Amazon Australia Could Be Delayed Until 2018, Insider Claims

9 responses to “Amazon Australia Could Be Delayed Until 2018, Insider Claims”

1. 

   negativezero

   November 30, 2017

   “The biggest sales day of the year came and went”

   The biggest sales day of the year *in the US* came and went. AFAIK Boxing Day is still far bigger in Australia.

   I always thought it was kind of weird that people were expecting them to set up shop for a post-thanksgiving sale in a country where “Black Friday” until recently was a reference to the time 71 people burned to death in a bushfire.

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   1. 

      dctrjack

      November 30, 2017

      I think you might be surprised at the numbers re: online sales in AU for Black Friday though. I certainly have been.

      It’s kind of weird to refer to it as Black Friday but it’s also what it’s called. Tough talking point in Australia, but I can’t see it changing.

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      1. 

         pominaus

         November 30, 2017

         Definietely!
         Actually this year I was really surprised by how good black friday sales here were. They were easily on par with America in the gaming sector particularly. And I think a lot of that was the fact that places like EB and JB were ready in case Amazon launched that day. I mean gaming – EB, Target, had massive discounts. It also spread everywhere – Our cat’s petfood even lol. Black friday is getting bigger and bigger, and really it has to.

         I read that Amazon coming to Australia could cost the US store over 1 billion USD (1.3 billion assie bucks) in lost sales from australians ording from the US. I know I did – I bought an Acer Predator Helios laptop for US$899, by the time shipping, ta and duty are added it was A$1430. The absolute cheapest I could get it here in Australia was A$350 more.

         Similarly my wife bought a 8TB seagate HDD, imported for A$90 less than the cheapest we could get it here, and I bought one of the new polaroid cameras for A$50 less, with the film coming in half price. Things are cheaper there, and it’s easier than ever to shop there, even with Mr Norman forcing GST on us next winter. Australian stores have to compete a lot more with US ones, and so black friday will become more and more of a thing.

         The saddest thing for me is that I can see the same thing happening with China’s singles day, which unfortunately falls on 11/11 – remembrance day.

         Incidentally I see no problem calling it black friday – the name comes from the sales, and that’s what we’re talking about 🙂

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   2. 

      john_c

      November 30, 2017

      I don’t understand why the biggest day for discounts in the USA is before Xmas. Wouldn’t they have lots of stock to dump after Xmas like we do in Australia?

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      1. 

         wonderingaimlessly

         November 30, 2017

         Thanksgiving is just as big, if not bigger than Christmas in america.

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         1. 

            roger

            November 30, 2017

            While it may be just as big (or bigger) in terms of families coming together, they don’t give gifts for thanksgiving other than food/drink if going to someones for a meal,

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      2. 

         BF Expertlol

         November 30, 2017

         A couple of reasons, Christmas might fall on any day of the week, while Thanksgiving is always on thursday, so nearly everyone has that Thursday/Friday off plus for most of the country the weather will suck in December.

         Probably the biggest reason though — everyone’s broke after Christmas.

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      3. 

         negativezero

         November 30, 2017

         The USA doesn’t get a day off for boxing day. If you’re lucky enough to work for a company that gives paid holidays, you get the 25th, and if you’re working for a really high-end company with lots of benefits you’ll get the 24th.

         Technically a lot of workers don’t get the day after Thanksgiving either, but since it’s always a Friday (thanksgiving is always the fourth Thursday in November) a lot of people take leave for the day and so it’s a predictable day for stores to run sales.

         “Black Friday” is the big sales day for the US. The theory behind the name is that retailers would be in the red for the year up until Black Friday where they’d sell so much it would put them into the black. It’s expanded over time to cover the entire weekend following Thanksgiving and now a lot of online retailers extend it into Monday as well.

         It’s only recently that it became the biggest shopping day of the year in the US – prior to 2005 it was not. And it’s actually in decline recently, with retailers spreading their deals out across November and December, starting them earlier and also running more sales throughout the year (eg Amazon has their Prime Day in July which is sort of halfway between Black Friday and a stock clearance)

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      4. 

         pominaus

         November 30, 2017

         Also let’s be real, Boxing Day sales haven’t really been traditional boxing day sales for years.

         They started getting earlier and earlier, and now discounts run pretty much throughout the holiday period before Christmas. Also modern stocking systems mean that if they really wanted to retailers can largely solve the excess unsold stock problem of old. Rather than a manager or a small team make an educated guess about what stock they thInk they’ll need, nowadays the retail giants have whole teams and algorithms monitoring stock and interest on social media, live stock levels, consumer purchase tracking, etc.

         Sure some things would be discounted, but not in significant quantities, and probably not the things you want to buy.

         You see the same happening in the US – Black Friday is huge, but it too is getting watered down into a weekend and then a week long series of deals. First we had cyber Monday, now it’s Black Friday weekend, etc.

         The old days of having this type of sale primarily to clear stock is long, long gone. This type of sale nowadays are huge retail events and are actively stocked up for, because it can be so lucrative.

         In the current market the retailer that charges full price through November and December and discounts unsold stock on the 26th would be filing for administration by Easter.

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2. 

   justin_in_the_se

   December 1, 2017

   I don’t care how long it takes to launch, it’s an online retailer not a cancer cure.

   I just hope it isn’t a huge let down as far as range is concerned. Given our relatively small market perhaps the range will be lame.

   Having said that, I live quite close to the warehouse they built so maybe same day delivery is in the cards for me?

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