Amazon’s Aussie launch ‘really close’

AMAZON’S country manager for Australia has revealed the online retail behemoth is on the verge of its much-anticipated launch here.

Asked yesterday about a launch date for Amazon’s Australian offering, Rocco Braeuniger said: “We are getting really, really, really close.”

The 43-year-old German — who ran Amazon’s consumer business in five European countries before arriving here in August — was speaking at a summit for prospective sellers in Sydney.

Mr Braeuniger said “many thousands” of registered sellers were ready to sell goods locally, either directly to customers or through the e-commerce titan’s first Australian fulfilment centre, in Dandenong.

Under Amazon’s fulfilment scheme, it handles warehousing and mailing on behalf of sellers.

Speculation is rife that the local incarnation of the online retail platform — selling products dispatched from the Dandenong warehouse — will be launched as soon as this month.

The fulfilment centre in Dandenong was “operational ready”, he said.

Mr Braeuniger said Amazon was not just a retailer but also a technology company, movie studio and logistics company.

The US group operates in two modes, acting as a retailer — buying and selling supplies just as other retailers do — but also providing a marketplace for other sellers who dispatch products themselves or through Amazon’s logistics network. Mr Braeuniger said more than half the products Amazon sold was through that marketplace.

Last year, more than 100,000 sellers each sold more than $US100,000 worth of goods that way.

Australia will be just the 13th country where Amazon operated directly.