Amazon's Australian expansion has continued with the announcement of a new fulfilment centre in Perth, offering a spate of new products, subscription services and discount features to capture Australia consumers.
The facility, located in the Perth Airport Business Precinct, will be Amazon’s third warehouse in Australia set to commence operations in late 2019.
The world's largest internet company broke into the Australian retail market in late 2017, and has been disrupting traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers ever since; offering customers 125 million products across 29 different categories powered by its last-mile delivery capacity.
Its first fulfilment centre was located at Dandenong South in Melbourne followed by a second fulfilment centre, located at Moorebank in Sydney midway through 2018.
Amazon Australia director of operations Craig Fuller said the decision to solidify the company's presence in Western Australia was due to a steady and progressive increase in customer demand.
“This new facility builds on the capabilities of our first two fulfilment centres in Melbourne and Sydney, allowing us to continue to fulfil our commitment to fast and reliable deliveries for customers across the country.
“We strongly believe that this further investment will benefit both customers and the local economy and give Western Australian customers quicker delivery of high demand items.”
Amazon's fledgling year on Australian shores proved a slow one, with many consumers left underwhelmed by the limited product range available on its much-hyped Australian website.
The company controversially decided to block Australian customers from shopping on its international websites—sidestepping new GST laws.
The online retailer offers same-day delivery to customers in eligible post codes in Sydney and Melbourne for a membership cost of $6.99 per month.
Amazon has already managed to capture a 3 per cent share of the Australian e-commerce market, according to Chicago-based investment research firm Morningstar, but has some catching up to do to reach the heights of eBay's 22 per cent share.
Amazon's market value on the New York stock exchange is currently US$933 billion after briefly cracking the $US1 trillion mark in September of last year.
Outside Australia, the e-commerce retailer has also launched in China, Japan, Singapore, India, Brazil, and Europe.
The online juggernaut has also been putting the squeeze on Australian retailers launching a discounted subscription service, Subscribe & Save, for regularly bought goods such as pet food, toilet paper and nappies.
The move aims to undercut leading supermarkets such as Woolworths and Coles on price by as much as 50 per cent.
