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TODAY’S MAZE
Happy Tuesday! Amazon is flipping the switch on its internal supply chain, inviting outside businesses to tap into its massive global network of planes, trucks, and hubs.
By converting an massive operational cost into a public service, the retail giant is effectively turning its competitors into its own customers. Will this move force the traditional carrier industry to consolidate just to survive the new logistics landscape?
In today’s MarketMaze focus:
Amazon opens global logistics
GameStop bids for eBay
Anthropic launches AI consulting
Grocery ecommerce growth habits
Global retail market concentration
LET’S ENTER THE MAZE!
- Artur Stańczuk, MarketMaze Founder
MAZE STORY
The Maze: Amazon now offers its massive end-to-end supply chain infrastructure as a standalone service, enabling any business to utilize its global network of trucks, aircraft, and fulfillment centers. Read more in the official release.
The platform mirrors the company’s AWS playbook by commercializing internal operational infrastructure to provide freight, distribution, and parcel shipping services for third-party businesses.
Amazon already manages over 13 billion items annually with a 96.4% on-time delivery rate, officially surpassing the U.S. Postal Service as the nation’s top carrier by volume, according to ShipMatrix data.
Brands including Lands’ End and Procter & Gamble already use these services to fulfill orders across multiple sales channels, including competing marketplaces like Walmart and TikTok.
Why it matters: Amazon is effectively transforming a massive cost center into a powerful revenue engine that turns every other retailer into a customer. This move forces traditional carriers to defend their market share while simultaneously commoditizing the logistics industry.
Which type of business is most likely to use Amazon’s logistics network for orders across Amazon, Walmart, TikTok, and its own website?
- 🟡 Marketplace SMEs [smaller sellers needing cheaper fulfillment across several channels]
- 🔵 Mid-market brands [scaled brands seeking faster delivery without building their own network]
- 🟣 Enterprise retailers [large retailers testing Amazon logistics for selected categories]
- 🟢 DTC brands [direct-to-consumer brands wanting faster delivery from their own stores]
- ⚫ Logistics-heavy sellers [businesses where shipping speed and cost decide margin]
☝️ Vote to see results!
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MAZE STORY
The Maze: GameStop has launched an unsolicited $55.5 billion proposal to acquire eBay, with CEO Ryan Cohen aiming to transform the marketplace into a direct rival to Amazon.
Cohen seeks to turn eBay into a legit competitor to Amazon by slashing $2 billion in annual operating costs and utilizing GameStop’s 1,600 physical locations as fulfillment and live commerce hubs.
Financial analysts and observers remain skeptical of the financing math presented by the retailer, noting a significant gap between the offered $125 per share and the company’s current liquid assets.
eBay confirmed receipt of the unsolicited offer and stated its board will review the proposal with legal advisors while advising shareholders to withhold action until further notice.
Why it matters: The aggressive bid signals a high-stakes pivot from a legacy retailer, yet the unclear path to funding leaves the long-term feasibility of this transformation in significant doubt.
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MAZE STORY
The Maze: Anthropic is teaming up with a powerhouse consortium—including Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, and Hellman & Friedman—to launch a $1.5 billion joint venture focused on AI-native enterprise services. This venture aims to help large companies embed advanced AI directly into their core business workflows.
The venture plans to deploy teams of forward-deployed engineers to help corporations transition from basic AI experiments to deeply integrated internal processes.
Enterprise buyers must now grapple with usage-based pricing for AI, which behaves more like a utility bill than predictable annual software subscriptions.
For every dollar companies spend on AI models, they typically need to budget an additional $5 to $10 for the integration and monitoring required to actually make the technology functional.
Why it matters: CFOs are losing their grip on stable, headcount-based SaaS budgets as AI costs scale dynamically with activity. Success now hinges on building a cohesive operational playbook that justifies these high-variance costs through measurable efficiency gains.
DATA TREASURE
The Maze: Grocery ecommerce is not a basket size game. It is a habit game. Annual spend grows because shoppers come back often, not because they suddenly place giant orders, which means convenience, trust, and repeat behavior matter more than flashy promotions or premium average ticket.
In leading grocery ecommerce markets, shoppers typically buy 6 to 13 times per year while average order value stays near $100, which shows that spend compounds through repetition and consistency, not through oversized carts or one time splurges.
Fashion behaves differently: markets like the US and UK combine stronger frequency with higher order values, while countries like Germany lag more on purchase rhythm than on basket economics, proving category structure shapes growth more than raw consumer wealth.
Big buyer bases can offset weaker spend per shopper, which is why countries like India, Brazil, and Russia still matter strategically: lower annual spend per buyer can still create major scale when the customer pool is massive and repeat behavior starts to improve.
Why it matters: Ecommerce leaders love to talk about bigger baskets. Grocery shows the smarter path is often more visits, more repeat orders, and less friction, which is exactly how sticky ecommerce businesses compound over time.
DATA TREASURE
The Maze: Global ecommerce is not getting flatter. It is getting more top heavy. A handful of platforms are taking a bigger share of the market, and the new leaders are not just classic Western giants but Asian players built on social discovery, gamification, value, and brutal execution.
The top five retailers increased their combined global share from about 48% in 2022 to 56% in 2025, while the long tail shrank from 51.8% to 43.8%, which means the market is moving from competitive clutter toward concentrated power.
The biggest gains came from TikTok Shop and Pinduoduo, with TikTok roughly doubling from 4.5% to 10.6% and Pinduoduo rising from 9.0% to 13.4%, proving social commerce and ultra value models are no longer side stories.
Amazon kept growing too, moving from about 13.2% to 13.8%, which matters because scale usually slows momentum, yet Amazon still added ground while new Asian challengers climbed hard, making the top layer both more concentrated and more competitive.
Why it matters: In ecommerce, concentration changes the rules. When a few ecosystems control traffic, merchants, ads, and logistics, smaller brands do not just lose share. They lose leverage, and that reshapes how growth gets bought.
BRIEFING
🏬 Everything else in Ecommerce & Big Tech
🏢 Anthropic partnered with Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, and Hellman & Friedman to launch an AI-native consulting firm aimed at streamlining enterprise operations.
🛍️ ThredUp deployed new agentic AI technology directly into its resale platform to facilitate real-time, personalized shopping journeys for its users.
🚢 US forces cleared Iranian threats in the Strait of Hormuz, successfully securing a vital artery for global commercial shipping logistics.
🚚 DoorDash introduced a suite of AI tools for merchants, simplifying website creation, photo editing for menus, and the general merchant onboarding process.
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