Thread: Amazon. Less US-Centric?
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Old 04-15-2016, 07:11 PM   #5
murg
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Australia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by darryl View Post
I have been a critic of Amazon's focus on the United States to the exclusion of other Countries. Of course I understand the reasons for this and it was good business sense. But I can only look at Prime in the US and the standard of customer service with envy. More recently, of course, Amazon has concentrated on the UK, where the services and service seem to be almost as good as in the US and slowly catching up. And once again this makes sound business sense given the size of the UK market.

However, Amazon remains a relatively minor player in Australia. But there are signs that things are changing. When I bought my Kindle Voyage earlier this year I bought it from a local retailer, as Amazon was not shipping to Australia. The alternative was to purchase in the US and use a re-shipping firm, which can add significant cost. Earlier this week I logged onto my amazon.com.au account and was surprised to find the banner advertisement at the top of the page featured the newly announced Oasis. A couple of clicks and I found that Amazon will actually ship the product to Australia. Shipping charges were I think about $A23 odd dollars for 5 day delivery or $A16 for slightly longer delivery. The quick option was described as something like "Amazon Worldwide". I also found that Amazon now has a network of pick-up locations, a couple perhaps 5 minutes drive from my home and many more within 15-20 minutes drive. Unfortunately, whilst I like the Oasis and am sure Amazon will do well with it I'm holding out for better display technology and sticking with the Voyage. But the network of pick-up locations and the fact that Amazon is now prepared to ship at least Kindles directly to Australia may at long last mean that Amazon is starting to place more value on its Australian customers. I can only hope that rumours of Amazon seeking warehouse space here are correct.

So what about the rest of the World? Is Amazon allowing all Customers worldwide to buy the Oasis directly? ARe there any local pick-up locations? Anyone able to tell us what their plans are for Australia? For other Countries? Even what I have posted above seems to indicate that Amazon's plans for world domination of at least online retailing are coming along nicely.
For awhile now, Amazon has been bulk shipping packages to Australia by air freight, and then dumping them into AusPost. This is why shipping to Australia of Amazon fulfilled items is US$5 (or $7) per order + incremental weight charges (and the incremental charges are very, very reasonable).

There have been rumours of Amazon warehousing in Australia for years now.

My guess is that Amazon will concentrate on those countries that they do the most business with. Which will come down to three things: local availability of products vs Amazon US, the relative prices, and the ease of not getting charged by customs. I can definitely see where the UK qualifies. And we all know that we are all tired of paying the Australia tax...

My guess is that many countries, while good Amazon customers, don't have the overall business level to support special attention from Amazon, at this point.
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