Amazon to roll out shipping service in Los Angeles

(Image credit: Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images)

published 9 February 2018

Amazon is preparing to launch its own shipping service, "Shipping with Amazon," or SWA, which will directly compete with FedEx and UPS, The Wall Street Journal reports.

SWA will roll out exclusively in Los Angeles in the coming weeks after a pilot program that began more than a year ago, and will service third-party businesses that sell products through Amazon's website. In the long term, Amazon plans to expand SWA to other cities and open it up to outside businesses, too.

The company already delivers some of its own orders in almost 40 U.S. cities, and SWA's model will involve picking up business' packages when convenient, a structure that would "undercut UPS and FedEx on pricing," the Journal writes:

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For its "Shipping with Amazon" option, the online retail giant is expected to be able to offer lower prices than UPS and FedEx because it already delivers some of its own packages — any extra space it can fill in its trucks with additional deliveries is considered added revenue, according to people familiar with the company's thinking. [The Wall Street Journal]

The long-term goal "is to take a cut of all economic activity," business analyst Ben Thompson told The Verge — which just goes to show that Amazon can't seem to stop being creepy.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.