Amazon & FedEx Explored a Partnership for Returns Last Year

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Amazon and FedEx held talks last year in which they explored partnering on eCommerce returns. More specifically, the two companies discussed the possibility of FedEx retail locations such as FedEx Offices accepting Amazon return packages, per the WSJ. However, despite the talks, the companies did not reach an agreement.

Amazon Currently Partners With Several Other Companies to Handle Returns

To help handle the growing number of in-person return packages it receives, Amazon already has partnerships with several other companies, including UPS, Kohl’s, and Staples. Amazon also accepts return packages at Amazon lockers in over 500 locations of its Whole Foods Market stores. The company purchased the grocery chain in 2017 for $13.7 billion.

FedEx & Amazon Scaled Down Their Partnerships in 2019

The talks came a little over four years after FedEx announced it would no longer provide express delivery service to Amazon, then proceeded to end ground delivery for the eCommerce giant (both changes took place in the second half of 2019). At the time of those announcements, Amazon packages accounted for roughly 1.3% of FedEx’s total annual revenue in 2018.

While FedEx hasn’t provided transportation and delivery services for Amazon packages since 2019, FedEx still allows Amazon merchants to use its services like FedEx Ground through Amazon’s Seller Fulfilled Prime program, as well as on Amazon Marketplace.

Amazon’s Presence in the U.S. Deliveries Market Keeps Growing

Meanwhile, Amazon has continued to capture more of the eCommerce delivery market in the U.S. Per another WSJ report from 2023, its number of U.S. deliveries eclipsed both UPS and FedEx that year, totaling more than 5.9 billion packages.

Despite Amazon’s growing market share, the U.S. Postal Service remains the nation’s largest shipping carrier in terms of the total number of parcels delivered. By comparison, while Amazon delivered over 5.9 billion packages throughout the U.S. in 2023, the Postal Service’s total shipping and package volume the year prior was 7.2 billion, according to a data sheet on the USPS website.