Third-party sellers on Amazon will be able to subscribe to a new service to let the e-commerce giant manage their inventory. This offer called Amazon Warehousing & Distribution (AWD), announced this September 2, will first be available in the United States. Sellers will be able to have their inventory sent directly to an Amazon warehouse to free themselves from logistical complexity. The American firm hopes to exploit available storage spaces in his possession.
Amazon wants to make life easier for sellers
This new offering is meant to free sellers from the challenge of supply chain management. All stages of the sales process will be supported by AWD. By subscribing to this service, sellers cede storage and inventory management operations, as well as distribution and order processing, to Amazon. The company assures that this will allow lower the costs for sellers.
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High price of storage, complex pricing structures and insufficient storage capacity are the top three challenges facing third-party sellers on Amazon according to research conducted by the platform. The e-commerce giant believes that AWD offers a solution to these problems and thus hopes to convince traders.
The company promises sellers complete management of their inventory via the Seller Central online platform. They can choose the quantity of products as well as the place and date of storage in a simplified way. Amazon has not yet communicated the price of this service, but promises to say more at their annual conference. Amazon Accelerateon September 14 and 15.
An overabundance of storage space to exploit
Amazon’s move may come as a surprise as the company has closed or canceled the opening of 37 facilities in the United States and delayed the opening of 20 more in 2022, the site reports. modern shipper. However, as analyst Marc Wulfraat, president of logistics consultancy MWPVL, points out, Amazon has built many logistics facilities these last years.
While the demand for e-commerce had exploded during the pandemic, it has been declining since the start of the year. In its second quarter results, Amazon estimates that continuing inflation and supply chain disruption will slow down your activity compared to a very successful 2021.
” When Covid hit in 2020 there was a huge surge of space that Amazon added to its network », Specifies the analyst. The arrival of this new logistics service for sellers is therefore the consequence of over-construction of warehouses between 2020 and 2021. Amazon, which has 1,200 logistics facilities in the United States, now wants to capitalize as much as possible on its storage spaces.
However, the company could face other difficulties in managing its multiple warehouses. The e-commerce giant is concerned about the ongoing labor crisis. To the point of risking a shortage of personnel by 2024.