7 ms·
Amazon’s Australian Launch Brings Excitement, Dread and Defiance
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- bonestamp2 9y agoSounds like they didn't open Amazon in Australian -- they opened Amazon Canada in Australia.
- expertentipp 9y agoThat would be how Amazon (retail) expands in the EU. They open German Amazon for new neighboring markets and then there are acrobatics with UI language, VAT, availability, payment and shipping options, etc.
- jsmeaton 9y agoThey missed their first launch date by a week and a half. The lack of retailers is probably in part due to lack of APIs available til very close to launch day (within a week for orders) and a non existent sandbox for testing implementations. They aren’t yet offering their own products with a few exceptions for cables. Disclaimer: worked on our implementation as a launch retailer.
- donogh 9y agoAmazon doesn't provide a sandbox for any of its sites, making it quite challenging to integrate with Seller Central in any region.
- codisto 9y agothey do have https://mt.amazon.com/ https://mt.amazon.com/
- robryan 9y agoYeah, a bunch of the API error messages are still in Japanese. Not that MWS in any region has ever been a pleasant developer experience.
- exikyut 9y agoI would so love screenshots of that...
- codisto 9y agoYou can fix this: Update feed processing language to English (AU) : Seller Central > Settings > Account Info > Business Information > Language for feed processing report https://sellercentral.amazon.com.au/sw/AccountInfo/FeedProcessingReport/step/Language?ref_=macs_aifeedln_cont_acinfohm https://sellercentral.amazon.com.au/sw/AccountInfo/FeedProce...
- robryan 9y agoThanks! I guess when the account was first created a bunch of the defaults were either wrong or not set yet.
- empressplay 9y agothey have a bit more than cables, eg snes classic mini https://www.amazon.com.au/Nintendo-Classic-Mini-Entertainment-System/dp/B077HSVPB3/ https://www.amazon.com.au/Nintendo-Classic-Mini-Entertainmen...
- thisisit 9y agoWhat really is the "dread" factor for Amazon in Australia? My understanding from a linked article: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/19/books/australias-amazon-book-battle.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/19/books/australias-amazon-b... is that there is a culture of loyalty in Australia. So, this should be a walk in the part for other companies. Though as far as I know, and all of this is secondhand knowledge, normal retail in Australia is costly. So, there is a market for cheap discount based retailing in Australia. But I could be wrong.
- sdwisely 9y agoAustralians are definitely loyal shoppers, but Amazon are certainly moving into markets that have screwed Australian shoppers for a long time. I wouldn't be sweating it much at the moment if I was for example a local bookshop. OTOH an electronics retailer...
- will_hughes 9y agoI'm not sure I'd agree. Take for instance what Bunnings has done to the Mitre 10 brand. The moment there's a lower price that's at least as convenient and serviced, we're gone. Another point of anecdata is what Amazon and other overseas stores have done to local stores. Loyalty by older generations perhaps, but younger generations can see how much we've been screwed by local retailers for years. E: the reason Starbucks failed was because they sold American style coffee, which not enough people like. Cafe culture is incredibly picky about exactly how to make good coffee, so all the chains that hire uninterested inexperienced kids off the street all have problems in places where there's a lot of quality coffee.
- foobar1962 9y agoLoyalty to Gerry Harvey? I doubt it. Aussies know a good deal when they see it: we adopted mobile phones and DVD pretty quickly. Whe alao know a bad deal too: see how Masters failed miserably.
- 9y ago
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- exikyut 9y agoSigh. Heh, I completely forgot Amazon sold everything. I thought this was about AWS. If only something AWS- and Australia- related could bring "excitement, dread and defiance." That would be absolutely absolutely wonderful; getting any sort of hosting or VPS-type service here is nothing short of insane. For example the only $20/mo offers I'm aware of only offer like 256MB RAM for example. And there is a VERY low bandwidth cap, with extra bandwidth starting at "eye-watering" and skyrocketing to "...wat." pretty quickly.
- aluskuiuc 9y agoIs Amazon Lightsail in Sydney what you're looking for?
- danmaz74 9y agoAre you limited by ping times? I'm from Europe, but before switching to Hetzner bare metal machines, I always used VPS from the US...
- ianhowson 9y agoLatency is a problem -- typically 180ms to US-west and a little more to EU. Singapore is 100ms-ish and a good option if AU is too expensive. Laws and/or customer requirement often require that data be kept onshore, of course.
- danmaz74 9y ago> Laws and/or customer requirement often require that data be kept onshore, of course. Ah, I see. That's of course an important point.
- NathanOsullivan 9y agoI'm not sure where you are looking but there are Australian VPS providers with comparable pricing to overseas vendors. A$20 will get you 2GB memory easily enough.
- chris_wot 9y agoIncredibly disappointing. They stuffed it.
- dajt 9y agoI'm struggling to find anything I want to buy on the Australian website. I can't even get enough into the basket to get free shipping. And their goods categorisation is abysmal - whatever department you're in you seem to get heaps of unrelated dross. It's a terrible place right now. When they pick their game up I don't think there will be much loyalty to existing retailers. Australians are well aware and sick of the Australia tax, and desperate to join the rest of the western world.
- Khaine 9y agoThe only thing I worry about is, if Amazon does decimate the retail industry, then where will young people find employment? Youth unemployment in Australia is already quite high at 12.7%. If there is further erosion of the strength of industries that typically employ youths, then we will have a large component of a generation where unemployment is the norm.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]