Amazon Set to Launch Australian Site on Thursday

Amazon, the online e-commerce juggernaut that threatens the mass disruption of Australian retail, will finally open its Australian operation on Thursday.

The company has alerted sellers in its Marketplace that they should have stock and pricing ready to take orders for Thursday from 2pm.

Amazon’s products will be a mix of those it’s acquired directly from suppliers and manufacturers and prices accordingly itself, and those that will be retailed by third-party sellers who will be using Amazon’s platform to fulfil the transaction.

Amazon has established a large fulfilment centre in Dandenong, Victoria within the M2 Industry Park.

[Related reading: Amazon Leases First Australian Warehouse in Dandenong]

The timing would coincide with the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales which have become traditional online shopping days in the US. Australians have already been spending big in the recent Singles’ Day weekend and Click Frenzy on November 14th.  They are expected to spend $500 million on Black Friday and Cyber Monday according to Cashrewards, Australia’s biggest online retail community.

Last week Amazon Australia’s country manager Rocco Braeuniger told those attending the Marketplace Seller Summit in Sydney that the retailer was “really, really, really close” to launching.

Braeuniger also said that Amazon will launch its first-party retail offering and third-party Marketplace simultaneously.

Speaking with Bloomberg, Cathie Wood, chief executive officer of U.S.-based ARK Investment Management, had some good news for small bricks and mortar retailers, as businesses sign up to Amazon’s marketplace.

Wood said Amazon’s arrival will haul the country’s lagging online sales to 10 per cent of total retail spending -- up from about 7.4 per cent this year according to IBISWorld estimates.

“With Amazon accelerating the move into online retail with some of the local Australian retailers leveraging the fulfillment-by-Amazon platform, I don’t think it will take very long to get to 10 percent: maybe 18 months to two years,” Wood said.

She believes that online retail will begin to grow faster once it secures 10 per cent market share.