• The Financial Times reports on Amazon's broadening efforts to become a delivery service for other retailers, writing that "Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) is a lesser-known subdivision of the company’s highly successful Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) programme. Where FBA stores, packs and delivers to Amazon customers, sometimes in as little as a day, MCF offers much the same for sales on other websites, such as Walmart, eBay, Etsy, Shopify and several others.
"Sellers gain the convenience of keeping their stock within one system, while Amazon grabs a slice of its competitors’ business — leveraging the immense capabilities of its delivery network, the capacity of which has more than doubled in the past two years.
"MCF has existed in some form since 2007, but Amazon is now pricing it more competitively with other logistics providers; entering into new software partnerships to promote and streamline its use; and implementing workarounds designed to circumvent the objections of competitors who would prefer Amazon did not deal with their customers. It means that on top of its approximately 40 per cent market share of US ecommerce, Amazon stands to gain an even greater understanding of the shopping habits of global consumers."
• From NBC News:
"Amazon has revealed for the first time the number of people it employs in the U.S., putting the figure at 950,000 … While the headcount was boosted by an additional 64,000 people hired in the second quarter, it does not include the thousands of contractors such as drivers whom Amazon depends on to run its Amazon Prime delivery operations."
The company remains in second place as the second-largest employer in the US. Walmart employee about 1.6 million people here.
Amazon's global headcount is put at 1.3 million people.
