What logistics software does Amazon use?

 

Amazon, which started as an online book store, has achieved spectacular growth to become the global leader in e-commerce. It became the top player with a simple mantra of wanting to become the earth’s most customer-centric company, where people could get all they wanted to be delivered anywhere on earth. 

 

As of June 2021, Amazon had nearly 2.5 billion monthly visitors to its website to purchase its products. While the Amazon marketplace had a 25% share in e-commerce spending, Amazon had almost half the share of US e-commerce sales in 2021, accounting for 41.4%. Covering over 12.2 million products, Amazon continues to rely on Marketplace sellers to get the maximum sales. With over 60% of sellers focusing on home and kitchen accessories, big and bulky deliveries using white glove services have become an extremely popular choice amongst customers. 

 

With the development of Amazon Marketplace, more 3rd party sellers have been listed on its site, and the trend seems to be on the rise. Between 2007 to 2021, Amazon was able to increase the number of 3rd-party sellers from 26% to 56%. While it helps sellers get their products sold quicker, it also hampers them as they can’t collect information about the users buying their products and have no hold on the seller service.

 

Amazon Logistics

 

A shipping and logistics service was launched to help third-party sellers with a seamless customer experience. Traditionally, Amazon used third-party carriers like DHL or FedEx, but today uses contracted service providers with their own fleets to complete the delivery faster and efficiently. Amazon third-party logistics partners also include riders using motorbikes, bicycles, and even on-foot delivery guys in certain areas. It’s important to note that the delivery associates would not be Amazon employees; however, they will have access to Amazon tech to complete the deliveries most efficiently.

 

Fulfilment Centers: Amazon, which had built its first warehouse back in 1997, has come a long way, having over 150+ warehouse centers worldwide. By the end of 2023, it’s estimated that there will be around 360 warehouses and sorting centers covering 319 million square feet. As of 2021, Amazon had 35 warehouses in California, 28 in Texas, and 17 in New Jersey. Amazon plans to add 517 sites for its worldwide distribution to help customers with faster deliveries.

 

Prime Now Hubs: There were about 80+ Prime Now Hubs that helped with 2-hour deliveries. These hubs are much smaller warehouse versions and are usually found in cities.

 

Fresh Food & Whole Food Retail: With the fresh food delivery market becoming a hot trend, Amazon has around 20 fresh produce distribution centers. An additional 12 warehouses were added on the acquisition of Whole Food Group for grocery deliveries, in 2018.

 

Role of technology in Amazon warehouses:

 

Amazon has a special division called Amazon Robotics which they use for shorting, shifting, and assessing product availability. With the help of AI being placed in warehouses, Amazon can now predict a rough estimate of the number of orders for a particular product, ensure the inventory is always stacked to meet customer demand, offer customers real-time data on the product availability, engages customers with previous purchases to ensure they don’t miss out on their favorite purchases, adding of the shipping label on the boxes will help the delivery associate to complete the delivery faster as it would contain data of taking the most efficient route to get the product delivered and more.

 

How does Amazon deal with last mile deliveries?

 

Last mile delivery is the final segment, wherein the product reaches the customer. This segment can cost up to 53% of the cost of logistics. To solve this problem, Amazon has tie-ups with third-party carriers, which they sell under Amazon Flex, which offers real-time map-based tracking, that shows the carrier’s progress towards the delivery destination.

 

As real-time communication became the key to offering the best customer delivery experience, Amazon offered its customers a tracking link to track their orders and also receive notifications via email, SMS, and even WhatsApp.

 

Amazon’s logistics software will act as a single point of source to communicate regarding product delivery. This will help resolve any concerns regarding the order delivery as continuous tracking feedback would be offered to the customer and they stay updated on the details of the delivery. A feedback message will also be sent at the end of the day (set as per user requirement) to get customer feedback regarding their delivery experience.

 

Now, this might make one think that Amazon is more of a logistics technology company than an eCommerce company. And it’s not far from the truth! The amount of technology that goes into modern day logistics management is mind boggling.

 

 

LogiNext: An end-to-end logistics automation platform

 


At LogiNext, over the past decade, we’ve been looking at logistics automation very deeply and have built solutions for brands to compete with the likes of Amazon. Brands that are keen on owning deliveries and not relying on large marketplaces, can leverage LogiNext to digitize, optimize and automate deliveries.

 

Brands like KFC, BurgerKing, Starbucks, SingaporePost, Cargo Expreso, MaltaPost and several others in F&B, Retail and Courier, Express & Parcel leverage a platform like LogiNext to infuse technology into their logistics operations with the end goal of delivering a superior customer experience.

 

Some of the main features offered by LogiNext that will help you with end-to-end logistics support include- 

 

  • Sending of tracking URL to the customer for enhanced customer experience- We help customers with unique tracking links to help them locate their orders while they are being delivered. We can additionally add logos and offers for promotions in the tracking URL.

 

 

  • Auto-Assignment of orders- We can help with assigning multiple orders to existing trips and also assigning drivers based on their skill sets. (eg. drivers for cold storage delivery, bakery delivery, fast delivery, etc.)

 

 

  • Carrier Integration Marketplace- Have difficulties handling your orders? LogiNext’s easy-to-interface carrier integration marketplace helps you easily integrate carriers without any tech support and get real time visibility of your delivery.

 

 

  • Set up a contract rate card for your carriers- Set up an easy-to-use rate profile that will help determine the cost of your orders. This includes cash handling fees, insurance, location fee, cancellation fee, re-attempt fee, etc. 

  • A single dashboard- Control Tower and Report and analytics- To keep track of all your operations aligned periodically, and get real-time reports and analytics of your logistics needs.

 

 

  • Rider sharing- We can help with assigning drivers to all your branches that would face requirements on excessive order reception to avoid wait time and faster deliveries. 

 

 

  • Route Planning- Get optimized route planning set to help faster delivery of orders for enhancing customer satisfaction by offering real-time visibility for their order delivery.

 

Need help with scaling your business by improving your logistics?  

 

 

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