Dear Lifehacker, I saw a bunch of media reports claiming Amazon would be opening its online store in Australia today. All I can see is Kindles and ebooks! What gives? If this is the extent of their local offerings I’m going to be pissed!Thanks, Burnt By Hype
Dear BBH,
DON’T PANIC! What you’re currently seeing is Amazon.com.au’s old website; the same one that’s been in operation for more than a decade. The revamped version – which will sell everything from vacuum cleaners to laptops – is still a few days away.
There has been some confusion over the official launch date due to a “testing phase” which saw the new site temporarily open up to a small number of customers on the 23rd of November. While it was possible to purchase items during this test window, most shoppers missed the boat. Fortunately, it looks like you won’t have to wait much longer.
The fact Amazon is actively testing the site with third-party sellers suggests that an official launch is eminent. The company’s Australian head Rocco Braeuniger also went on the record promising that Amazon would be launching /”really really soon”.
If we were betting men, we’d take a punt on November 30 or December 1 – which is this Thursday or Friday, respectively. It’s also entirely conceivable that the launch will commence the week after.
So why the “delay”? As we speculated in a previous article, this allows Amazon to launch on its own terms outside all the Black Friday / Cyber Monday hype. It also gives it a few extra days to iron out any kinks while still leaving plenty of time to capitalise on the Christmas shopping period.
Needless to say, we’ll be sharing the launch date here as soon as it’s announced. In the meantime, you can grab some Amazon-beating deals on gadgets, video games, clothing and more by heading to our Cyber Monday Deals roundup – many of which are still running!
Cheers
Lifehacker
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