Amazon has been spreading across the globe like a retail STI for some time now, so it was only ever a matter of time before it successfully made dirty love with our own country. Now they’re looking to get serious about it.
Good news for impatient online shopping fiends, not so great news for Australian companies in the retail sector because much like the Jesus, nobody fucks with the Amazon.
Make’s no difference to Jesus.
To put this aggressive move into monetary context, it’s estimated that the online giant could rake in a massive $4 billion from the Australian market, particularly in consumer electronics. This will no doubt have local players JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman shitting in their britches. Brokers estimate these retailers could cop 23 and 19 percent losses to earnings respectively.
Amazon will have massive implications on our retail landscape and if they introduce Amazon Prime, absolutely no one is safe. Prime is a $US11 per month service that offers free 2-day delivery on items and access to their own Netflix and Spotify-like streaming services. They even have a service called Amazon Fresh that delivers groceries which would deal a big blow to Woolworths and Coles.
While the company would probably focus on specialised areas such as electronics and toys early on, expansion would certainly be on the cards further down the track. Australians already spend between $500 million and $700 million dollars on the site, despite the lack of local warehouses.
We certainly are thirsty for some deadly efficient online retail, which asks the question – what will our domestic players do to ward off a full-blown Amazon whitewash?
Source: smh.com.au.
Photo: South Park.
