Skip to main content

Amazon officially goes live in Australia

| International retailers

Amazon has formally launched in Australia, with its local website now accepting orders from across the country. The site offers “millions” of products across 23 categories, via both its own offer and a third-party marketplace platform.

While the launch is broader than in some previous markets where it had launched, and includes major brands as well as own label items, initial reports suggest that its prices are not as aggressively low as rivals had feared.

Further, Amazon is not offering its Prime service until mid-2018, adding that the Prime Now service would be rolled out some time after that launch.  Till then, it is offering next-day delivery in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra for A$9.99, and two-day delivery in Perth and regional cities in Victoria, NSW and SA for A$11.99. Priority shipping to all other areas will cost $19.99.

Gerry Harvey, Chairman of the Harvey Norman chain, termed the launch as a “non-event”, adding: “We’re below them on a lot of stuff, and we’ve got a whole heap of stuff they don’t even sell.” Analysts at Citi Retail and Morgan Stanley termed the offer as “patchy”, and said Amazon will not be as disruptive for the Australian retail industry this Christmas.

Shares in major non-food Australian retailers are up today, with JB Hi-Fi recorded a 6.8% gain, Harvey Norman reporting a 6.3% increase, and Myer up 1.3%.

Pin It

Related Articles

SPAR, the world’s largest food retail voluntary chain, has seen annual retail sales break the €40 billion mark for the first time, today reporting global sales revenue of €41.2 billion for the year ending December 31st, 2021. The figures represent...
Since the turn of the century and consistently for nearly a decade before the COVID-19 pandemic ravished global markets, Africa was home to the fastest growing economies. The shoots of positive growth it demonstrated afforded it the title of the “...
Last year’s Black Friday retail sales massively underperformed for many reasons, according to Marino Sigalas, Account Director at The MediaShop. He says that some consumers were not comfortable with the thought of being shoulder to shoulder with o...
Retailer Checkers says that customers using its Sixty60 home delivery service will now be able to benefit from its Xtra Savings rewards programme.
In the UK a government minister is calling for a new law to ban wet wipes that contain plastic. Labour minister Fleur Anderson argues that around 90% of the 11 billion wet wipes used in the UK per year contain some form of plastic that turns into ...