Amazon has again informed its third-party agents that can once again use FedEx ground network services to ship orders. Lifting restrictions established during the holiday shopping season which prevented third-party merchants from shipping packages with FedEx’s ground service.
This effectively ends the face-off between the two companies. Amazon had restricted FedEx ground services at the busiest time of 2019, with the excuse that its ground service was too slow. This definitely highlights the e-commerce giant’s growing power over how products get to shoppers.
An Amazon spokesman said the ban is being lifted now that FedEx’s ground network services are consistently meeting the retailer’s on-time delivery requirements. FedEx shares jumped as much as 3.3% on the news.
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“This is good news for our mutual customers who have come to rely on the FedEx Ground offering,” FedEx said in a statement. “Our service levels have been very strong throughout a historic peak season.”
Saying the Ground network did well during the peak shipping season, with around 18% of packages delivered early and an average transit time of 2.4 days.
Amazon put the restrictions on FedEx ground network services two weeks before Christmas
Amazon put the restrictions in place less than two weeks before Christmas. Leaving merchants to make alternate delivery plans, including through United Parcel Service Inc.’s ground service.
The Seattle-based company and FedEx severed direct business ties in 2019. This was after they let two shipping contracts totaling about $900 million in revenue for FedEx expire.
This meant that Amazon no longer used FedEx for its shipments directly. However, third-party sellers, accounting for about 60% of all products sold on Amazon could continue to ship with the shipping giants.
FedEx said in December 2019, that the temporary ban wouldn’t affect its finances. However, it complained that it deprived small-business merchants of an important shipping option during the busiest time of the year.
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