Amazon to Open Fulfillment Center in Walmart Territory

Amazon announced Tuesday it will open a new fulfillment center in Little Rock, Arkansas, only a few hours away from Walmart’s hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas.

The news came the same day reports surfaced that Walmart is planning to launch an Amazon Prime-like subscription service, but presumably one that plays to its own strengths.

Marketplace Pulse’s Juozas Kaziukėnas says Walmart couldn’t succeed with a Prime-clone, but will lean on its superior grocery delivery.

Amazon plans to open its first fulfillment center in Arkansas in 2021. The 825,000 square-foot fulfillment center will be used for fulfilling small items, such as books, electronics and toys, and will feature Amazon robotics.

Amazon is also planning a new 85,000 square-foot delivery station, anticipated to launch in late 2020. The marketplace explains: “Delivery stations power the last mile of Amazon’s order fulfillment process. Packages are transported to delivery stations from Amazon fulfillment and sortation centers, and then loaded into vehicles for delivery to customers.”

You can find the full press release on the AboutAmazon.com website.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.