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Interestingly over here in Australia, those who went with Amazon AU left for different reasons; mainly that the platform just doesn't attract much sales volume

Interestingly over here in Australia, those who went with Amazon AU left for different reasons; mainly that the platform just doesn't attract much sales volume and the costs were astronomical. Even eBay does better here. At the company I work for, we operate a fulfillment center for eCommerce sellers and we've been booming lately from businesses choosing to leave the closed ecosystems and marketplaces like Amazon and run their own Shopify, WooCommerce and others while still having a third party handle their fulfillment needs.

2muchcoffeeman 6y ago
I’ve found that Amazon AU fulfils fairly specific niches. But it’s not a one stop shop. If I look around I can get a better deal or faster delivery from somewhere local.
ObsoleteNerd 6y ago
As a consumer, I found Amazon here (AU) ridiculously overpriced. The shipping is fast, so if they have the thing I want and I need it urgently sometimes it's worth it, but generally you'll get it cheaper at the local online stores like Big W/Target/Kmart/JB/GoodGuys/etc, or the small independent stores who run their own websites. Discoverability sucks, and sometimes you spend a couple hours (or even a few nights) searching around all the little local stores buried 5-10 pages down the search results to find what you need, but it's generally worth the effort for the better prices and local support. Ebay is even worse than Amazon now though. I was an avid Ebay user from when they first came here until not long ago, but in the last year or 2 I find it's just chock full of scams, fake products, lies about shipping (advertised as local stock with 2-5 day shipping, arrives 4 weeks later with postage marks from China), etc etc. I flat out just don't trust anything on Ebay anymore unless it's an actual local individual selling something used and I'm picking it up.
- jfk13 6y ago
  > advertised as local stock with 2-5 day shipping, arrives 4 weeks later with postage marks from China We also see that issue sometimes. I hope you ruthlessly leave negative feedback for those sellers, at least.
- a3n 6y ago
  > generally you'll get it cheaper at the local online stores like Big W/Target/Kmart/JB/GoodGuys/etc, or the small independent stores who run their own websites. Discoverability sucks, and sometimes you spend a couple hours (or even a few nights) searching around all the little local stores buried 5-10 pages down the search results to find what you need, but it's generally worth the effort for the better prices and local support. Room for someone to be a discoverability platform? One stop discoverability, whichsometimes is all Amazon is for a particular transaction. Find it at IFoundIt, and then directed to the seller's store.
  - colinmorelli 6y ago
    Shopify seems to be working towards exactly this, and recently announced their new Shop app: https://www.shopify.com/shop https://www.shopify.com/shop It only includes Shopify sellers, and of those only the ones that choose to be listed on Shop, but with the Shop app and their new fulfillment network, I think Shopify is currently best positioned to become a real threat to Amazon.

2muchcoffeeman 6y ago

I’ve found that Amazon AU fulfils fairly specific niches. But it’s not a one stop shop. If I look around I can get a better deal or faster delivery from somewhere local.

ObsoleteNerd 6y ago

As a consumer, I found Amazon here (AU) ridiculously overpriced. The shipping is fast, so if they have the thing I want and I need it urgently sometimes it's worth it, but generally you'll get it cheaper at the local online stores like Big W/Target/Kmart/JB/GoodGuys/etc, or the small independent stores who run their own websites. Discoverability sucks, and sometimes you spend a couple hours (or even a few nights) searching around all the little local stores buried 5-10 pages down the search results to find what you need, but it's generally worth the effort for the better prices and local support. Ebay is even worse than Amazon now though. I was an avid Ebay user from when they first came here until not long ago, but in the last year or 2 I find it's just chock full of scams, fake products, lies about shipping (advertised as local stock with 2-5 day shipping, arrives 4 weeks later with postage marks from China), etc etc. I flat out just don't trust anything on Ebay anymore unless it's an actual local individual selling something used and I'm picking it up.

jfk13 6y ago
> advertised as local stock with 2-5 day shipping, arrives 4 weeks later with postage marks from China We also see that issue sometimes. I hope you ruthlessly leave negative feedback for those sellers, at least.
a3n 6y ago
> generally you'll get it cheaper at the local online stores like Big W/Target/Kmart/JB/GoodGuys/etc, or the small independent stores who run their own websites. Discoverability sucks, and sometimes you spend a couple hours (or even a few nights) searching around all the little local stores buried 5-10 pages down the search results to find what you need, but it's generally worth the effort for the better prices and local support. Room for someone to be a discoverability platform? One stop discoverability, whichsometimes is all Amazon is for a particular transaction. Find it at IFoundIt, and then directed to the seller's store.
- colinmorelli 6y ago
  Shopify seems to be working towards exactly this, and recently announced their new Shop app: https://www.shopify.com/shop https://www.shopify.com/shop It only includes Shopify sellers, and of those only the ones that choose to be listed on Shop, but with the Shop app and their new fulfillment network, I think Shopify is currently best positioned to become a real threat to Amazon.