How is it all going down under with Amazon Australia? The national marketplace launched last year after the peak season of Black Friday and the Cyber Weekend and hasn’t been noted for unassailable success in the intervening months and it is fair to be curious as to whether Amazon Australia might be struggling. Especially in comparison to other national Amazon marketplace websites.
One specific wobble has been the extent to which Amazon Prime isn’t a terribly compelling proposition and adoption hasn’t been as successful with shoppers in the same way it has been elsewhere in the world. We wrote about that here. The options and selection are just really rather limited when compared to Prime in the Uk or the USA.
And reports suggest that one of the problems is that the Amazon Australia offering, especially when considering the Prime product, currently just isn’t as compelling there as elsewhere in the world. One significant problem regards the Goods and Sales Tax or GST which has been problematic when it comes to imports down under. We wrote about that here.
The GST seeks to adequately tax imports into Australia, protect the High Street, and has also been entirely successful when it comes to limiting the import of goods. But that’s not the premier reason why Amazon Australia has been struggling to succeed. It is also notable that the terms of generic Amazon provisions aren’t as generous, or as successful as they ar all over the world. And as one analyst says about what’s on offer in Australia, it is weak but may prove to adequate in the long term:
Amazon remains at least one very large elephant in the room. While we’ve yet to see the full force of Amazon locally, its prime offering isn’t as compelling, yet, as in the US and UK in terms of driving volume of impulse buying and loyalty to the platform.
– David White, Deloittes
What do you reckon?
2 Responses
Unlike the rest of the world, eBay AU has a strong hold over consumer mindset – the rest of the world ‘searches for products on Amazon first’, that isn’t the case in Australia.
However! the advice to our clients is Amazon is unlikely to give up, plant your flag now while the market is distracted on Amazon AU’s performance (which is still 2 spot, so it’s not like there are no orders for your efforts!).
From what I have heard – people reporting to me – the biggest problem is the ship[ping cost. Australia’s postal system is very un-efficient and expensive compared to what we have in the UK, EU or even in the US. Shipping is simply too expensive and that’s a major problem for all online retailers, including Amazon.