I. Amazon Builds New Robot Manufacturing Plant

As an e-commerce giant connecting global sellers and consumers, Amazon handles massive order volumes every day. Whether products can be quickly located, picked, sorted by route and loaded onto vehicles determines the delivery time consumers ultimately see.

Now, Amazon is adding manufacturing capacity to this fulfillment network.

Recently, Amazon announced that it will invest over $100 million in Greenwood, Indiana, to build an advanced robotics manufacturing facility, expected to start production in 2028. The new plant will integrate advanced processing, robotic welding, automated powder coating and assembly, producing products for North American fulfillment centers and the robotics network.

This is not Amazon's only recent move to expand robot capacity. In August this year, Amazon announced a multi-billion-dollar investment in robot manufacturing in Austin, Texas.

Although the Greenwood plant has not yet started production, Amazon's robots have been working in warehouses for many years.

According to Amazon, it has manufactured more than 1 million robots in the United States, with related equipment deployed in more than 300 facilities worldwide, helping employees handle about 75% of the company's global delivery orders.

These robots are used throughout order storage, sorting and delivery. Specifically, when goods enter the warehouse, robots handle storage and transport, enabling "goods-to-person" workflows; after orders are packed, automated equipment takes over parcel sorting and assists with scanning and route sorting at delivery stations.

Consumers cannot see these operations, only seeing pages showing "delivering tomorrow" or "out for delivery." But the fulfillment network relies on closely connected steps: if sorting cannot keep up after faster warehouse picking, parcels will be delayed at outbound; even with high sorting efficiency, insufficient processing capacity at delivery stations will prevent faster delivery.

Therefore, to keep the entire chain running continuously and efficiently, Amazon must keep expanding manufacturing capacity so robot systems can be continuously deployed across the fulfillment network.

However, whether this investment will translate into faster and more stable order processing depends on deployment and actual operations.

II. Cross-border Giants Compete on Fulfillment Efficiency

While Amazon is expanding manufacturing capacity in North American fulfillment centers, Chinese logistics giants are also increasing robot investment in overseas warehouses to help cross-border merchants improve fulfillment efficiency.

In March this year, Cainiao announced that it will build large-scale robotic warehousing networks in Hong Kong, the United States and Europe in 2026 to support cross-border e-commerce platforms and merchants with local fulfillment and delivery. According to Cainiao, these warehouses mainly use its self-developed next-generation warehouse robots and AI scheduling systems.

Although this differs from Amazon's investment in building factories to produce fulfillment network products, the essence is the same: as orders grow, warehouses can receive, sort and dispatch goods more efficiently and reliably.

This automation approach to improving fulfillment efficiency has already been proven in Chinese logistics companies' overseas warehouse projects.

JD Logistics' self-operated warehouse in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, is equipped with hundreds of warehouse robots, sorting robots and automated operation lines, providing e-commerce supply chain services for companies in markets such as Japan and South Korea. After robots were put into use, the warehouse's processing efficiency more than doubled compared with traditional manual operations.

It should be noted that robots can help warehouses handle some repetitive and heavy work, but whether sellers benefit still depends on the actual performance of the entire warehousing and delivery service.

It can be seen that competition among platforms has gone deep into warehouses invisible to consumers. Amazon is expanding manufacturing capacity, Cainiao plans to roll out robotic overseas warehouses, and JD has demonstrated actual robot applications in overseas warehouses. For sellers, the next thing worth watching is whether these investments, once implemented, can make inventory listing faster, order fulfillment more stable, and delivery promises more reliable.

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Amazon's self-built robot factory will further improve warehousing picking and sorting efficiency, directly affecting sellers' fulfillment timeliness and delivery experience. Sellers are advised to monitor potential adjustments to FBA inbound, warehouse allocation logic and delivery rates after its launch, and optimize inventory layout in advance.

Source: E-commerce Pai
Original link: https://www.pai.com.cn/p/01m4cpf5cep568sdd9eve82vkh