I could see a future where Amazon does general shipping like FedEx as a side business to subsidize its real business.
Via their multi-channel fulfillment offerings, you can already use Amazon's logistics network to ship your products sold on or off of Amazon. This would just be supporting more type of shipments than just fulfillment.
On the other hand, Fedex, DHL, UPS etc have built a big part of their strengths of shipping worldwide overnight. That's very different than what Amazon does, where they try to warehouse products close to customers to minimize shipping distance and time. Great when you want to buy an iPhone, but not suitable for shipping a document from New York City to Tokyo.
There is a reason most grocery stores are shifting, or have already shifted to, Google or Microsoft for their cloud infrastructure.
it's a good point, yet many still use Amazon/AWS regardless. Netflix, for instance (AWS). Then, on the micro-scale: FBA[0] sellers (Amazon Marketplace).
I assume it has to do with the ultra low barrier to entry which Amazon/AWS provides. The convenience factor is off the charts. Nevertheless, I assume Netflix has ideations of following in Dropbox's footsteps.[1]
[0] "Fulfilled by Amazon"
[1] abandoning AWS for self-owned dedicated infrastructure
Actually that’s a myth (https://www.networkworld.com/article/2891297/the-myth-about-... ). Oddly, unlike most corporate founding myths (e.g. eBay and Pez) it wasn’t invented by company marketing.
Since most of Amazon's negiotated rates with carriers are lower than what carriers offer to consumers directly, customers get lower prices and would benefit from Amazon's scale and customer service.
Now with Amazon's own transportation network finally taking off, Transportation By Amazon has gone from a concept that would have relied exclusively on third-party carriers (e.g. UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc.) to a likely reality with primary reliance on Amazon's infrastructure and supported by third-party carriers where Amazon does not have a robust prescence.
The notifications will send you a text message to your mobile phone or a push notification to the Amazon app on your smartphone as soon as your shipment gets delivered.
If your package is damaged, I would recommend contacting Amazon customer service and let them know. Based on the way they do scans and metrics, they know who the delivery driver was and it will reflect in the delivery driver's customer satisfaction score.
If there are enough compliants against a given delivery driver, they will probably not remain a delivery driver for long. Amazon wants to keep customers happy at all costs and will quickly sack employees and contractors who fail to meet their standards.