Amazon Is Waging War With FedEx
For the creator of one- and two-day delivery, shipping dominance is worth almost any risk
E-commerce is on a tear, which means shipping is too. In the six months ending August 31, ground deliveries by FedEx surged 20% from the same period a year ago. UPS is so overwhelmed that on Monday it actually imposed a quota on six big retailers — Gap, L.L. Bean, and Nike among them — limiting how much they’re allowed to ship during the holiday.
But this is not just a shipping boom — it’s a war. Amazon, the creator of one- and two-day delivery of everything from groceries to books and furniture, is now out to dominate shipping too. At a time when U.S. and European regulators are filing more and more antitrust cases against Amazon, the e-commerce giant is getting its machine ready, talking of taking over cavernous mall spaces formerly occupied by Sears and J.C. Penney, and converting them to fulfillment centers close to customers. It has leased 12 Boeing 767s, creating a fleet of more than 80 aircraft.
This is the opposite of laying low. As David H. Freedman writes this week in Marker, Amazon, in the case of shipping, has needled what might have stacked up as an ordinary rivalry into something nasty. Reminiscent of the ruthless shenanigans that led to the Supreme Court’s watershed 1911…
