"In light of this comparison, it becomes obvious that Amazon’s goal should be to constantly increase the ratio of FBMs." Amazon's edge is that they've managed

"In light of this comparison, it becomes obvious that Amazon’s goal should be to constantly increase the ratio of FBMs." Amazon's edge is that they've managed the logistics of this at a scale that no one else could -- before Amazon shipping was expensive, and often terribly slow. So if these big vendors are just shipping direct, and Amazon is nothing more than an order submission agent, I would argue that is exactly contrary to what Amazon wants. Those vendors could do the same thing for any front end (Walmart, Target, whatever) equally.