Price war to kick off
Retailers get out razor with Amazon’s arrival
AMAZON’S highly anticipated Australian launch today could ignite a preChristmas price war for consumers as existing retailers fight to offer lower prices across the board, faster shipping, and “keep up” with its online innovations.
The international retail giant prepared for its official Black Friday launch today, following an invitation-only “soft launch” in Australia yesterday and months of speculation.
Retail analysts predicted its arrival would fall short of creating the “retail apocalypse” some feared but new PayPal research revealed almost one in three small business owners were “stressed” about its arrival.
Amazon’s early launch proved an anticlimax to many hopeful online shoppers yesterday, as it only showed a limited number of listings to a select group of customers.
But Gartner research analyst Thomas O’Connor said consumers would be the winners out of Amazon’s launch as Australian retailers were already lowering prices and lifting their game to meet the foreign competition, with retailers like JB Hi-Fi launching same-day deliveries and Woolworths announcing plans to trial one-hour deliveries from “dark stores” in Sydney.
Amazon was unlikely to deliver cheaper prices on all items, Mr O’Connor predicted, though there would be some door-buster-style specials on offer.
“Amazon is likely to have some loss-leaders, or some products that will be the cheapest in the market, but they won’t be the cheapest in everything,” he said.
The company could ignite a price war if it chose to “undercut Harvey Norman” on everyday staples, though, according to one Australian business owner listing goods with Amazon yesterday who asked not to be named.