Amidst the intensifying competition in the e-commerce industry, FedEx is gearing up to challenge its rival Amazon with a new initiative. In an announcement made recently, FedEx revealed that it plans to introduce a cutting-edge “data-driven commerce platform” called fdx this fall. The objective of this platform is to offer comprehensive e-commerce solutions to online retailers, right from start to finish.

The new platform seeks to help businesses manage their entire e-commerce operations – from supply chain logistics to selling to customers to delivering orders. It will combine existing FedEx services like ShopRunner, an e-commerce marketplace it acquired in 2020, with new capabilities like giving merchants deeper insights into shipment data to improve order fulfillment.

“FedEx is transforming into a digitally-led business powered by our extensive physical transportation network, leveraging our scale and insights from moving 15 million packages per day,” said FedEx Corp. President and CEO Raj Subramaniam. “Through fdx, we will enhance our longstanding relationships with merchants of all sizes to help them optimize and grow their businesses through digital intelligence.”

The launch of fdx pits FedEx squarely against Amazon in the rapidly growing e-commerce industry. FedEx has seen Amazon as a threat for years, declining to renew a shipping contract with them in 2019 over growing competition. Meanwhile, Amazon has been aggressively expanding its own delivery infrastructure, even surpassing both FedEx and UPS in total home deliveries in the U.S. last year.

By launching its own merchant platform, FedEx aims to leverage its shipping dominance to take a piece of the e-commerce pie as more retail moves online. And as Amazon continues its ascent, FedEx is fighting back with new services so merchants have an alternative partner for their end-to-end e-commerce needs. The shipping wars are accelerating, and fdx demonstrates FedEx’s plans to compete head-on with the e-commerce juggernaut.