Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) has unveiled new software that draws on its retail expertise in an effort to boost sales to businesses and remain the largest cloud-computing provider, Reuters reported.
Amazon's cloud division is launching a service called AWS Supply Chain to alert businesses when inventories are low and help them address supply issues that were chronic during the coronavirus pandemic, taking lessons learned from years of delivering online orders to shoppers' doorsteps.
At its annual Las Vegas conference, Reuters noted that Amazon's cloud unit also showed off AWS Clean Rooms, which allows businesses to tailor ads to customers while maintaining their privacy, among other applications. In recent years, Amazon has developed its own major advertising business.
The services are part of Amazon's long-time strategy to develop functions for its e-commerce arm and then offer them to other companies. Amazon's cloud business has lost out on sales to brick-and-mortar retailers which are reluctant to hire a company that is also their e-commerce competitor.
Other new services announced at the Las Vegas conference include Amazon Omics for genomic analysis and Amazon Security Lake, which helps businesses assemble data from cybersecurity vendors and other sources, Reuters said.