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Chris Thomas is talking Amazon Australia and how easy it can be to rank and get position on this relatively new marketplace for Amazon, tips on Chinese Sellers, eBay and is it worth it…
- Business is often about timing
- In this case about the 80/20 or 95/5
Very Few Reviews
- THere’s hardly any reviews on Amazon Australia right now
- Best Sellers don’t even have a review – that’s top in kitchen and dining
Easy to Rank
- Quite easy to rank as very little sales velocity
- Listings are weak and lots of scope for optimisation
- It’s a bit like Amazon 2012 – less mature now
Tax Help
- Unless you hit over $75k you’re not eligible for GST
- Dorman Bateman accountancy firm in Sydney that helps Amazon Sellers
Good things
- Just creating a Prime eligible listing will get you a sales boost
- Duplicate you US listing with same SKU and IPC and it will bring across listings
Not so good
- There is No individual seller plan in Australia
- Local Sellers do have to pay GST so no advantage
- Amazon only accepts a local bank account to accept reimbursements into – OFX, etc accounts will be needed
- Sponsored ads don’t exist yet but sure they will come soon
Ugly
- Consumer sentiment is bad caused by Starbucks in 2014 causing mayhem due to their approach
- Starbucks are not in Australia anymore
- Press have been having a field day with Amazon in Australia
- Costco is a loved US company in Australia and is growing causing challenge for Amazon
- Costco is also going ecommerce in 2019
- The Aus Dollar is pretty volatile and is weak against USD and GBP
- International arbitrage is
- Amazon Australia’s official Facebook page and see the comments for a good view of sentiment
Still worth it
- After all of that Chris still thinks it’s worth setting as got 5% with little effort
- Coming up to 15% of his Amazon sales
- Amazon needs to get real on Amazon Prime – about $80/year currently but need to give it away to promote it
- Might be worth running JoeLister and have stock in 3PL and have an eBay, Cogan and Amazon as your ecommerce marketplaces
International Arbitrage
- International arbitrage jack the prices up and $35 in USD but $400+ in AUS dollars
- Australian consumers don’t understand that it’s 3rd Party arbitrage and not Amazon gauging them
Timing
- The timing has to be right when to enter the market
- Chinese Sellers are flooding the market
- Were in really early
- New categories are opening up and a bit of a land grab to take position
- Looking out 2-5 years down the track
- You don’t want to be the pioneer with arrows in your back face down in a new market
- Amazon Buyers have a high propensity to leave reviews so it doesn’t take long to get established
- Australia will be an add-on to your wider global Amazon selling not a destination market place
- Australia has a free trade agreement with China so no worries on Trump Tariffs
Setup
- Business name, physical name and 3PL in Australia
- An eco-system is starting to popup – image, freight, prep centres are appearing
- Go to Amazon.com/au and click Sell
- Usual setup and you’re done and ready to sell on Amazon Australia
Send straight in or use a 3PL
- Amazon waiving fees for 3-6 months on your seller subscription
- Don’t just ship what’s in your catalogue – check what sells
- Get eGrow and keeper and use the 999 inventory check to confirm
- Those tactics still work for most listings
- Just go and take a look at Amazon.com and seeing the best sellers and most likely popular in Australia
- Just tipped over 25 million people in Australia – Canada has 30m and USA is $320m ish
- Scope is different but 3-5 giveaways will get you close to the top
Contact
Amazon Australia (Pt2) – The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
Chris Thomas rejoins to go more in-depth with Danny on Amazon Australia. Is it worth the effort ? Tune and find out more…
• What’s good about Amazon Australia?
A. Hardly any reviews, less saturated Competitive Categories, prices are (typically) higher and most sellers are sticking to FBM. Reviews from other marketplaces show up (if you have existing, successful listings in the USA for example)
• What’s bad?
A. No individual Seller Plan, only Professional – so expect $55AUD per month seller fees. Sales are slow.
Taxes – GST (VAT equivalent) but doesn’t apply to international sellers until you reach income threshold of $75K AUD.
Amazon won’t accept international bank accounts, so you’ll need a local bank Acc, recommend oFX or similar.• What’s Ugly?
A. Exchange Rate: Currently $1.00AUD = $0.72 USD. Low Prime uptake/penetration, No sponsored Ads (yet). The Press continue to sink the boots in, describing Amazon as Australia’s next ‘Starbucks’ (Starbucks tried to get going here and completely failed – they took their bat and ball and went back to Seattle).
• International Amazon Arbitragers really hurt Amazon’s reputation here
Like in Japan, Canada, the ‘Arbers’ duplicated listings from the USA and set the Australian prices sometimes 10x the price on Amazon.com! Australians kicked up a stink – not understanding that 3P sellers were causing the gouging, not Amazon itself.• After all that, I still think its worth setting up here to get an early mover advantage, get some reviews under your belt and get some defence against sellers who will come in late to the show when (not if) Amazon really starts to gear up.
Amazon will succeed – they’ve invested too much money and time not to…
• What do international sellers need to do to sell here if they’re game (many Chinese are!)
A. Follow the instructions Amazon sets out when you click the ‘sell’ link on Amazon.com.au, but basically:
o Your business name as you would like it to be displayed on Amazon.com.au
o The name of the individual or entity that operates the business
o The physical address of your business
o Your business credit card number and expiration date
o The address where you receive your credit card statement
• What’s selling, what to sell?
A. Google “Amazon Australia Best Sellers” to see best-selling items in each category. Kitchen and Dining for example, best selling product doesn’t have a review! Big opportunities there.
• Other Tips?
o Don’t ship massive amounts of stock to FBA (maybe 5% of what you’d normally ship to the USA or EU).
o Fire ‘bullets’ before loading up on the ‘cannons’
o Use Facebook traffic to drive traffic to listings/launching etc.
