Amazon to Launch Delivery Service for Businesses, Challenging UPS and FedEx

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Amazon is about to jump into the business of package delivery. In just a few weeks, the e-commerce giant will begin sending consumers in select areas not only its own packages but also those of other businesses.

The move poses a direct challenge to the likes of UPS and FedEx, which have already seen their share of the package-delivery business decline as Amazon’s Prime service has become a fixture in middle- and upper-class households.

Just yesterday, news broke that Amazon would begin offering Whole Foods grocery deliveries through its Prime service. Now it appears the tech behemoth is prepared to shift the paradigm for all local deliveries, potentially streamlining the process of business-to-consumer delivery with the massive growth and resources at its disposal.

The service will be called Shipping With Amazon, or SWA, a cheeky reversal of Amazon Web Services, or AWS, the company’s cloud platform that has dominated that industry.

The delivery program will launch in Los Angeles in the coming weeks before expanding to additional cities. 

Commentary will abound, but it is already clear that the package-delivery industry’s top players, UPS and Fedex, are not happy. According to Business Insider, that duopoly has already seen its shares drop by over 5 percent.

Joe Zappa is Street Fight’s news editor.