Why sell on Amazon Australia

Introduction

If you are currently selling on Amazon you are probably asking yourself “why do I need a new marketplace?  My current one delivers to all countries”.

Well try to imagine Amazon as a restaurant, then opening multiple marketplaces is the equivalent of opening a chain restaurant that serves many customers around the world.  Multiple marketplaces mean that you are now exposed to a large verity of buyers in different places, and the more you are being exposed the more opportunity for sales you have.

Why Amazon Australia?

Until now, Australia was a huge untapped source of new buyers, a whole continent that did not get catered to. now, that Amazon has created a platform for them, you have a unique chance to dominate a fairly new territory that does not have many competitors.

How do I access Amazon Australia?

Amazon’s Australia website will be operational at www.amazon.com.au.

How can I sell products on Amazon Australia?

The Amazon Marketplace provides a model where other companies can use Amazon to sell their own products and set their own pricing. They are then responsible for getting the product into the customers’ hands by controlling their own inventory and sending the orders out to customers. It’s essentially no different to how Australian retailers sell products on eBay right now.

However, unlike eBay, Amazon plans to offer a ‘fulfilment by Amazon’ (FBA) service, which will allow sellers to store and dispatch their goods via Amazon. Unfortunately, this will not be ready by launch.

The fees involved with Marketplace were also detailed, with a $49.95 (plus GST) price tag attached for retailers that wish to have their products listed on Amazon.com.au. On top of that, Amazon will look to take a referral fee: A 6-15% commission off the top of sales generated through the Marketplace, depending on what type of product you’re selling.

During the introductory event, Amazon Australia Manager Rocco Braeuniger told attendees: “We are excited to work with many thousands of Australian businesses to help them reach more than 300 million customers around the world and to grow their business.”

The power of the Marketplace is in Amazon’s name. Globally, the online e-commerce titan, commands the eyeballs of 300 million people – so you’re selling power is amplified through the platform.

If you want to get started with Amazon in Australia, then all you need to do is head to their services website, throw in a few contact details and they will contact you with information on how to begin selling on Amazon.

At present, the Marketplace is invitation-only, with those that attended the summit given priority to sell on the platform. However, it is expected the platform will soon be open for online sign-ups too. If you want to get in early, be sure to sign up.

You can register your interest to sell on the Amazon Australia website here.

Will Amazon Prime be available in Australia?

The short answer: Yes.

The long answer: Yes, but not immediately.

If you’re unaware, Amazon Prime is Amazon’s subscription service that gives members access to a range of benefits. Currently, we’re unaware what these benefits will look like in Australia, but based on what we see in the US, we can make a few guesses about it.

In the US, the service costs $99 a year, or $10.99 a month. Prime gives users access to free two-day shipping and free same-day delivery in eligible zip codes in the US. This subscription also includes access to Prime Now, which gives you access to two-hour delivery for certain products. The list of benefits runs deep in the US and you can take a look at the full list here.

If you think you’ve heard of Amazon Prime before, you may be thinking of their video streaming service which is also inconveniently called ‘Amazon Prime’ Video and launched in Australia last year. This service is related to Amazon Prime in the US, where you get it for free with your subscription, but in Australia, a subscription-only gives you access to Amazon Prime streams.

We will update this post when we have more information about pricing, expected the release date and any extra juicy details we can get our hands on.

I do not currently sell on Amazon, is there an easy way to transfer all my items?

This is a question that many people ask, and it is not specific to Australia or to any other marketplace. The thought of listing manually can be a strong deterrent but luckily there are a few options that might help you

• Inventory file loader

Amazon allows you to manage the inventory (add, delete, update) via uploading excel files (.xlsx or .csv). It is much easier than uploading manually since the Inventory file loader allows you to upload a group of items at once. The main problem is that it’s only available if the product page already exists.

More information at https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=3149261

• Turbo-lister

The Turbo-Lister is an eBay tool for managing eBay inventory. Although it is an eBay tool, Amazon supports uploading files (.txt) that were created by Turbo-Lister.
Since this tool was created, it was very slow and inefficient. Customers who are still using it, often call it “Turtle Lister”. The main problem is that Amazon only supports files from the following categories: “Sports Men, Cards & Fan Shop”, “Entertainment Memorabilia”, and part of the category “Consumer Electronics”.

More information at http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=201285120

• Inventory management companies

There are many Inventory management companies like “Sellbrite” and “Solid-Commerce”. These companies have inventory management as their main focus. Also, for a monthly payment + setup costs, these companies will upload your products to Amazon (and other sites, depends on price height and customer requests).
To get started, you’ll first need to import all your listings from eBay. And then, you’ll need to link every item on the listing to your product and attach the SKU (custom label) to each of them.
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When all the work is complete, you will still need to categorize each of your products by selecting a category from Amazon categories. So basically, the seller still needs to do a lot of work.

• ExportYourStore

As of now, ExportYourStore specializes only in exporting from eBay to Amazon or to Ebid. The company doesn’t require the seller involvement in the exporting process at all, from the beginning to the end. There is no need to tag products to their Amazon category. And The company has a database with a fully matched category for each eBay product. Also, the company manages an inventory of barcodes, so the customer doesn’t need to “deal” with that at all. They also provide a full, real-time sync, so the product quantities and prices are always equal to their eBay counterparts. And there are no additional setup fees.

This is a guest post by Nathan who is an experienced eBay and Amazon seller; the lead developer in ExportYourStore that specializes in exporting eBay stores to Amazon. ExportYourStore offers exporting service from eBay to Amazon with one click, real-time synchronization, barcodes management, and troubleshooting to eBay and Amazon sellers