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September 18, 2025
Is Amazon’s Expansion of Multi-Channel Fulfillment a Clear Winner?
Amazon is making another big splash in the retail logistics space with its most recent announcement delivered from its Accelerate seller conference — the company has announced the planned expansion of its third-party logistics product, Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfullment (MCF), to “support merchants on SHEIN, Shopify, and Walmart,” per a Sept. 18 press release.
That’s in addition to existing MCF partnerships with other industry notables such as eBay, Etsy, Temu, and TikTok Shop, with MCF and Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) — the latter of which is available only through the Amazon platform — to ensure that fulfillment is faster, simplified, and easily incorporated into individual sellers’ sales funnel.
Peter Larsen, VP of Amazon Multichannel Commerce & Fulfillment, spoke out on the subject.
“Amazon’s world-class fulfillment network delights customers with fast, reliable delivery—fueling the success of independent sellers in the U.S. and around the world,” Larsen said.
“By working with SHEIN, Shopify, and Walmart, we’re making it easier for sellers — especially the small and medium-sized businesses that drive our economy—to use our network to grow faster and more efficiently across their sales channels,” he added.
SHEIN, Shopify, and Even Walmart Marketplace Sign on With Amazon MCF, and No Sign of Growing Pains Yet
The trio of power players joining the MCF roster appears to suggest nothing but a successful growth plan for Amazon’s supply chain solution, barring any unforeseen consequences of such rapid growth and expansion.
Growing pains don’t seem to be on the menu, however, as the e-commerce giant indicated that it had undertaken million more orders this year so far versus the year-ago period, had delivered nearly one-third (30%) of items on a same-day or next-day basis as compared to the year prior, and had increased the selection of items available for fulfillment via Amazon MCF by 750,000 in the same time frame.
“By using Amazon MCF and FBA, merchants can scale up and scale down a single, shared pool of inventory based on customer demand across their sales channels. This has helped merchants reduce out-of-stock rates by an average of 19% and improve inventory turnover by an average of 12%. Merchants have also reported a nearly 19% increase in sales or revenue, on average, since adding Amazon MCF to their off-Amazon retail channels,” the press release read.
- On SHEIN: Amazon promises integration for SHEIN merchants by the end of 2025, with sellers able to select Amazon MCF for fulfillment of SHEIN Marketplace orders though the Amazon MCF portal or via the SHEIN app itself.
- On Shopify: Available immediately, Shopify merchants can choose Amazon MCF as their fulfillment partner, nestled within the larger Shopify Fulfillment Network array of options. Those who do so benefit from a panel of real-time performance metrics, real-time order tracking, and automatic inventory sync through Shopify admin.
- On Walmart Marketplace: Also available as of the day of the announcement, Walmart Marketplace merchants can elect to use Amazon MCF for fulfillment, either manually via Amazon Seller Central or through the use of integration partners (WebBee, Pipe17, Rithum, etc.). Real-time inventory sync and faster processing times were highlighted as key benefits, and the option of which shipping carrier to use was also tabled. Packaging will be unbranded, and order tracking is provided.
Discussion Questions
Is Amazon’s MCF program an indisputable success thus far? Why or why not? What threats to the business model are most apparent?
Can you imagine any other competitors emerging in this space, given Amazon’s scale and established logistics and supply chain presence? If so, whom?
Poll
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Nicholas Morine
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I find it hard to imagine that WalMart is thrilled by Amzon being used to fulfill orders placed on its website (third party or no) Does this alone mean we can say it’s not an indisputable success…or really more “a success for whom?”
Walmart will not allow Amazon to do final mile delivery. The partnership is all upstream of that. So there won’t be Amazon trucks delivering Walmart orders. And Walmart signed into the partnership with Amazon, so they must see some value in it.
Yet.
I’m sure WalMart can look after itself, but I’ve not a lot of confidence with other sellers (and my confidence dimishes progressviely with their size).
While Amazon’s decision to partner with what may seem like rival retailers seems odd, it is actually smart. First of all, it gives Amazon a slice of their rivals’ success – and let’s be honest, other platforms will always exist and have some wins; that’s the reality of it. Second of all, it helps Amazon retain sellers as it becomes the lynchpin of their operations across all platforms. It also reveals something about the way Amazon thinks in that they can be very agnostic and see the bigger picture
Well, aren’t you the optimist! 🙂
Seriously..well, kind of, I’m waitng for the RW thread “Amazon announced today its 5 year plan is to acquire all other retailers and make buying a
mindlessseamless experience: Is this good or bad for consumers..Why or why not?” I just hope it’s on April 1.You should really get paid for your suggestions of future topics!
Of course, it is smart. Why not? Because they are rivals? That is a silly reason. If it is good for all parties, Just Do It. This isn’t politics.
This is exactly the way Amazon thinks.
I don’t know enough of the specifics to analyze what’s happening. I’ll only caution that Amazon has often claimed exceptional new efforts with high profile customers only to eventually discover they didn’t offer enough value for anyone to care. Unfortunately, I even find these in business textbooks where authors extol the virtues of what Amazon was doing but I already know the efforts were a bust. My own unknowledgeable vote — anyone signing up for this needs to be very wary.
This is monetization of network effects at its finest. Amazon is positioning itself as the invisible infrastructure layer of e-commerce, as AWS has become the internet’s backbone. The pros are clear: network density advantages, data monetization across competitor platforms, and capital efficiency. However, vulnerabilities run deeper than antitrust exposure and partner dependency risk—we’re witnessing the elimination of genuine competitive differentiation across the entire ecosystem. While merchants chase operational efficiency, they’re surrendering direct customer relationships. Amazon now owns the fulfillment experience across platforms, effectively controlling customer satisfaction regardless of where the sale originated. Amazon wins whether SHEIN, Shopify, or Walmart succeeds—a brilliant hedge that transforms retail from horizontal platform competition into vertical infrastructure control.
Consumers think they’re choosing between platforms, but they’re navigating Amazon’s inventory system with different logos. The appearance of choice masks the reality of consolidated control. We’re not building Consumer Agency—we’re perfecting the illusion of it while consolidating platform control at the infrastructure layer.
Yes, Amazon now owns the fulfillment experience across platforms, effectively controlling customer satisfaction regardless of where the sale originated. But, most of all, customer satisfaction is in the hands of a world-class delivery operator.
Customer satisfaction. AS a retailer, if I can improve my customer satisfaction and decrease my cost by partnering with the top logistics company in the world, why would I not do it? That sounds like a win for me.
Yes, Amazon’s MCF program is a B2B success. Sellers access world-class logistics (picking, packing, delivery) for faster service and a superior customer experience.
As more retail and tech giants collaborate, they move e-commerce and industry standards forward.
I used to wonder if Amazon was a ‘retailer’. That seemed to be an over-simplification, so I made the leap to ‘mall’. They’re a mall, a behemoth on-line mall, with pretty amazing delivery skills. Now I think……they’re still a behemoth on-line mall, plus they are about to become a behemoth fulfillment and last mile service. This is all a good thing, right? Right…???
Co-op-petition If you can’t beat them, leverage them.
Definitely a win for Amazon. I assume there is data privacy agreement on how amazon retail division is restricted from access the data from its fulfillment customers. Amazon gets a slice of the business success of its competitors, and the customers get sophisticated supply chain capacity that took years to develop.
Amazon’s Multi-Channel Fulfillment program is showing strong momentum, but I wouldn’t call it an indisputable success just yet. It has clearly delivered value by expanding to platforms like Shopify, Walmart, and TikTok Shop, improving seller performance through reduced stockouts and faster delivery, and proving Amazon’s logistics capabilities can scale beyond its own marketplace. Still, challenges remain—partners may grow uneasy about ceding fulfillment control to a direct competitor, and regulatory scrutiny around Amazon’s growing influence in logistics looms large.
The most apparent threats to the model are its heavy cost structure, partner dependence, and the risk that Amazon’s branding or service standards may dilute sellers’ ability to own their customer experience. Rising labor and transportation costs also make same- and next-day fulfillment expensive to maintain at scale. While Amazon has a significant lead, competitors could still emerge: FedEx, UPS, or DHL could expand their multi-channel fulfillment services, Shopify may build further independence, and large retailers like Walmart or Target already have the infrastructure to play in this space.
Amazon’s MCF is on a strong trajectory, but it’s not untouchable in my view.