Bad news, folks, Amazon is going to start blocking access to its American site for Aussie shoppers from July 1. Instead, traffic will be redirected to its Australian branch, Amazon.com.au.
The company today announced that it will no longer be shipping goods from Amazon.com to Australian addresses, citing new rules around GST on online purchases as the reason. The new rules, which kick in next month, force online retailers to apply the GST to all online purchases shipped to Aussie buyers from overseas.
At the moment, the 10 per cent GST only applies to goods purchased online valued over $1,000. The new laws, which cover all online purchases, aim to help the struggling local retail industry compete with big players like Amazon.
“While we regret any inconvenience this may cause customers, we have had to assess the workability of the legislation as a global business with multiple international sites,” an Amazon spokeswoman said.
Ebay also threatened similar action should the new laws be pushed through, but the company is yet to announce any changes at this stage.
Aussies will obviously still have access to the 60 million products available on Amazon’s Australian outlet, and a further 4 million items when the retailer opens its “global store”, but it’s a drop in the ocean compared to the estimated 500 million items available on Amazon.com.
It’ll be interesting to see how the move effects Kindle purchases moving forward, as many people rely on the American site for its superior range. For all other purchases, the company isn’t even shipping to Australia, so getting around the block with a VPN is a useless venture.
In summary, if you had your eye on something available only on the Amazon US store, you’ve got a month to order it.