Amazon’s decision to block merchants from shipping packages using FedEx is the latest evidence that the firms are locked in a zero-sum war.
- Amazon has suggested FedEx’s services are below par.
- FedEx earlier in the year dubbed the company a rival.
- The courier firm expects to be “lapping Amazon” in the next fiscal year.
When Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) blocked third-party merchants from using FedEx’s (NYSE: FDX) Ground and Home services to make deliveries to Prime customers, the implication was clear. The courier company standards had deteriorated.
This came on the back of FedExdeclining to renew a ground shipping contractwith Amazon earlier this year. With these developments, the relationship between the two firms is only likely to get worse, perhaps irredeemably.
Here are three reasons why FedEx has likely lost Amazon’s business forever.
# 1. Speed is king for Amazon Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has consistently attributed the online retailer’s revenue growth to customer satisfaction, and speedy shipping features prominently in that metric. Consequently, it’s telling that Amazon cited “delivery performance” issues in its decision to sever ties with FedEx. As recently as the Thanksgiving holiday,
With such dreary numbers, FedEx would have to make significant improvements to keep up, further reducing its chances of getting its lost Prime business back.
# 2. FedEx and Amazon used to be frenemies – now they’re just enemies
Currently, Amazon’s in-house delivery fleet ships about
That’s bad news for FedEx, given that Amazon has proven its ability to dive into an industry and flatten the competition.
Still, FedEx has chosen to fight rather than assist its archrival in digging its own grave. CEO Fred Smith recently conceded that the online retailer had joined the likes of UPS, DHL, and the US Postal Service as a true competitor,after years of denying that Amazon posed a competitive threat:
… we basically compete in an ecosphere that’s got five entities in it. There’s UPS, there’s DHL, there’s the U.S. Postal Service, and now increasingly, there’s Amazon.
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