Can Amazon compete with UPS and FedEx? Is Amazon trying to? No one knows, but Yossi Sheffi’s post at the MIT Supply Chain blog makes some suggestions about what might happen. Or not!
Amazon Versus the Delivery Giants: The Retail Saga Continues | Supply Chain @ MIT.
I don’t buy Yossi’s argument about 3-D printing, because I think it will be a long time before Kinko’s can make the wide variety of products I want to buy from online sources or stores. And another issue is sheer competition. If Amazon starts eating their lunch, UPS and FedEx are going to reduce the favored status they give Amazon now. Yossi points out that the two big package carriers might not really value the amazon business too highly– it’s low margin.
I suspect the future is even stranger than what we can see from here.
Supply Chain and Logistics 