwarders. The quiet move into shipping recently came into greater focus when shipping rates for international freight forwarding services for Fulfillment by Amazon customers began showing up in reports by companies that monitor freight payments.
Initially geared for small and medium-sized Chinese suppliers, the long-term impact may be big for Amazon. By building up its delivery network, the company stands to gain greater scale, and control, as well as added beef towards securing better volume pricing from ocean carriers.
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