Amazon Takes Bold Move on the Chessboard

Have you ever ordered a book from the comfort of your home, behind the computer? It's likely you have.

Amazon made a bold move years ago taking on the brick and mortar retail stores and that played out hugely in their favor.

Don't get me wrong, I like book shops, as few as they remained, with the specific smell of fresh printed books and the possibility to feel them. But on the grander scheme of things, Amazon won the battle a long time ago.

Probably in the need and search for new challenges to arouse their imagination, people at Amazon are preparing to take on another huge business model.

After you supposedly order online from Amazon a book in its physical form, it doesn't magically appear from behind the screen. It gets wrapped up at Amazon's warehouses and then shipped by air and land to your address, usually using the services of other companies like UPS or FedEx for delivery.

But now Amazon wants the last link of its business to be fulfilled by its own service and is getting ready to launch "Shipping with Amazon".

"Shipping with Amazon" was already successfully tested and rolled out in London.

The company already delivers some of its domestic orders, but in recent years moved to build its own network of drivers, expanded its use of ocean freight and started to build an aircraft hub to accommodate its growing fleet of aircraft. You can read more details here.

The logistics needed to scale up is huge and costs likewise, so Amazon is up against a big hurdle (as well as skeptical analysts).

But we've heard of near impossible goals before... The accent should be on "near".