Amazon bans third-party merchants from shipping with FedEx

Enlarge / Amazon's going to need some bigger boxes to ship those Outpost racks next year. (credit: Christopher Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

If you're cramming last-minute Christmas or Hanukkah shopping online ahead of next week's holidays, and it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight, don't count on FedEx being the service to get it there for you. Not only is Amazon no longer working with the carrier, but now third-party merchants are banned from using the service, too.

The Wall Street Journal obtained a copy of a message Amazon sent to its third-party vendors Sunday night explaining the prohibition. Starting this week, marketplace vendors offering Prime shipments will not be allowed to use FedEx Ground or Home services. This ban will persist "until the delivery performance of these ship methods improves."

Third-party retailers accounted for about 58% of Amazon's retail activity in 2018, company CEO Jeff Bezos said earlier this year, and sold a cumulative $160 billion worth of goods. The vendor marketplace is on track to be at least as large a share of Amazon's retail business in 2019.

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