More than 15 years ago, Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) was launched to provide sellers with fast, reliable fulfilment that has since become a popular service for sellers. In 2023, Supply Chain by Amazon was introduced to offer sellers an end-to-end, fully automated set of supply chain services that handles their supply chain from factory to customer doorstep, including picking up from manufacturing locations, managing customs, providing freight and logistics, warehousing bulk inventory, and fulfilment.

Amazon now supports more than 600,000 sellers worldwide in moving over 5 billion items annually through Amazon’s network of global logistics, domestic freight, and bulk warehousing.

That’s why Amazon is expanding their Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) capabilities globally through a new service called Global Warehousing and Distribution (GWD), enabling sellers to hold products in bulk and at lower cost, near the point of manufacture, and then release the product to various destination countries when the time is right. Because Amazon managed both warehousing and global logistics, sellers in the early pilots moved products from GWD into their fulfilment network up to seven days faster, giving them a critical edge in keeping items in stock and ready for same- or next-day delivery to customers.

AI transforms customs clearance

Customs clearance has long been one of the most challenging parts of global trade for small businesses. Sellers must figure out which of more than 10,000 classification codes apply to their products and fill out long forms that are cumbersome and repetitive. Moreover, if a small business – or their customs broker – doesn’t fill these out right the first time, an error can be costly by adding days or even weeks to their products clearing through the border.

Amazon is now using generative AI to dramatically simplify and speed up this customs experience, helping sellers by pre-populating required fields including product classification, reusing information across documents to ensure consistency, and flagging potential mistakes before they cause errors and delays. Early results show sellers are cutting their customs paperwork time by more than half—making a once complex process faster, simpler, and more reliable.

(Press Release and Image from aboutamazon.com)