Australians are still keen to buy from overseas sellers despite the launch of Amazon Australia, according to a report from OFX and Hitwise. This is creating a more lucrative opportunity for overseas sellers than previously expected.
eBay dominates Australian retail – it’s no surprise that they’ve had recent innovations such as eBay on Google Assistant ahead of European countries. eBay and their classified ads site Gumtree see around 35 million visitors per week whereas the next biggest sites including Amazon, Kmart, Target, Aliexpress and Etsy only get about 10 million between them.
Amazon created a ton of hype before they launched, but the report confirms the news we hear that Australians weren’t enamoured with Amazon once the marketplace went live. Prices weren’t as keen as they’d hoped, but more importantly a lack of available inventory is the biggest issue.
“It is noteworthy that after a highly-anticipated launch in early December analysis by Hitwise shows that traffic to Amazon.com.au seems to have tapered. Likely, this is the result of a lack of inventory where consumers are not yet finding the breadth of product offering that is available in the US through Amazon.com. In addition, the promise of same day or next day delivery through a Prime offering is not yet available in the Australian market.
In the absence of a same day delivery option, Australians are used to paying for shipping from the US
for products that they can’t find anywhere else, and, therefore are likely to continue to be willing to pay
for local shipping to get their products much faster than it takes them to come from the US once the
products are available on Amazon.com.au.”
– OFX/Hitwise report
Whilst many Australians are happy to buy from Amazon’s US site, they’re equally comfortable with buying from the UK. At the least it makes sense to add international shipping to Australia for your listings in North America or Europe, but there is also a significant opportunity for merchants who want to establish themselves on Amazon Australia ahead of their competition, especially with the launch of Australian FBA.
Merchants shouldn’t however forget eBay Australia, whilst Amazon will want to make inroads, eBay Australia has the majority of traffic so should be on your radar to target.
3 Responses
Would love to sell on there if they would ever acknowledge my application. We sell on many Amazon sites successfully and yet two applications have failed to generate any response.
I listed about two thirds of my inventory on Amazon AU as soon as they launched but sales have been dismal. I sell far more on eBay AU at exactly the same prices, so I’m thinking of dropping Amazon altogether.