From SupplyChainDive, August 2:
Amazon doubled down on its commitment to expand its logistics and fulfillment network on its latest earnings call.
The e-commerce giant is focused "squarely on adding capacity to meet the current high customer demand," Director of Investor Relations Dave Fildes said Thursday.
A lot of Amazon's planned capacity will open in the second half of the year. But this is far from the start of its build. In fact, Amazon's effort to develop an insourced supply chain extends back years with efforts to build out its fleet, develop air infrastructure and get closer to consumers.
In 2020, the e-commerce retailer really upped its spending as it works to stand up more delivery stations and fulfillment centers.
Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky has been providing updates about the process over the course of the last couple of years, saying the investment is important in helping the company realize its one-day delivery ambitions.
"Most of our one-day costs are really what we've done to our logistics networks to allow for one-day shipping," Olsavsky said last year. "Things like putting inventory closer to the customer, things like building up our [logistics] network and delivery network and also having multiple pull times and shipping windows during the day."
A review of capital expenditure data by UBS shows just how extraordinary the investment has been. In 2020, Amazon's capital expenditures were more than three times greater than those of Walmart....
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