Consequence of strong comeback by Amazon AU

LJadaJ on 26/12/2018 - 19:14

For simplicity, this thread is focusing on the comparison between Amazon AU with well-established stores like JB Hifi, EB Games, eBay, Thegamesmen, and etc.

It is pretty clear that Amazon AU has made quite an impressive comeback after landing at AU in less than 2 years. For instance,

  • there appears to be an automatic price-matching mechanism that 'keep an eye' on items sold by other retailer, that shortly after certain deal is announced, the price of that item available on Amazon is dropped. This creates a real and solid competition amongst the store aforementioned. As a consequence, most of the deals from other store indirectly become deals on Amazon —- you dont even have to leave house.

  • With Prime (or item with $49 or more), Amazon offers free delivery with different speed options. One remarkable thing that stands out is that, if you are a Prime member, each order is free shipping with Expedited delivery and no minimum spend is required. This provides an amazing added value to customer who subscribed to Prime, as compared to, eg eBay Plus. Of course, one may argue that these are standard Prime offers like what they did in the US, but offering these in AU, combing with low price from price-matching, is indeed a big selling point for new/regular customer to shop on Amazon.

  • They have wonderful customer support team. Often, no tricky question asked, just let them know what problem you have and they will fix it quickly. Sometimes, they will offer promotional credit too. One example is the recent pricing error deal.

Now, the question I have been wondering, what are the impacts and consequences from the rising of Amazon AU, to local stores above ?

I personally can 'sense' from various sources that eBay has been suffering a lot. Not sure about EB Games or JB Hifi. What do you think? Share your opinion or experience :)

Gaming

Related Stores

Amazon AU
Amazon AU
Marketplace

Comments

  • dcep on 26/12/2018 - 19:41
    +2

    Housing is finished.
    Retail is finished.
    Unemployment next.

    Perfect storm incoming.

    • BertieBrown on 26/12/2018 - 19:46
      +2

      Throw in a good ol fashioned pandemic with an extremely high lethality rate and it’ll be on for young and old.

  • BertieBrown on 26/12/2018 - 19:44
    +2

    Well eBay has been throwing money at their discount sales /percent off sales for a while, which isn’t a good sign from their standpoint, as you’d never bother to do that unless you were trying to drum up business, so prob not a good situation for eBay. Retailers in B&M stores will always have customers, however indeed Amazon will begin to erode their share of sales as Amazon begins to gain traction. One of the main sticking points, IMO, is that Amazon requires $49 in order to get access to their deals. If they didn’t have this stipulation I’d imagine they’d be drumming up a lot more business, however Amazon is in the long game.

    Personally, I think Amazon will have an impact but I don’t foresee them as the death knell of other retail in Australia, as we have a large ageing population that won’t use online retail, which I feel will likely always remain patrons of B&M stores.

    Certainly retailers would be foolish not to take the threat from Amazon seriously because it’s very real, but I don’t see Amazon as the silver bullet that kills of traditional sales in Australia. But that’s just my thoughts.

    • Cheeper on 26/12/2018 - 23:16
      +4

      "Well eBay has been throwing money at their discount sales /percent off sales for a while,"
      A lot of their discounts or % off sales are not genuine. Many sellers increase price to cover the discount as we know so there is no loss to ebay or the vendor in most cases. It is just marketing.

      • swapsey on 27/12/2018 - 12:58

        Yeah these are called manipulation strategies and will result in no loyalty for ebay. I have been more impressed with JB Hifi lately. Good discounts on certain items and their ecommerce experience with click and collect works well for me. They offer a difference here for this that live in a city/metro area and prefer to get it today.

        EDIT: *those that live….

  • Ocker on 26/12/2018 - 20:14
    -4

    This smacks of another paid political (aka paid sponsor) post?

    • JadaJ on 26/12/2018 - 20:43
      +5

      Whilst your doubt is perfectly understandable, the insinuation is not appreciated. Just because some viewpoints were made from a perspective that is leaning on Amazon's side, does not mean I was paid to make such discussion. As a customer, from bad experience in retail store like JB Hifi, to weak deals on eBay, Amazon has 'lured' me to shop there by their strong customer-based approach. If this is what you called paid, then sure yeah. This is realistic, not an entirely rhetorical. I simply state something that is observable and even give some valid points and evidence, paid or not, they stand still. If you support local retail stores and didn't concern about this, good for you I guess?

    • Broke-Ken on 27/12/2018 - 10:39
      -2

      OP is just an Amazon "fan boy/girl"(OP, don't take it personally)
      or the technical term of this effect is Choice supportive bias

      People think they made the right choice(when there is no right choice, just preference), but in fact their minds are playing games with them. Same way how people get sucked into religion, political sides, sports teams.. etc…

      • swapsey on 27/12/2018 - 13:00
        +6

        Funny I checked and OP has wide variety of posted deals from HN, Target, Kogan and other retailers. I think your assessment is off.

  • Iwilltakeit on 26/12/2018 - 21:02
    +1

    I'm very curious as to how amazon au will develop over the next year. Cashback will go away by the end of this year, which was a major incentive in attracting customers. Surely they've been operating at a big loss with the numerous unexpected sales such as the switch, 3ds, 2ds, ect. And there's also the free prime delivery, how can they even afford to offer free delivery?

    But I will give them credit for making me an active customer since 2 months ago and having already spend over $1000 with them

    • Hybroid on 27/12/2018 - 00:45
      +2

      Amazon are still new in this market but appear to have grown considerably. I used them for a decade in the UK and watched how 3-4 day delivery became next day delivery became same day evening delivery between 6-9PM then finally 1-2 hour same day delivery in some areas for some products.

      As their investment and infrastructure grows here as well (apparently massive depot is in the works at Moorebank Intermodal), they will certainly start to change people's purchasing habits to buying online and will have a large impact on the high street, for good or bad, opinions will vary.

      I already pre-order games from Amazon AU which are at least $20 off and get delivered to Aus Post locker box on Friday ready to pick up and enjoy over weekend.

      I can only see this growing with their own lockers and delivery network as has been the case in the UK. I'm looking forward to it.

      Edit: Many comments here dismissing Amazon as irrelevant and not a big deal clearly are unaware of the impact they have made in other regions. Time will tell.

  • p1 ama on 26/12/2018 - 21:08

    Now, the question I have been wondering, what are the impacts and consequences from the rising of Amazon AU, to local stores above ?

    Little to nothing at all.

    I personally can 'sense' from various sources that eBay has been suffering a lot. Not sure about EB Games or JB Hifi. What do you think? Share your opinion or experience :)

    Doubt it, Amazon have had good prices on a few things. Overall nobody really cares about them.

  • picklewizard on 26/12/2018 - 21:11
    +4

    It is pretty clear that Amazon AU has made quite an impressive comeback

    How is it clear? I see zero evidence of this.

  • GourmetFoodie on 26/12/2018 - 21:27
    +2

    Hmmm I still haven't bought from them and I'm a massive online shopper. Do not convinced they have been a true success yet. Startup costs would have been massive too.

    • deelaroo on 26/12/2018 - 21:58
      +4

      8/10 top bargains on OzB as of now are Amazon deals. Not sure how you can be a massive online shopper and not have found them to be cheaper than anywhere else at least once?

      • savage bargain on 27/12/2018 - 02:53

        Depends what you buy. Most things I get are online and not once Amazon AU was the cheapest. (Had luck with Amazon US, just not Australia).

        That being said, if they had the product, it would only be a third party seller which seem to be more expensive. So as the Amazon direct products improve, maybe the products will finally be cheaper.

    • swapsey on 27/12/2018 - 13:03
      +1

      OP should add a poll and we can vote - who has bought from Amazon.AU in leadup to Christmas?

  • Diji1 on 26/12/2018 - 21:42
    +1

    Amazons business strategy is too drive all competitors out of business and then raise prices while controlling the government to ensure they don't get broken up to start price competition again.

    • swapsey on 27/12/2018 - 13:08

      Don't you think that all business has this strategy. It's just that Amazon was the first large retailer to take capital investments with the express purpose of running at a loss to gain a customer base in a new way of shopping. They took loss leaders to a whole new level.

      Alternative view - Amazon are challenging other companies to do the same. They bank on bricks and mortar like Kmart and Target not having the tech and distro smarts to follow. They have been largely correct in other markets and so will follow this hypothesis here.

  • freakatronic on 26/12/2018 - 22:09
    +2

    Amazon AU is irrelevant. They don't stock what the real amazon stocks, and now the real amazon accepts orders from Australia again. I can't imagine what anyone would order from Amazon AU for.

    • Toons on 26/12/2018 - 23:21

      Is this for everything it was only digital content?

      If so that's good news.

      There is another couple of marketplaces building up through Asia which is causing locals grief the shop owners were talking about them taking away a lot of their business

      I've got them bookmarked on my other machine but the prices were as good or cheaper than Amazon

    • Clear on 27/12/2018 - 00:39
      +1

      Amazon AU only stock what the stores/brands will ship to them in Australia. It's going to take time for more vendors to get bored.

      So lets take Samsung for example. They sell officially through Amazon.com in the US but nothing is sold by them officially on Amazon.com.au in AU. Why? Because here it's the responsibility of Samsung Australia and not Samsung United States who have say over amazon.com.

      Of course Amazon are slowly showing Amazon US products in AU listings but at the end of the day the brands can say "No we don't want you to ship our products in Australia" and thus no US listings are shown.

  • hm on 26/12/2018 - 22:11
    +1

    This is a joke post right?

  • xcess on 26/12/2018 - 22:22
    +1

    For me they definetely have taken some business away from the others. For more expensive items I think ebay and jb still more preferred. Dont know how they can just keep throwing promotional credit for the simplicist things.
    Dont think they will totally kill off others cos even Amazon US havent been able to in the US. They will kill off the smaller businesses

    • Iwilltakeit on 27/12/2018 - 00:59

      Agreed. They do give out promotional credit like free candy huh? People literally ask/beg for it and amazon will give it to them

  • Donatello on 26/12/2018 - 23:11
    +1

    Depends on the item(s). It's 50/50 for me. Major appliances at B&M store, most other stuff DVDs, Games are online purchases.

  • fishball on 27/12/2018 - 00:23
    +2

    Amazon AU is far from dominating the Australian market… I regularly talk with coworkers at work and most of them are eBay shoppers not Amazon. Some have prime for their TV offerings but they don't use Amazon to buy stuff. Slightly better than last year's bad launch but I wouldn't call it a strong comeback.

    For the stores you mentioned, I don't really see where Amazon AU is doing strong against them. Maybe the occasional console deal and/or sony TV deal but that's it?

    Personally both eBay plus and Amazon prime have paid off their annual fee for me but it's definitely not as amazing as prime in US. I still buy from where it is cheapest, have bought from Amazon AU, JB Hifi, eBay, EB Games at least once in the past month.

  • Donatello on 27/12/2018 - 00:27

    They need to re-establish Amazon Japan shipping to AU again.

    Haven't tried Amazon UK yet. Can they ship to AU again?

    • Hybroid on 27/12/2018 - 00:48
      +2

      Amazon UK do not ship to Australia. Amazon USA do on some products.

      • Donatello on 27/12/2018 - 01:11

        Damn. Was hoping both Amazon UK and Amazon Japan shipped to AU again. :(

  • singingwolf on 27/12/2018 - 08:33
    -1

    Amazon AU are now half the size of eBay. That surprised me as i don't know anyone that uses them. They are always my last place to look for items. EBay being the first. Maybe as that has been my MO for the last 15 years.

    • lint on 27/12/2018 - 17:50

      When ebay introduced ebay Plus, a bunch of stores that used to offer free shipping became free with ebay Plus and paid shipping for regular users. I don't really see the value of ebay Plus when the biggest selling point is the free shipping that I didn't have to pay for before and I've bought much less frequently from ebay since then.

      I buy different things on Amazon compared to ebay, though with a bit of overlap and a lot of my money has gone towards Amazon. Add to that I no longer have to go to stores to buy something on sale (and often have things sold out by the time I get there) with Amazon price matching so often. If it goes out of stock on Amazon before I see it, well it's only a second of my life.

      So the ratio of online buys between ebay and Amazon for me right now is something like 90% Amazon, 10% ebay. That said, I signed up to Prime with the half back Amex deal, I'm not sure I'll renew it once the one year is up unless the deal comes up again.

  • Geekomatic on 27/12/2018 - 18:49

    I can appreciate "shopping local", & I do. I won't, however, pay a 100- 1000x premium in order to do so. I like to see items & I like to either try-on, or try out— which cannot be done online. If the B&M's work this to their advantage instead of whining & foot-stomping (aka Gerry Harvey), they might find a way to utilize that theme in some way.

    That being said- where amazon & ebay really work well is for those of us not in the eastern AU & not near a large city. WA is notoriously behind in that regard. I see things which are commonly available over east that we simply do not have here— and that's that. However, many items are found online & I can have them brought here, many times, "click-n-collect".

    Considering all of the thefts from people's front doors, I'm really happy to have that option now.

    Moving forward, it's looking like ebay will become the vendor of inexpensive, overseas, niche or hard to find items, especially electronics & such. Amazon has very deep pockets so will be fine, no matter what.

    Imho.

  • Architectonic on 28/12/2018 - 18:53

    I'm not really interested in AmazonAU when they mostly still charge a very large Australia tax (large retail markup for Australian customers).

  • Yuri Lowell on 09/01/2019 - 18:37
    +1

    It is a bit worrying. How can other retailers stay afloat when their deals are instantly matched? I like to support local retailers but even I find it hard to not be tempted by the convenience of free expedited shipping with Prime and the price is exactly the same. It's enough to make me never leave the house to go shopping because everything can be bought from Amazon with 3 clicks and delivered in 2 days.

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