> but their volume is so huge that they will probably rival UPS/Fedex if you included all of Amazons shipments across carriers
Not even remotely close. Amazon's total retail shipping volume represents about 5%-6% of UPS by itself. Amazon's total shipping costs annually are equal to about 9% of the revenue UPS does currently. You're dramatically underestimating how big UPS + Fedex + USPS are. Those three deal with shipping for businesses and consumers representing $40+ trillion in global economic activity, and of course have a huge share of the US $18 trillion economy. Amazon is still just a large drop in that vast shipping ocean.
No, don't be ridiculous, it doesn't just go to shipping, it all goes to just these 3 entities. All other shipping companies are about $25 trillion. It's truly surprising how little of all money spent actually goes towards stuff.
Check your next credit card bill. I'd be willing to bet that over 80% of all you spending in a given month is shipping.
There have been fascinating studies done on the psychology of it. It's become such a large part of our cultures that most people forget they even do it. There was a documentary that followed 17 people through their daily lives in a major US city for 6 whole months. Most people didn't even remember shipping something most days, yet on average each person when into either a Fedex, Ups, or USPS store 37 times per day to ship things. Absolutely amazing.
> Most people didn't even remember shipping something most days, yet on average each person when into either a Fedex, Ups, or USPS store 37 times per day to ship things.
You had me going for a second until I got to this line. Genius.
The $40trn latter figure is just a vanity metric about how much money those couriers' customers (most businesses have sent or received something from them at some point during the year) make overall.
Combined revenues of USPS, UPS and Fedex are easily found and are a little over $150bn per annum
Not even remotely close. Amazon's total retail shipping volume represents about 5%-6% of UPS by itself. Amazon's total shipping costs annually are equal to about 9% of the revenue UPS does currently. You're dramatically underestimating how big UPS + Fedex + USPS are. Those three deal with shipping for businesses and consumers representing $40+ trillion in global economic activity, and of course have a huge share of the US $18 trillion economy. Amazon is still just a large drop in that vast shipping ocean.