Amazon is ready for Australia

Amazon is ready for Australia.

On Monday, 500 merchants will gather in Sydney to hear from the company’s Australia manager, Rocco Braeuniger, and head of seller services for Australia, Fabio Bertola, on how the whole platform will work.

Separately, Business Insider understands from a reliable source that the Amazon Australia platform is ready to deploy.

The timing of the merchant event and the news that the Amazon system is ready in Australia all points to what has been widely expected: that the retail giant will be operational in Australia in time for Christmas.

While Amazon.com.au website has operated for years, it has been only an online shopfront that the US parent company sells books through. However, Business Insider confirmed in April that Amazon was setting up a full-scale operation in Australia.

A month ago, Amazon already claimed 500 Australian businesses had signed up to sell through its third-party marketplace. This week the first of those businesses, shoes retailer Style Tread and Costumes.com.au, publicly declared they were registered and preparing to sell through the US giant’s local arm.

Amazon will host hundreds of Australian merchants at a sell-out Marketplace Summit in Sydney on Monday where the senior leadership will outline the operation to sellers.

Of particular interest will be the commission, or “clip”, that Amazon will take from Australian merchants who sell their products through the platform. While it may mean some sellers’ margins are reduced on individual products, the ability to reach the vast Amazon customer base presents a compelling proposition.

Queensland tech startup KoalaSafe was already selling on Amazon in the US, and its co-founder Adam Mills will share his experience with other Australian businesses at the Sydney summit next week.

“For those who are selling physical products, Amazon provides a great opportunity to get these products in front of customers and we encourage businesses to take full advantage,” Mills said when the summit was announced.