Amazon’s Fulfillment Net Widens
Amazon has just taken a big step in expanding its logistics reach. At its recent Accelerate seller conference, the company announced that its Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) service will now support merchants on Walmart Marketplace and is rolling out integration for Shopify, with SHEIN slated for year-end.
This move builds on Amazon’s previous MCF integrations, which already handle orders from platforms such as eBay, Etsy, Temu, and TikTok Shop. Now, sellers who list products on these new channels can use Amazon’s warehouses to pick, pack, and ship those orders, even when the sale happens outside of Amazon.com.
One of the key perks here is inventory consolidation. Instead of managing separate stock for each sales channel, sellers can maintain a single, shared inventory pool under Amazon’s fulfillment umbrella, meaning fewer stock issues and quicker restocking. Amazon notes that merchants using MCF on their Amazon store report about a 19% increase in sales, along with reduced out-of-stock incidents and improved inventory turnover.
For Walmart Marketplace sellers, the process is relatively straightforward. Merchants can route orders into Amazon’s fulfillment system through Amazon Seller Central or by using integration partners, such as WebBee, Pipe17, and others. The packaging will be unbranded when it’s shipped, so the end customer may not always see Amazon’s involvement.
Shopify merchants can link their Shopify accounts with Amazon’s and have orders from Shopify routed to Amazon for fulfillment. SHEIN sellers will have a dedicated Amazon MCF for the SHEIN app by year-end, which will simplify the fulfillment of SHEIN orders via Amazon’s system. Beyond logistics for sellers, Amazon is also unveiling improvements to its supply chain services more generally. It’s introducing a Global Warehousing and Distribution service to help sellers store goods in bulk closer to manufacturing sites, reducing shipping time to key markets. It’s also working to improve customs processing via tech (including AI) to reduce paperwork delays. All of this is meant to make its fulfillment services more competitive and more attractive to small and medium-sized businesses.
Of course, there are trade-offs and complexities to consider as sellers will need to weigh service costs against margins. Reliance on Amazon’s warehouse network may result in reduced control over certain customer-facing logistics, packaging, or branding. There are also potential regulatory concerns: Amazon acting as a logistics backbone even for platforms that are nominally its competitors might attract scrutiny over market dominance or conflicts of interest.
Still, for many merchants, especially smaller operations, this expansion represents a big opportunity. Having Amazon handle fulfillment across multiple sales channels can simplify operations (fewer fulfillment partners to manage), speed up delivery, and improve reliability, factors that often weigh heavily with customers. Sellers report that combining FBA with off-Amazon channels via MCF tends to make inventory management more efficient and reduce the overhead associated with juggling different systems.
Amazon’s extension of Multi-Channel Fulfillment to now include Walmart, Shopify, and soon SHEIN is more than just another service enhancement. It’s a signal of Amazon doubling down on being the logistics infrastructure for a broader slice of e-commerce. If merchants can make the economics work and if regulatory oversight remains balanced, this could reshape how third-party sellers approach inventory, fulfillment, and platform strategy in the coming years. What was once an option is becoming a backbone.
