This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
US retail behemoth Amazon has confirmed the worst kept secret in Australia, that it is setting up shop down under.
Amazon is believed to have secured a new purpose-built warehouse at the Goodman Group’s $50 million Oakdale Industrial Estate in Sydney’s Eastern Creek.
Amazon has already hired 1,000 people ahead of its entry after going on a recruitment drive.
In a brief statement, the retail giant said, “Amazon Web Services launched an Australian region in 2012, we launched a Kindle Store on Amazon.com.au in 2013, and we now have almost 1,000 employees in the country.
“The next step is to bring a retail offering to Australia, and we are making those plans now,”
Local retailers are already bracing for the impact of Amazon.
Retail king Gerry Harvey is against Amazon coming into Australia.
Last month, the billionaire and Harvey Norman founder called on the federal government to block Amazon because it would send local businesses broke and he labelled Amazon a tax evader.
“They’re the world’s greatest tax evader.
“They’re the world’s greatest ‘I’ll send everyone broke, so that I can be a big shot’
“They have got a reputation that is absolutely terrible!” Harvey said.
Location IQ director, Greg Malempre said Amazon would shake up the local retail scene.
Speaking at the Australian Property Institute’s Sydney Property Market Outlook event last month, Malempre said currently Amazon is estimated to sell between $500 million to $750 million of goods into Australia via their websites.
To put into perspective of the opportunity that Australia presents for Amazon, Malempre said at the moment, online retail sales in Australia currently tally around $22 billion online, of which 20% or $4 billion is to overseas retailers and 80% of the trade is to domestic retailers.
“Of that $4 billion, Amazon accounts for $500-$750 million.
“It is predicted by Citigroup, that the forecast for Amazon if they came to Australia – could do sales of $4 billion within five years,” Malempre said. “So that is four Westfield Bondi Junctions,”
Australian Property Journal
