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In a major follow-up to our earlier coverage — “Amazon Confirms: ‘We’re Not Leaving USPS’ But Delivery Shake-up Looms” (December, 2025) — Amazon and the U.S. Postal Service have now finalized a scaled-back delivery agreement that preserves roughly 80% of Amazon’s existing USPS parcel volume, avoiding the far steeper two-thirds reduction that had earlier been on the table.

Reuters first reported that the new arrangement translates to a 20% reduction in Amazon volume handled by USPS, bringing a turbulent negotiation cycle to a more measured close. The agreement still requires Postal Regulatory Commission approval, but it signals that both companies continue to rely on each other, especially in rural last-mile coverage, where USPS remains structurally difficult to replace at scale.

Key Highlights

  • USPS retains ~80% of Amazon’s existing parcel volume, or more than 1 billion packages annually.
  • The final deal is significantly softer than the earlier proposed 66%+ cut discussed during negotiations.
  • USPS reportedly earns about $6 billion annually from Amazon, making this one of the most consequential commercial shipping relationships in U.S. eCommerce logistics.
  • The renewed agreement reinforces Amazon’s continued dependence on USPS for remote ZIP codes, rural density gaps, and universal-service-supported routes.

Shipping & Seller Nuance

For sellers, this deal is bigger than a carrier headline.

Amazon has simultaneously been expanding its in-house rural delivery footprint with a planned
$4 billion investment, which suggests this USPS agreement is less a status quo renewal and more a
controlled transition strategy while Amazon builds denser self-owned route economics.

This also lands at a time when sellers are already facing rising fulfillment economics, including Amazon’s recently introduced
fuel and logistics surcharges within FBA cost structures. The practical takeaway: while USPS continuity helps stabilize delivery coverage,
the broader cost-to-serve conversation is still moving upward.

That means shipping margin protection, inventory placement, and regional replenishment accuracy are becoming increasingly important for marketplace profitability.

Next Steps

Sellers should now focus on:

  • Reviewing rural and low-density delivery performance by ZIP cluster
  • Rebalancing FBA inventory closer to demand-heavy regions
  • Auditing margin exposure from fuel-linked surcharge increases
  • Monitoring delivery promise shifts in remote areas

CedCommerce Managed Services helps brands optimize catalog, fulfillment visibility, and marketplace profitability as Amazon’s carrier and surcharge strategy continues to evolve.

Conclusion

This new Amazon-USPS agreement confirms what our December coverage had already signaled:
Amazon was never planning a clean break, but a calibrated dependency reset.

For eCommerce sellers, the real story is Amazon’s
multi-carrier, margin-aware logistics diversification play, where USPS remains critical for reach, while Amazon steadily builds leverage through its own rural network and evolving FBA cost structure.

The result is a more stable near-term shipping environment, but one that still demands sharper operational discipline from brands selling at scale.

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Tags:
Amazon Fulfilment Amazon USPS FBA fees FBA fuel costs