Bloomberg’s Spencer Soper unveiled Amazon’s secret and elaborate plans to launch a new venture called “Global Supply Chain by Amazon,” and it looks like it could be a disrupter for cross-border ecommerce.
Citing an unnamed source who is “familiar with the initiative” that has not been made public, Soper wrote that the project, called Dragon Boat, is proceeding.
Dragon Boat is outlined in a 2013 report to Amazon’s senior management team, and proposed an aggressive global expansion of the company’s Fulfillment By Amazon service. The report envisioned a global delivery network that controls the flow of goods from factories in China and India to customer doorsteps in Atlanta, New York and London.
Amazon’s plan would turn carriers FedEx and UPS into rivals, and would have Amazon compete directly with Alibaba Group Holding in a battle for world ecommerce dominance, Soper wrote.
Amazon’s launch of Global Supply Chain by Amazon could launch as early as this year, according to the Amazon report.
In the above video, Bloomberg News’ Brad Stone and Flexport CEO Ryan Peterson talk about Dragon Boat, Global Supply Chain by Amazon, and what it could mean for global ecommerce.
Tim Parry is Multichannel Merchant’s Managing Editor, and the lead programmer for Growing Global.