While Amazon Australia did not open by Black Friday as rumors predicted, the marketplace is live in time for the Christmas shopping season. It started taking orders on Tuesday (local time) and offers free shipping across Australia for orders over $50 AUD (or about $37 US).
The company did not own a warehouse there, so Australian registered sellers have used Amazon for some time, they could not ship goods in-country. currently, it’s set up one of its huge distribution centers just outside the city of Melbourne, that Amazon hopes will cut delivery time to within a single day.
Now, Amazon estimates its free deliveries within East Coast cities of Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Canberra should take 3 business days. Shipping to more remote areas could take as much as 10 days. quicker times are available for higher prices, of course.
Amazon is planning to offer its Prime service to Australian customers in mid-2018, that is ambitious for the huge country. Since the company announced it’d expand within the country back in April, traditional retailers have taken a hit: Stock for the top department store operator Myer Holdings has decreased 30 % since Reuters pointed out.
