Amazon is now providing fulfilment to merchants selling on the BigCommerce platform via a third party delivery business which signals an increased threat to already existing delivery platforms like UPS and FedEx.
BigCommerce which is known to be the competitor of Shopify is uniting with Amazon’s Multi-channel fulfilment service (MCF) and is bringing that service to its platform for its US clients. Through this, the platform will be able to provide service options as users of the Fulfilment By Amazon (FBA) service.
Sharon Gee, general manager of omnichannel at BigCommerce believes that Amazon MCF will enable its merchants to plan better and even purchase and fulfil in a much more efficient way. the platform is going to send the goods to Amazon fulfilment centres for further delivery on one- to five-day services.
By using the MCF services, vendors will be able to see the check-out when delivery will be made and track the shipments. In addition, they benefit from Amazon strategically placing goods close to customers for faster delivery, according to the online retailer. Moreover, vendors will have control over the cost of shipping for consumers and will be able to replace the Amazon rate with a flat fee or free shipping along with paying for storage fulfilment – including pick, pack and ship – with no peak surcharges.
However, until now, MCF has not been able to make a significant splash in the market, commented Rick Watson, founder and CEO of e-commerce consulting firm RMW Commerce.“We don’t have many customers that are using it,” agreed John Haber, CEO of parcel logistics consulting firm Spend Management Experts.
But still, in a market where capacity is strained and FedEx and UPS are capping enterprise customers unless they pay premiums, the new option should be attractive to merchants selling on BigCommerce, he added.
BigCommerce says that it is being used by tens of thousands of B2B and B2C customers across 150 countries and Mr Watson estimates that it is about one-sixth to one-seventh of the size of Shopify, which has been growing faster.
Mr Haber considers the integration of MCF with BigCommerce as a strong move, but it is not a piece of good news for FedEx and UPS.