Amazon’s entry into Australia has been slow but steady. For the second year running, it will run its ‘Prime Day’ in Australia.

If you are an ‘Amazon Prime Member’ in Australia you get:

  • Free & Fast delivery. In Australia this is delivery in two days but in the US, selected cities can get delivery in as little as an hour. This includes on the day items are released; no queuing, just clicking. This could be fatal for our supermarkets. ‘Fast and Free’ includes orders from the US.
  • Amazon streaming services – included whereas usually you have to pay for them (both music and video)
  • Free Kindle membership (Amazon’s e-book service) and you can download one editor’s pick for free before the official publication date.
  • Unlimited photo storage on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
  • 5% cash back on Amazon’s Visa card

In the US this costs US$13 per month. In Australia it is only $7 per month.

But the biggest benefit of all is ‘Prime Day’ where exclusive deals are available to Prime members. In recent years they also run a concert which this year will be headed by Taylor Swift.

The day is so big, last year it produced more sales than Black Friday and Cyber Money for Amazon. Compared to a normal day, sales increase over 10 times.

While the day has not come in time for the majority of Australians to receive tax refunds, we get a head start over the US where it will not start until midnight Monday their time.

What will be hot?

According to Amazon, last year the heaviest sold item in Australia was the PlayStation 4 Pro 1TB Consule with Bonus Fortnite Content.

Also celebrating its first Prime Day last year were the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Singapore. The Dutch liked the Osmart Zigbee Smart Plug and the Philips Hue White Ambiance CU10, while Luxembourg likes Jamie Oliver’s Tefal pan and the Brita water filter.

Meanwhile, Singaporeans liked Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Play-Doh Shape & Learn Shape a Story.

But as Brad Stone’s autobiography of Jeff Bezos suggested, everything will be on sale. This ranges from electric toothbrushes to nappies (176 for $31.99 – a discount of over $20 for a month’s supply).

No doubt Amazon Prime Day will be bigger than last year and lead to declarations by Amazon and perhaps commentators that they’re ‘finally here’.

Nevertheless, Prime Day will have to be substantially bigger than last year to exceed Alibaba’s Single’s Day, which returned over $30 billion in 2018.