Amazon is a logistics beast - A detailed teardown

Amazon’s logistics playbook involves two mutually reinforcing flywheels: an asset infrastructure flywheel (Increase asset base and offer as-a-service) and a data-driven predictions flywheel (Gather data and improve predictions).

Gain data scale through demand-side integration

Amazon’s logistics play follows a common playbook that we’ve seen in other parts of Amazon’s business:

Gain asset scale through supply-side integration

This virtuous cycle constantly strengthens Amazon’s logistics play.

The more asset-as-a-service scales, the larger the ecosystem using Amazon’s logistics infrastructure and the greater the data capture for Amazon to constantly improve its prediction models

Amazon’s approach to logistics is a masterclass in balancing vertical integration vs openness.

Leverage supply-side scale to open out asset-as-a-service to ecosystem partners

Leverage data across the ecosystem to constantly improve prediction models