Amazon gears up for Australia launch

After months of speculation, Amazon’s Australian offering is set to go live ahead of Black Friday.

In an internal email, obtained by tech website Lifehacker, the e-commerce giant told Amazon Marketplace sellers to have their pricing, stock and details ready for an “internal testing phase”, kicking off tomorrow. “Dear Seller, to prepare for the launch of the Amazon Marketplace in Australia we will start an internal testing phase with a small number of customers on Thursday, 23rd November 2017, 2pm AEST,” the email said. “Once you have passed Seller Identity Verification you will be part of this testing phase and you should be prepared to receive orders from this point onward ... We are very excited to have you onboard during this testing phase. Let’s Make History!”

With Australia’s mainstream media providing wall-to-wall coverage of the launch, predicting the worst for traditional retailers, is the end of bricks and mortar shopping nigh? “It’s true Amazon could buy all listed Australian retailers with ‘walk-around money’ in just 23 months. With a market capitalisation of almost $US550 billion it is the fourth-largest company on earth. Of the 1.1 billion global websites Amazon has five of the top 100,” says Mark Ganz, Director, Client Insights at ANZ. “It’s for this reason the headlines rack up because what Amazon says and does moves the market. Ultimately what it will do is force existing retailers to change their operations in order to compete, but that is actually something the sector is well used to. While Amazon will change the game, there’s plenty of life left in retail yet.”