Amazon hit hints at NZ turn: expert
Amazon.com could accelerate its growth outside the United States, including in Australia and New Zealand, in the wake of suggestions that US President Donald Trump wants to come down hard on the company, a Wellington retail consultant says.
Amazon shares took a big hit overnight on Wednesday in the wake of a US report that Trump was ‘‘obsessed’’ with the e-commerce giant and wanted to ‘‘go after’’ the company.
News website Axios reported that Trump brought up Amazon when discussing tax policy and competition (antitrust) cases.
The report suggested Trump had taken to heart concerns from friends in the real estate industry that the Seattle-based online giant was destroying shopping malls, ‘‘mom-and-pop stores’’ and brickand-mortar retailers.
According to an unidentified source that spoke to Trump, the president has ‘‘wondered aloud if there may be any way to go after Amazon with antitrust or competition law’’, Axios reported.
Wellington retail consultant Chris Wilkinson expected Trump’s concerns would prompt Amazon to put more resources into growing faster outside the US.
The company shocked some US politicians in January by shortlisting Toronto in Canada, alongside US cities, as a possible site for a second headquarters which it intends to put on a roughly equal footing with its Seattle base.
‘‘Amazon are finding huge growth in the UK and logically they will be looking at markets with the largest potential markets first, so Australasia may not be the priority. But without a doubt they will be refocusing efforts in developing markets,’’ Wilkinson said.
Amazon set up its first Australian fulfillment centre in Melbourne in December and Wilkinson said its entry into Australia had been ‘‘very low key’’ so far.
‘‘Anecdotally we hear there have been some challenges getting the infrastructure in place.’’
But Wilkinson said there were signs Amazon was close to opening additional warehouses, including a fulfillment centre, in Sydney.
Its fulfillment centre in Melbourne was not yet running at full steam, he said,
Amazon’s reliance on its Amazon Prime marketing proposition, which bundles free shipping with an internet television service, meant it was now ‘‘quite a big animal to get off the ground’’, he said.
Amazon is expected to move into New Zealand later.
‘‘Retailers are very aware of the Amazon challenge and if they haven’t already started preparing, they should have been. I won’t say it is too late, but the reality is they need to be prioritising.’’
Hamish Conway, a Wellington consultant who has helped dozens of businesses sell through Amazon, believed Amazon would not be rattled by Trump’s antipathy.
‘‘Online shopping is growing whether Trump likes it or not, and Amazon has been playing a long game and being very strategic.’’
He noted the company was already in a legal dispute in the US over whether it should be paying states’ sales taxes on behalf of its third-party sellers.
If Trump orchestrated any adverse moves, all that would happen is Amazon’s lawyers would fight them as a ‘‘cost of doing business and drag it out’’, he said.
Australia was a ‘‘blip on the radar’’, Conway said. ‘‘But they have got that long-term vision of India and Australia, and getting into Asia more, and they will hold their course I predict.’’