Amazon Is Quietly Shipping Non-Amazon Orders To Compete With FedEx, UPS

Summary

Amazon is aggressively expanding its logistics network, aiming to rival FedEx and UPS. With a 50% yearly increase in capacity, Amazon now operates a vast fleet including 400,000 drivers, 40,000 semitrucks, 30,000 vans, and over 70 planes. They are already offering shipping services for non-Amazon orders in the UK and are predicted to launch similar services in the U.S. soon. This move not only enhances Amazon's efficiency but also positions it to capture a larger share of the e-commerce delivery market, potentially offering cheaper and more efficient services than its competitors.

Takeaways

• 🚚 Amazon is aggressively expanding its logistics and shipping capabilities to compete with established carriers like FedEx and UPS.
• 📈 The company has increased its in-house logistics network by 50% year-over-year, aiming to handle third-party shipping.
• 🌟 Amazon now boasts a vast fleet of 400,000 drivers, 40,000 semitrucks, 30,000 vans, and over 70 planes, significantly enhancing its delivery infrastructure.
• 🌐 Starting from scratch in 2014, Amazon has made significant strides, handling 10 billion deliveries with its global transportation network.
• 🏢 Despite still relying on UPS and the Postal Service for a portion of its deliveries, Amazon is reducing this dependency by offering shipping services for non-Amazon orders in the UK.
• 📦 Amazon's logistics expansion is not just for its own products; it's part of a broader strategy to offer shipping as a service to other retailers.
• 💹 The growth in Amazon's logistics is also reflected in its capital expenditures, which have surged to support its shipping ambitions.
• 🛫 Amazon Air, the company's air cargo division, is a key component of its shipping strategy, with a new $1.5 billion air hub in Kentucky.
• 🔄 The company is innovatively using its logistics network to offer services like multi-channel fulfillment, where it stores, packs, and ships orders from other platforms like eBay and Walmart.
• 🌱 Amazon's shipping expansion is part of a pattern of entering and disrupting industries by leveraging its resources, data, and customer base.

Q & A

What is Amazon doing to grow its shipping business?

Amazon is on a spending spree to increase its in-house logistics network by 50% year-over-year and compete with FedEx and UPS by getting into third-party shipping.

How has Amazon expanded its global transportation network since 2014?

Amazon has expanded its global transportation network to include 400,000 drivers, 40,000 semitrucks, 30,000 vans, and a fleet of over 70 planes operating out of its own air hub in Northern Kentucky.

What percentage of Amazon's deliveries does it handle in-house now compared to 2019?

In 2019, Amazon was delivering less than 47% of its own packages, but by 2021, that number has increased to 72%.

How does Amazon's third-party shipping service in the UK relate to its potential US expansion?

Amazon is already offering shipping services for non-Amazon orders in the UK, indicating a strategy that could be expanded to the US, where it could offer similar services to other retailers.

What was the issue with UPS that led Amazon to develop its own global transportation network?

In 2011, UPS couldn't handle the volume of Amazon's online shopping, leading Amazon to decide that it could not rely on third-party service providers for growth and needed to solve delivery issues itself.

What is Amazon's strategy for its logistics-as-a-service program in the UK, and how might it apply to the US?

Amazon's logistics-as-a-service program in the UK allows it to transport cargo and provide shipping services. Researchers predict a similar program could launch in the US within 18 months to a year.

How does Amazon's investment in its air hub in Kentucky support its shipping ambitions?

The new $1.5 billion Amazon air hub in Kentucky, which includes an 800,000-square-foot robotic sort center, allows Amazon to get packages to customers faster and supports its goal of faster delivery times.

What is the Amazon Freight program and how does it benefit sellers?

The Amazon Freight program allows sellers to take advantage of less than load truck space at discounted rates, helping Amazon to fill its trucks and make money on otherwise wasted space while providing cost savings to sellers.

How does Amazon's multi-channel fulfillment service impact the packaging of products sold on other platforms?

Amazon's multi-channel fulfillment service allows sellers to store inventory in Amazon warehouses and have orders packed and shipped out, even for sales not made on Amazon.com, often resulting in Amazon-branded packaging for orders from other platforms.

What is the potential impact of Amazon's shipping expansion on UPS and FedEx?

Amazon's shipping expansion could disrupt UPS and FedEx by offering competitive shipping services, focusing on high-volume routes and package sizes, and potentially even absorbing other shippers as it grows.

How does Amazon's shipping strategy contribute to its reputation for the lowest prices online?

By handling more of its shipping in-house and expanding to third-party shipping, Amazon can achieve economies of scale and cost benefits, which may contribute to lower prices for both Amazon and non-Amazon orders.

Outlines

00:00

🚚 Amazon's Expansion into Third-Party Shipping

Amazon is aggressively expanding its in-house logistics network to compete directly with established carriers like FedEx and UPS. The company has increased its logistics capacity by 50% annually and is now offering third-party shipping services. Amazon's global transportation network, initiated in 2014, has grown to include 400,000 drivers, 40,000 semitrucks, 30,000 vans, and over 70 planes. This expansion is reducing Amazon's reliance on UPS and the Postal Service, with Amazon now delivering 72% of its own packages, up from less than 47% in 2019. The company's focus on efficiency and cost-effectiveness is expected to challenge the shipping industry, with Amazon already providing shipping services for non-Amazon orders in the UK and predicted to launch similar services in the US.

05:06

🛫 Amazon Air's Strategic Growth and Challenges

Amazon has invested heavily in its air cargo division, launching in 2016 and now operating over 70 planes serving more than 35 destinations. The new $1.5 billion air hub in Kentucky, which includes an 800,000-square-foot robotic sort center, is a significant part of this strategy. Amazon Air has been recognized as a potential competitive threat to UPS and FedEx. However, the rapid growth has also faced challenges, including pilot strikes over pay disparities and the need for improved coordination and sustainability in the logistics industry. Amazon's air cargo expansion is part of a broader effort to enhance delivery speed and efficiency, supporting its e-commerce dominance.

10:09

📦 Amazon's Last-Mile Delivery Innovations and Fleet Expansion

Amazon is innovating in last-mile delivery, utilizing Amazon Flex drivers and Delivery Service Partners (DSPs) to enhance its delivery network. The DSP program, initiated in 2018, has grown to over 2,000 partners, offering a cost-effective delivery solution. Amazon has also ordered 100,000 electric vans from Rivian, with plans to deploy 10,000 in 2022, further expanding its branded fleet. The company's logistics strategy includes filling its trucks to maximize capital investment and reaching out to small businesses to use its shipping services, offering significant cost savings compared to traditional carriers. Amazon's focus on last-mile delivery and fleet expansion is crucial for maintaining its competitive edge in e-commerce.

15:15

🌐 Amazon's Global Shipping Ambitions and Industry Disruption

Amazon is pursuing a global shipping strategy, using ocean liners for international shipments and leveraging its data and resources to disrupt the industry. The company's multi-channel fulfillment allows sellers to store inventory in Amazon warehouses and have orders shipped from these locations, even for non-Amazon sales. This approach has led to Amazon packaging being used for orders from other platforms like eBay and Walmart. Amazon's ambition to own the market is evident in its willingness to cater to rural communities and its aggressive outreach to businesses for shipping services. The company's shipping expansion is reminiscent of its successful disruption in other sectors, such as Prime Video and Amazon Web Services. By leveraging excess capacity and offering services like AWS, Amazon continues to innovate and lead in the logistics and e-commerce space.

Keywords

💡Spending spree

A spending spree refers to a period of excessive spending on a large number of items or services. In the context of the video, Amazon is on a spending spree to expand its shipping business, aiming to compete with established players like FedEx and UPS. This is evident from the script's mention of Amazon's significant increase in its logistics network capacity and the acquisition of various vehicles and planes.

💡In-house logistics

In-house logistics refers to a company managing its own transportation and distribution processes rather than outsourcing them. The video discusses Amazon's growth in in-house logistics, with a 50% year-over-year increase in capacity, highlighting its ambition to handle more of its shipping operations internally.

💡Third-party shipping

Third-party shipping involves using external companies to manage the delivery of goods. The script indicates that Amazon is entering the third-party shipping market, potentially delivering packages for companies other than itself, which is a significant shift from its traditional e-commerce model.

💡Global transportation network

A global transportation network encompasses the infrastructure and systems used to move goods across different regions and countries. The video script mentions that Amazon started building its global transportation network from scratch in 2014, which now includes a substantial fleet of drivers, semitrucks, vans, and planes.

💡Amazon Air

Amazon Air is the air cargo division of Amazon, which operates a fleet of planes to transport packages. The script highlights the opening of Amazon's own air hub in Northern Kentucky and the growth of Amazon Air, which is a key component of Amazon's logistics expansion and a strategic move in its competition with UPS and FedEx.

💡Last-mile delivery

Last-mile delivery refers to the final leg of a package's journey from a warehouse to the customer's doorstep. The video emphasizes Amazon's investment in last-mile delivery, which is crucial for improving customer satisfaction and is achieved through Amazon Flex drivers and Delivery Service Partners.

💡Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA)

Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) is a service where sellers store their products in Amazon warehouses, and Amazon takes care of packaging and shipping orders. The script discusses how Amazon offers FBA services for orders not made on Amazon.com, illustrating its expansion into third-party logistics.

💡Multi-channel fulfillment

Multi-channel fulfillment allows sellers to store products in one place (like an Amazon warehouse) and have them shipped through various sales channels, including non-Amazon platforms. The video mentions how Amazon's multi-channel fulfillment service can ship products sold on eBay, Newegg, Walmart, and Google, which showcases Amazon's logistics capabilities beyond its own platform.

💡Delivery Service Partners (DSPs)

Delivery Service Partners are small, independent businesses that operate delivery routes for Amazon. The script explains that Amazon has over 2,000 DSPs in the U.S., which allows it to expand its delivery capacity while maintaining a lower cost structure compared to traditional delivery companies.

💡Amazon Freight

Amazon Freight is a program that allows sellers to take advantage of less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping at discounted rates. The video script describes how Amazon uses its Freight program to fill otherwise empty truck spaces, providing cost savings to sellers and additional revenue for Amazon.

💡Excess capacity

Excess capacity refers to the unused or underutilized resources within a company's operations. The video script suggests that Amazon has excess capacity in its shipping infrastructure, which it aims to monetize by offering services to third parties, thus maximizing the use of its assets and potentially disrupting the shipping industry.

Highlights

Amazon is aggressively expanding its shipping business to compete with FedEx and UPS.

Amazon has increased its logistics network capacity by 50% year-over-year.

Amazon may deliver packages for non-Amazon orders, expanding its role in the shipping industry.

Since 2014, Amazon has been building its global transportation network from scratch.

Amazon now operates a vast fleet including 400,000 drivers, 40,000 semitrucks, 30,000 vans, and over 70 planes.

Amazon's in-house logistics network is reducing its reliance on UPS and the Postal Service.

Amazon is already offering shipping services for non-Amazon orders in the UK.

Amazon's logistics expansion is part of a broader strategy to control its delivery process.

Amazon's delivery capabilities have grown from less than 47% of its own packages in 2019 to 72% in 2021.

Amazon's Q1 capital expenditures for logistics expansion grew by 80% over the previous year.

Amazon has begun transporting cargo for the Postal Service, indicating a move into broader shipping services.

Amazon launched a logistics-as-a-service program in the UK, with predictions of a similar launch in the US.

Amazon's focus is on shipping from retailers directly to consumers,不同于 FedEx and UPS 的广泛服务。

Amazon's rapid growth in logistics includes a new $1.5 billion air hub in Kentucky.

Amazon Air, launched in 2016, now leases or owns over 70 aircraft, a significant increase from its initial operations.

Amazon's logistics investments have been key to maintaining its reputation for low prices and fast shipping.

Amazon's shipping expansion is part of a pattern of using excess capacity to disrupt industries, as seen with AWS and Prime Video.

Amazon's strategy includes using its vast fleet and logistics network to offer competitive shipping rates to third-party sellers.

Amazon's growth in shipping is expected to continue, with predictions of further expansion and potential market disruptions.

Transcripts

Amazon is on a spending spree to grow its shipping business and compete with FedEx and UPS. It's increased capacity of its in-house logistics

network by 50% year-over-year, using all that growth to get into the big business of third-party shipping. That's right, Amazon may be the carrier

delivering to your door even when you didn't order on the world's biggest e-commerce site.

They want to be a new kind of U.S. Postal Service where everything can get everywhere, but also quickly.

In 2014, Amazon started building its global transportation network from scratch. Seven years and 10 billion deliveries later, Amazon now has

400,000 drivers worldwide, 40,000 semitrucks, 30,000 vans and a fleet of 70+ planes operating out of its very own air hub that just opened in

Northern Kentucky in August.

I don't think anybody in the industry would be surprised if this enormous capacity that Amazon has built out, if they use that to, you know, offer

shipping service that would compete directly with somebody like UPS or FedEx.

Although Amazon still depends on UPS and the Postal Service for more than a quarter of its deliveries, analysts say this reliance is shrinking.

Instead, Amazon is competing with them, already offering shipping services for non-Amazon orders in the U.K.

Eventually they were going to offer it to someone else. That's just how the system works. Amazon's usually more efficient than anyone else. Amazon's

usually focusing on the right numbers, and so they're usually able to get cheaper than everyone else, too.

CNBC headed to an online merchant conference in Las Vegas to talk to former Amazon employees and current sellers about how third-party shipping is

likely to be the behemoth's next big venture.

Back in 1994, when it was just a website selling books, Amazon says Jeff Bezos hand-delivered the first customer packages to a Seattle post office

himself. As business grew, it relied on UPS, the Postal Service and to a lesser degree FedEx for shipping.

In the old days, Amazon worked with FedEx, UPS, they needed help delivering packages, right, as quickly as possible. And they didn't want to disappoint

Prime members. Nowadays, Amazon has way more planes than they used to. They've got vans in every neighborhood.

Now Amazon's got 300 million customers in 200+ countries. Former Amazon Product Safety Program Manager Rachel Greer says by 2011 online shopping

volume was overwhelming even the most established nationwide shippers.

It turned out that UPS couldn't handle the volume. So at that point, our VP was saying we can't handle this, we can't have this happen. Amazon cannot

be hamstrung in our growth by a third-party service provider. We have to solve this ourselves.

By 2014, Amazon says it wanted better control. So it started developing a global transportation network from scratch to ensure consistent and

reliable delivery.

It really hasn't taken them that long to build that capability. It's a great moat around their business, right? Building a logistics network is a

really hard thing to do. And other companies, you know, won't be able to easily follow in their footsteps relative to that.

In 2019, Amazon was delivering less than 47% of its own packages. Now in 2021, that number has soared to 72%. Similar growth has happened with

warehouses. In 2018, 51% of the U.S. population lived within an hour of an Amazon warehouse. Now that's up to 77%. To get there, Amazon's Q1 capital

expenditures, which includes logistics expansion grew by a whopping 80% over the previous year.

I don't think they had a choice. They knew that it was going to be a challenge for UPS and FedEx to do the kind of investment required in order

to meet that standard for their customers.

In 2019, Amazon changed the game when it made one-day shipping the norm. That same year, FedEx announced it would not renew its partnership with

Amazon. But Amazon still depends on UPS and the Postal Service. At least for now.

USPS delivers to every zip code every small town in America, and Amazon built its strategy around taking away the high-volume centers.

According to one investigation, Amazon has already begun quietly transporting cargo on its planes for the Postal Service. USPS isn't exactly

known right now for being on time or efficient. So it may be that Amazon's the better option in those cases. And in May last year, Amazon launched a

logistics-as-a-service program in the U.K. Researchers from DePaul University predict something similar will launch here in the U.S. in the

next 18 months. While Morgan Stanley predicted it could happen this year. Analysts say Amazon will likely focus on shipping from retailers directly

to consumers rather than trying to replicate the vast array of services offered by FedEx and UPS

Well they're not going to be just this blanket carrier that will deliver whatever package that you want them to, to whatever address. Amazon is sort

of cherry-picking the routes they want to run and sort of the parcel sizes they want to deliver.

Like all carriers, Amazon experienced significant shipping delays during the pandemic. Yet the number of Prime members continued to soar, reaching

200 million in 2020. And as the number of customers grew, so too did Amazon's spend on logistics. Perhaps the biggest investment so far is the

new $1.5 billion Amazon air hub in Kentucky.

Planes were always part of the plan because, you know, if you're trying to do two-day delivery, there's just certain things you got to use planes for.

Amazon launched its air cargo division in 2016, contracting with several carriers to fly packages closer to Amazon's sprawling system of 185+ global

warehouses. The Kentucky hub has been in development for four+ years, with Bezos attending the groundbreaking in 2019.

It's going to let us get packages to customers faster. And that's a big deal.

The new 600-acre Amazon hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport includes an 800,000-square-foot robotic sort center.

A smaller 20,000-square-foot Amazon air hub opened in Germany last November. But as early as 2018, analysts were calling Amazon Air a

competitive risk to UPS and FedEx. By 2019, it had 50 planes. But it also faced the risk of pilot strikes, with one union saying Amazon paid pilots

33% less than they got paid to fly similar cargo planes for UPS and FedEx.

I don't believe that consumers will ever go backwards from where we are. But that doesn't mean it has to put this kind of pressure on the system.

It's going to take a lot of coordination between the big companies, Amazons of the world, and our contractors to build a system that's both fair,

equitable and sustainable.

After six+ years of labor negotiations, many Amazon pilots now have a new contract with improved pay rates and work rules. Amazon now says it leases

or owns more than 70 aircraft that fly to 35+ destinations in the U.S. and Europe. In comparison, FedEx operates a fleet of 680 aircraft and UPS has

576. At 70+ planes, Amazon's reach is still smaller, but its rapid growth sets it apart. DePaul researchers found Amazon has expanded from 122 daily

flights in August 2020 to 140 in February 2021. Predicting Amazon will have 200 planes by 2028. An earlier key to faster delivery was Amazon's big

investment in the most expensive part of the shipping process: getting a package that last mile to your door. Some of this is done by Amazon Flex

drivers, individual gig workers who make between $18 and $25 an hour driving routes on demand. Another 115,000 Amazon drivers work for Delivery

Service Partners, or DSPs, small independent companies that contract exclusively with Amazon. The DSP program started in 2018, with Amazon

offering $10,000 to incentivize current Amazon employees, veterans, Black, Latinx and Native American entrepreneurs to launch a DSP. There's now more

than 2,000 DSPs in the U.S.

Ultimately, it's a very low cost structure compared to the competitors. And so if you're a seller, and you don't have a personal issue with some of the

stories that are coming out, which are growing in number, unfortunately, then it's a real cost advantage for you.

But DSP drivers have voiced big concerns lately, from cameras recording inside vans at all times, to running stop signs and urinating in bottles to

keep up the pace.

Which is definitely disgusting, you know, getting into the vans the next day and seeing somebody's pee bottle sitting behind the seat, or sitting in

the cupholders.

Regardless, Amazon's army of drivers and branded vehicles is only growing. It purchased 100,000 electric vans from Rivian in 2019. They're being

tested in 16 cities now, with 10,000 of them scheduled to hit the road next year.

I think there are some growing pains there. But once they sort out some of those issues, it'll be more attractive as a side hustle for people the same

way Instacart was or Uber driving is.

For its growing number of international shipments, Amazon uses ocean liners, especially between China and the U.S. For domestic cross-country

shipments, Amazon has 40,000 Prime-branded semitruck trailers, and it's got powerful algorithms that know when one of those trucks won't be full.

Very few companies are filling in an entire 53-foot truck to ship somewhere. If you've got all these trucks running around and they're only

operating at 20-30% capacity, Amazon's smart enough to know hey, we should be filling these trucks up any way we can to maximize, you know, the

capital that we've invested in these things.

Keith Gregory's vitamin and supplement company is based in a 3,500-person town in Oregon. It does about $4 million of annual sales on Amazon.

They've reached out to us very aggressively trying to get us to work with them for our shipping arrangements, but not just for our own branded

products. They're interested in LTL and freight for our other segments of our business as well: the the pieces that UPS and FedEx are currently

handling for us.

The Amazon Freight program lets sellers like Gregory take advantage of LTL, less than load truck space, at discounted rates, while allowing Amazon to

make money on otherwise wasted space. Gregory just started using the program and says Amazon charges up to $17,00 less than FedEx or UPS Freight

for some of his routes from Oregon to Southern California.

They certainly seem to want to own the market. And, you know, for us being in a rural community, the fact that somebody is willing to cater to us and

they're willing to accommodate pickup schedules and not just say, okay, we'll be there every day at 3:30 is also very attractive to us. Not just

the rate piece, but the fact that they're also willing to, you know, use their vast fleet of vehicles to help us with our logistics as well, which

UPS and FedEx are not cooperative in that sense with us.

Amazon has this odd imbalance where they have an enormous amount of goods going inbound to Amazon warehouses, but then very often those trucks are

leaving empty going other places. Again, a kind of a classic Amazon thing to do: by taking that internal service and then making it available to

anyone to use externally, they're able to, you know, now have more revenue.

Many Amazon sellers like Bernie Thompson, pay to use a service called Fulfilled by Amazon, or FBA, where sellers store inventory in an Amazon

warehouse and rely on Amazon to pack and ship out customer orders. Amazon also offers FBA service for orders not made on Amazon.com.

There were points in time in our company's existence where really Amazon shipped 100% of our orders for all channels, not just an Amazon, but also

on eBay, Newegg, Walmart, Google.

Amazon calls this multi-channel fulfillment. Thompson uses it for many of the 120+ consumer electronic products he sells from his warehouse outside

Seattle.

So if you go today and buy a Plugable product on eBay, it's actually going to be coming from an Amazon warehouse and very often delivered by an Amazon

delivery service.

This explains why some orders from eBay or Walmart and others arrive at your door in Amazon packaging. Although Amazon has tried to solve this with

varying success,

Amazon's had on-off programs over the years to fulfill items from the warehouse but have it be in packaging that was not Amazon marked. They've

never really succeeded at that. Like, we were part of that program, and then we found out that yea, the boxes were blank, but they were using this

super colorful Amazon marketing Christmas tape. You know, and these were being used for Walmart orders.

I think the killer feature will be when Amazon is able to do merchant-branded fulfillment. They might be able to slap on or inkjet on

branded aspects to that fulfillment package so that a customer doesn't understand that this box is being delivered by Amazon and that it's in the

brand of the merchant.

So why does Amazon want to take on the expensive behind-the-scenes job of shipping non-Amazon orders? It may in fact help Amazon hold on to its

reputation for the lowest prices online.

It might cost me say $3.30 to send an envelope type of product across the country for an Amazon order. That same order, when it's not an Amazon

order, let's say an eBay order, might be $5.70 or something like that. And so that causes an effect where brands like us, on a $10 product or a $30

product, you will almost always find the Amazon price lower than the eBay price.

If they can double, even add 30% more revenue and capacity because they're delivering not just for Amazon customers but for, frankly, the entire

internet, it does help them get more scale, more costs benefits, especially as you move into more remote areas where they just don't have as much

Amazon customer volume.

There was in fact already a program called Amazon Shipping being tested in several U.S. cities last year, until it was shut down at the beginning of

the pandemic. Amazon drivers would pick up packages from businesses and deliver them to consumers without ever setting foot in a warehouse.

You'll see this start off in a couple of markets. And you know, they'll tweak it and they'll sort of take some learnings away from those initial

markets and then they'll expand the program more broadly.

And if you look at all of the third-party services that they opened up to sellers over the years, including AWS, they've had to become the best in

the business to service their own. And by bringing in additional revenue streams to help support scale, ultimately brings down cost, creates more of

a situation where they can gain more market share, more market power, and they are addicted to growth.

Indeed, Amazon's current shipping expansion is reminiscent of other times it's used immense resources and data to disrupt an industry. Think Prime

Video and Amazon Web Services.

I was part of the process for making sure that FBA sellers were compliant more than a decade ago. And they were like, well, we have excess capacity.

Let's use it. And then when AWS started, we have excess capacity. Let's use it. So of course, if Amazon develops a platform, it works well, and of

course it's going to be excess capacity, they're going to try to sell it to someone. And Amazon has learned much from its more established shipping

partners about how to keep costs down. For example, it still primarily outsources costly rural deliveries to USPS and outsources the expensive

last-mile portion to those small delivery service partner contractors.

What Amazon is able to do right now is sort of pick off probably the most attractive routes, the most attractive packages, and deliver like to the

most densely populated areas.

On the extreme end, some think there's a chance Amazon will try to buy other shippers outright.

Down the road, I think Amazon will be so big, so powerful and so wealthy, they will simply absorb UPS.

But one thing is certain. Amazon says it's continuing to spend on logistics, figuring out how to keep climbing to the top of e-commerce and

beyond.

Amazon is a company that will unabashedly compete with everyone. They will compete with their customers, they will compete with their partners, and

they will compete with themselves. And it's not a bad thing. It's just that's part of the secret to Amazon's success.