Putting Jeff Bezos in a Super Bowl ad isn’t the only major material business risk Amazon is taking in Q1…

After more than a year of anticipation as Amazon has expanded the number of its distribution centers, partnered with landlords to install designated Amazon lockers in mailrooms in millions of apartments across the US, creating a system to allow couriers to deliver packages inside customers’ homes and experimented with delivery from third-party warehouses in some test markets, the e-commerce behemoth announced today that it will launch a “Shipping with Amazon” service that will entail picking up packages from businesses and shipping them to consumers, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter (ie AMZN’s comms department).

The service will compete with ground carriers with UPS and FedEx

*AMAZON PLANS TO LAUNCH ‘SHIPPING WITH AMAZON’ IN U.S. THIS YEAR, SOURCES SAY

*NEW AMAZON SHIPPING OPTION WOULD COMPETE WITH UPS AND FEDEX, SOURCES SAY

*’SHIP WITH AMAZON’ TO START IN LOS ANGELES FIRST, THEN GO NATIONWIDE, SOURCES SAY

Amazon expects to roll out the new delivery service in Los Angeles in coming weeks, partnering with third-party merchants that sell goods via its website, according to the people. Amazon then aims to expand the service to more cities as soon as this year, some of the people say.

The first stirrings of the eventual launch first emerged last October when Amazon announced it would begin “experimenting” with a new program called “seller flex” that would allow them to take over the process of shipping from third-party warehouses. That program was first tested in the Los Angeles area.

as WSJ reminds us, this is the latest step by Amazon to create its own parcel network. In the last two years, Amazon has expanded into ocean freight while building a network of its own drivers who can now deliver inside homes and leased up to 40 aircraft while establishing an air cargo hub.