OZ Consumers To Get Access To Millions Of Amazon SKU’s
If any Australian retailer does not believe that Amazon will be a threat to their business when they launch in Australia, they should try spending a few weeks in the USA talking to retailers, where stores are being closed as big brand retailers restructure their business to compete with the giant online retailer who carries millions of SKU’s as opposed to the tens of thousands of SKU’s carried by Australian retailers,
Amazon as of late last year, carried 12.8+ million products directly.
This exclude Books, Media, Wine, and Services.
If one adds in marketplace sellers the amount of SKU’s carried by Amazon increases almost 30X to a total of 353,710,754 products.
Of the overall products, available both directly and via their marketplace the breakdown is as follows according to Walmart executives that ChannelNews has spoken to as well as 360pi’s Research.
Phones & Accessories: 82,039,731 products
Home & Kitchen: 64,274,875 products
Clothing, Shoes & Jewellery: 33,422,437 products (including categories for Men, Women, Girls, Boys and Baby)
Electronics: 31,604,887 products
Sports & Outdoors: 23,997,293 products.
See chart below:
360pi also tracked year-over-year changes in product count in several categories of interest, detailing shifts in assortment Between May 2015 to May 2016, Amazon increased its own product count in Clothing, Shoes & Jewellery by 83%, while marketplace sellers in this category also grew the number of products offered by 84% – confirming the reasons why Amazon is projected to soon surpass Macy’s as the #1 U.S. clothing retailer.
Retailers such as Sears, Target and Walmart along with over 50 other mainstream US retailers are now working directly with 4Square Media partner Webcollage the US based content delivery Company to expand the amount of information made available to consumers visiting a retailer’s web site.
At the same time, key Webcollage partner Wal-Mart Stores, has moved to is overhaul its e-commerce operation. The giant retailer is currently expanding their SKU’s from 15 Million to 50 million.
They have also acquired Jet.com a business, they will use to challenge Amazon.com by delivering more selection and lower prices.
The changes are meant to make Wal-Mart more “customer-centric,” Jet founder Marc Lore, who is now CEO of Wal-Mart’s e-commerce operation, said last week.
Wal-Mart bought Jet in September for about US$3.3 billion, senior executives told ChannelNews at CES that Walmart’s online operation has lagged Amazon and that by using a combination of Webcollage technology and that delivered by Jet they believe they can become a key challenger brand to Amazon who charge vendors for content appearing on Amazon.com.
Currently 688,690 unique brands sell via Amazon Marketplace which will be opened to the Australian marketplace.
This marketplace accounts for 50% of all units sold globally through Amazon, according to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Of the total number 4,490 brands have more than 5,000 listed products. Many of these Companies are now selling directly to Australian retailers.
A senior Best Buy executive said that the arrival of Amazon in Australia will put “enormous” pressure on retailers.
“Retailers who believe that they have a unique advantage in that they can offer consumers the ability to order online and then pick up a product in a store within an hour will suddenly find that they have to stock more products instore, this impacts floor space and cashflow. At the same time, Amazon is shipping to a box or location near to a store to compete”.
Marc Lore said “Our strategy is about offering more choice, competitive prices — particularly on food and consumables — and operating on the strength of the world’s most efficient e-commerce supply chain.”
He said that the largest retailer in the USA, is streamlining its web team so that it can serve customers whether they shop online, via smartphones or in stores.
