“The Amazon piece is not a competitor for us today. They’ll never be able to have the service that we have and for the price that we have,” says MailPac Group Executive Chairman, Khary Robinson.

Robinson, who appeared on Taking Stock with Kalilah Reynolds, was responding to concern that increased competition from Amazon direct delivery to Jamaica would impact MailPac’s revenues.

Amazon offers direct delivery of products purchased on the site to home addresses in Jamaica. The site calculates all the necessary shipping and clearing fees and customs duties, if any, and adds it to the customers’ final cost. There is also a global delivery fee that gets added.

The items are then shipped to Jamaica and delivered through companies such as DHL or FedEx.

Robinson said he was confident that the service his company provides is a much more cost-efficient option to Amazon’s direct delivery.

“The reality is that Amazon always could deliver directly to customers in Jamaica,” he said.

“But what you get as a courier customer, will never be able to be granted or provided by Amazon. Our courier platform is tailored for that last mile journey from Miami to Jamaica,” he added.

He said that courier services such as MailPac ship and clear goods on a consolidated basis, which is a lot cheaper than clearing on an individual basis. 

“Additionally, the information that you have to provide to DHL or whoever the provider is, versus what you do on our platforms and how that’s done it’s a much more seamless much more cost-efficient model,” he said.

Robinson revealed that Amazon has approached several of its partners in a bid to help increase the efficiency of its direct delivery. This, he said, reaffirms MailPac’s confidence in the sustainability of its business model.

MailPac competitors

Robinson, however, did admit that the company faces growing competition locally from the increase in courier companies. He noted that since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a rapid increase in the number of courier companies, as the demand for online shopping has skyrocketed.

He said that there are now some 120 companies in an industry that had less than five major competitors when MailPac first started.

However, Robinson said he is also confident that MailPac and withstand the competition.

Thanks in part to the recently announced deal between MailPac and MyCart. MailPac is set to acquire Mycart, which is the second-largest courier service provider on the island.

Robinson said the partnership will allow the company to service a larger portion of the island with increased locations and superior technology.