We’ve heard much wailing and gnashing of teeth about the potential impact of Amazon’s move into the industrial supply (MRO) business with its Amazon Supply (AS) site. What’s going to happen to all of those poor industrial distributors? Will they go the way of the buggy whip, typewriter, and bookstore, or will they survive the onslaught of the feared Amazon machine? Well, although it’s early and little is known of Amazon’s specific plans for this market, I’d like to offer a couple fearless predictions for your reading pleasure.

For years innovation and integration in supply chain software was limited to the Global 1000. They purchased multi-million dollar ERP and supply chain apps,  drove integration between trading, partners, demanded EDI connectivity, vendor managed inventory (VMI) , etc.. The ability for small and medium businesses to profit from these strategies was limited. It was simply too costly. Smaller companies simply had to react.  However, cloud computing, e-commerce, and edge integration are changing the game in the most profound way.