Choosing between Amazon Supply Chain Services (ASCS) and an independent 3PL comes down to one thing: whether your brand needs scale or flexibility. Brands that run high-volume, straightforward workflows will find Amazon Supply Chain Services hard to beat on cost. Brands that need custom packaging, kitting, or hands-on account management will get more from an independent 3PL.
ASCS covers freight, customs, warehousing, and delivery across all your sales channels. Independent 3PLs cover everything Amazon's standardized system isn't built for. What that means in practice looks different depending on your products, order volume, and how much your operation depends on customization.
Amazon Supply Chain Services (ASCS) is Amazon's full logistics network — freight, distribution, fulfillment, and parcel shipping — opened to any business, not just Amazon sellers.
Announced May 4, 2026, ASCS gives companies of all sizes access to the same infrastructure Amazon has built over three decades: 200+ fulfillment centers, 100,000+ owned trailers and intermodal containers, 100+ cargo aircraft, and a parcel network with 2–5 day delivery, 7 days a week. It covers the entire supply chain, from importing raw materials and clearing customs to storing inventory and delivering the final parcel to a customer's door.
Amazon's own selling partners proved the model first. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) has handled more than 80 billion units for independent sellers since 2006. ASCS extends that same network to any company in any industry — retail, healthcare, automotive, manufacturing.
Early adopters include some of the largest brands in the world. Procter & Gamble is using it to manage inbound raw materials and outbound distribution. 3M is moving goods from its factories to distribution points around the world. Lands' End is centralizing inventory through Amazon's network to ship across all its sales channels. American Eagle Outfitters ships online orders from its AE and Aerie brands to customers through Amazon's delivery network.
The parallel Amazon draws is intentional. Amazon Web Services (AWS) started as internal cloud infrastructure before becoming the world's largest cloud provider. ASCS follows the same playbook: supply chain capability built for Amazon, now sold to everyone else.
Amazon Supply Chain Services (ASCS) is a logistics network Amazon built for itself, then opened to outside businesses. Amazon did the same thing with AWS — built the infrastructure to solve its own problem, then started selling it to the world. A traditional 3PL is an independent company whose entire business is fulfilling orders for other brands.
The biggest practical difference is scope. ASCS handles the full chain: international freight, customs clearance, warehousing, and delivery across all your sales channels. You can use all of it or just parts of it. Independent 3PLs typically focus on warehousing, pick and pack, and shipping, but they build their operation around your brand's specific needs.
Amazon says ASCS is open to any business. Whether that holds up at scale is an open question. When Shopify launched its own fulfillment network after buying Deliverr, it started by only accepting large enterprise brands with specific SKU types, then shut the whole program down a few years later. ASCS could follow a similar path — promising broad access, but landing in practice on a much narrower customer base.
Amazon Supply Chain Services (ASCS) has the edge on cost. Amazon is the best supply chain company in the world by scale, which means it negotiates carrier rates that no independent 3PL can match.
For brands running simple, high-volume workflows, that pricing advantage is real. If your products are straightforward and your main goal is moving a lot of units as cheaply as possible, ASCS is hard to beat on that front.
The service is also modular. You don't have to use all of it. Brands can plug into just the parts they need — international freight, customs clearance, warehousing, or last-mile delivery — without committing to the full stack.
Independent 3PLs have the edge when your operation needs more than a standardized system can offer. Amazon's fulfillment network is standardized everywhere and that's exactly the problem for brands that need custom pack-outs, subscription kitting, or specialty workflows. A mid-market 3PL builds its entire operation around your specific needs.
The relationship is different too. Amazon is one of the largest companies in the world. A mid-market 3PL assigns your brand a real account team, knows your operation, and can adapt when something changes. That kind of responsiveness is hard to find at Amazon's scale.
There's also a pricing risk worth knowing about. Amazon's track record with FBA and FBM shows a consistent pattern: get brands locked in, then raise prices and add fees. We're skeptical ASCS will behave differently. Once you're reliant on Amazon for fulfillment, they have leverage over you.
The more complex your operation (more sales channels, higher SKU count, specific packaging requirements) the stronger the case for an independent 3PL.
The answer comes down to what your operation actually looks like day to day.
Amazon Supply Chain Services (ASCS) is the better fit if you mainly sell on Amazon, run high volumes, have simple product workflows, and want one provider to handle freight, customs, and delivery at the lowest possible cost.
An independent 3PL is the better fit if your brand needs custom packaging, kitting, specialty handling, or a real account team. The same goes if you sell across multiple channels or already depend on Amazon as a sales channel and don't want to give them more control over your business.
The brands most likely to get this wrong are the ones that pick based on price alone. Switching fulfillment partners after a bad fit costs more in time, money, and disruption than getting it right the first time.
If you're not sure where you land, Fulfill.com matches brands with vetted 3PLs based on your actual fulfillment scope. It's free, and it takes the guesswork out.
This guide was researched and verified by Fulfill.com's logistics team.
Joe Spisak
CEO and Founder
Joe Spisak built and sold a 140,000 sq ft 3PL that exceeded $10M in annual revenue before founding Fulfill.com. Named a Top 15 eCommerce Influencer by Shopify, he uses what he learned from both sides of the warehouse to help brands find the right fulfillment partner.
.webp)
Gavin Gilfand
Head of 3PL Partnerships
Gavin Gilfand came to Fulfill.com from venture investing, where he backed commerce and supply chain startups. That background helps him spot which 3PLs can actually grow with a brand and which ones can't. He now manages Fulfill's 3PL partnerships and is one of the key people behind the platform's 96% brand-to-3PL match success rate.
