Amazon Australia goes live in time to ruin rivals’ Christmas

SYDNEY — Amazon.com, Inc.’s Australian arm began taking orders on Tuesday, ending speculation about the timing of its launch in the world’s no. 12 economy and likely dashing hopes of a holiday boost for struggling brick-and-mortar rivals.

The global retailer said it would offer free shipping nationwide for purchases over A$49 ($37.26), with millions of products available from clothes to sporting goods to consumer electronics.

The move establishes the $550-billion behemoth as an aggressive presence in the sluggish Australian retail sector, just as shopkeepers were hoping for a rush of sales over the important Christmas holiday season.

Amazon’s Australia country manager, Rocco Braeuniger, said in a statement the US company would “earn the trust” of Australian shoppers and, over time, create “thousands of new jobs.”

Australia has long been home to Amazon- registered sellers, but until Tuesday they were limited to sending goods offshore because the Seattle conglomerate did not have a warehouse in the country of 24 million people. This also meant Australians had to wait longer times, and pay higher fees, for shipping.

The company has now set up a massive distribution warehouse on the outskirts of Melbourne city, on the country’s east coast where four-fifths of the population live, and the company hopes to cut delivery time to as little as a day.

Under the free delivery offer, Amazon said it estimated delivery times as short as three business days in the cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra — home to half the country’s population — while shipping to remote areas could take 10 days.

Shoppers could pay a fee for faster shipping times.

Amazon did not comment on any last-minute problems from an order-taking trial which began on Nov. 23.

It said it planned to offer its rapid- shipping subscription service, Prime, in mid-2018, in a sign it is unperturbed by the geographic challenge posed by one of the world’s most sparsely populated countries. Australia is the size of the mainland US, with one-thirteenth its population.

Australian retail shares have fallen sharply since Amazon confirmed plans for the country in April. Shares of top department store operator Myer Holdings Ltd are down 30% since that time.—