The Changing Shape of Distribution

The Changing Shape of Distribution: What Amazon’s Entry Means for Foodservice

The foodservice distribution landscape has long been dominated by a mix of national players, specialist wholesalers, and local independents. But change is knocking — and this time, it's wearing a familiar smile. Amazon has entered the room.

ChefPanel research highlights that the market is ripe for disruption with two thirds of Operators regularly experiencing issues with distributors including having to order more than they want due to minimum order sizes and late and incomplete deliveries. When presented with a potential Amazon alternative, more than six in ten would be willing to trial the service.

For years, Amazon has disrupted retail, logistics, and cloud services. Now, it’s quiet but deliberate expansion into foodservice — through Amazon Business and select category partnerships — signals a new frontier. And with that, a few important questions emerge for suppliers, operators, and legacy distributors alike.

Why Does Amazon Care About Foodservice?

Amazon’s interest in B2B supply chains is no secret — but foodservice is especially attractive:

• Recurring high-volume orders

• Fragmented buyer base (from independent cafes to large institutional caterers)

• Inefficiencies ripe for disruption (manual ordering, limited transparency, inconsistent service)

What Amazon brings to the table is scale, infrastructure, and digital muscle — paired with user expectations already shaped by their B2C dominance.

What This Means for the Industry

1. The Experience Bar Will Rise

Operators now accustomed to next-day delivery, real-time tracking, and intuitive ordering in their personal lives will expect the same in their business. Distributors slow to digitise or diversify channels risk becoming increasingly outdated.

2. Margin Pressures Will Intensify

Amazon plays the long game on pricing. As it scales, we may see intensified pricing pressure in commodity categories, forcing traditional distributors to differentiate on service, relationships, and value-add.

3. The Role of Brand May Shift

With Amazon’s entry, the battleground moves toward visibility in digital environments. Brands need to understand how their products show up in search, how procurement decisions are made on digital platforms, and how to balance exposure with margin protection.

What Brands Should Be Doing Now

• Audit the digital shelf – If you're listed on Amazon Business (or plan to be), how does your product look and perform?

• Reassess channel strategy – What happens when Amazon is both partner and competitor to your distributors?

• Explore direct-to-operator potential – In a platform-based world, there may be room to test direct models with niche segments.

• Invest in data – The more fragmented the channel, the more critical it becomes to understand who’s buying, how often, and why.

The Tension Ahead

Legacy foodservice distributors have long played a role that goes beyond logistics — providing credit, menu support, human touchpoints, and long-standing relationships. These aren't easily replaced. But as the shape of distribution flattens and digitises, the expectation set will shift. Hybrid models are likely to emerge.

Amazon’s presence won’t replace the whole system — but it will reshape the rules of play.

At ChefPanel, we’re watching this space closely — speaking with chefs, operators, and category managers about what they need now and what they expect next. If you’re rethinking your route-to-market strategy or pressure-testing a distribution model, we’re here to help you see around corners.