A retail analyst has broken down what Australians can expect from the highly-anticipated Amazon launch.
Just in time for the Black Friday bumper sales on offer this weekend, the online marketplace is predicted to be live on Friday.
Scott Kilmartin, a retail analyst, told 9news.com.au that third party retailers were told via email yesterday to prepare to take orders on Thursday.
“They’ll open tomorrow afternoon, as a kind of soft launch, then on Friday it’s all systems go,” Mr Kilmartin said.
He said that 500 retailers will initially be supplying to the Australian website.
“The Country Fire Authority inspected the Amazon Dandenong warehouse yesterday and gave the building clearance to operate,” Mr Kilmartin said.
“The first shift started at 7am (Tuesday) morning at the warehouse and the .au site is live for a small selection of customers and they will be shipping orders.”
Mr Kilmartin said the sudden launch could lead to problems for retailers.
“They’ve been kept in the dark a little bit… the challenge is now to have enough stock,” he said.
“If Amazon really goes off like an Apple launch, some retailers might run out before Christmas.”
Last week Amazon invited some 600 smaller Australian retailers to a sellers’ summit in Sydney - a sales and marketing session to outline how it would launch in Australia.
Its Australian manager told the gathering that, when it opens, it will sell products out of its own warehouse, which it will deliver. It will also allow retailers to sell their products from Amazon’s online marketplace platform, which they will have to deliver.
9NEWS was not allowed into the meeting.
Executive director of the Australian Retailers Association, Russell Zimmerman, was at the summit. He said he had a real sense that Amazon was serious about Australia, and is also optimistic about what it would mean for retailers here.
Amazon refuses to divulge launch date
"We never believed that Amazon will decimate retail," he said. "We've always believed that Amazon is here to assist the retailers of Australia to grow and develop their businesses both locally and internationally."
Larger retailers, such as Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi, may not agree. They’ve been developing strategies for months to counter the juggernaut that is Amazon.
Mr Kilmartin said that the new website could make things “tricky” for the traditional bricks-and-mortar stores.
“Amazon is Father Christmas for consumers, but it might be the Grinch for retailers that has already had flat sales.”
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