Amazon has announced a new service intended to help address logistical challenges related to supply chain that are bedeviling its sellers. Meanwhile, the Teamsters union announced it had developed an internal division aimed at organizing Amazon’s logistics operation.
As a continuation of Amazon’s multi-year investment in its warehousing and distribution network to support sellers and better serve customers, the company will provide sellers access to the new, purpose-built facilities for bulk inventory storage and automated distribution available in its system. AWD addresses critical supply chain challenges and helps sellers grow and manage their business while significantly cutting costs, Amazon reported.
AWD is also one of the many new offerings that will detail at Amazon Accelerate, its annual seller conference taking place September 14 to 15, the company noted.
A recent survey of its sellers in the United States determined that their three biggest pain points in upstream warehousing and distribution operations are high prices for storage, complicated fee structures and insufficient storage capacity, Amazon maintained. With the AWD pay-as-you-go service, sellers are freed from the time-consuming, cumbersome process of moving inventory from upstream facilities to Amazon fulfillment centers, the company asserted, adding that AWD makes a reality of supply chain as a service a reality by solving inventory management dilemmas and delivering operational efficiencies.
Enrollment is easy, according to Amazon. Then, one-click sellers can send their inventory to Amazon DCs and significantly reduce storage costs while eliminating complex pricing schemes and long-term contracts that are common throughout the industry, the company declared. Sellers can integrate their upstream inventory storage operations with the Amazon Fulfillment Network, which can help ensure they have the right amount of inventory in stock where and when it’s needed. In addition, sellers using AWD can consolidate their global inventory then view and manage it on Amazon Seller Central, simplifying their operations by consolidating it into one inventory pool. In 2023, sellers will be able to use AWD to send inventory to any location whether that’s to wholesale customers or brick-and-mortar stores, Amazon pointed out.
For its part, The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has announced that it formally launched an Amazon Division, which is dedicated to organizing Amazon employees, securing more workplace protections in the warehouse and logistics industry, and defending workers from, as the union put it, the unchecked exploitation of one of the world’s most dangerous employers.
Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien announced that Randy Korgan would become director of the new Amazon Division. As secretary-treasurer and principal officer of Teamsters Local 1932, Korgan brings three decades of industry expertise and organizing leadership to the new national Amazon program, according to the union, and he will head up a sophisticated Teamster infrastructure of union officers, seasoned organizers and volunteer coordinators across the U.S. and Canada.
“The Teamsters are best positioned to coordinate and secure guaranteed protections for workers, and Amazon knows it,” O’Brien said. “Our new division affords a nationwide network of resources to all Amazon workers, behind the wheel of any truck or hard at work in any facility, to strategize with the union, mobilize in their communities and succeed together.”
