Amazon's Boxing Day sales in Australia were a glimpse of the fierce competition retailers could face in 2018

Shots fired!

Amazon Australia’s launch was variously reported as underwhelming and a non-event after the first day of trading in late November.

You’d think it’s customary to assess business success or failure over a slightly longer period than 24 hours – especially when it’s a global business with net revenue exceeding US$135 billion – though apparently not in this case!

On Boxing Day, Amazon fired a few tasty shots in the direction of the traditional retailers by offering discounts on a wide range of goods.

A quick look at some of the Amazon “top picks” throws up an Acer desktop at under $1,100, with free delivery on eligible orders…

A Lego jungle play set at $119 with free delivery, under-cutting the competition by up to a quarter…

A beard trimmer at $85 with free delivery (ditto)…

…and so on, and so forth.

There were also substantial discounts offered by Amazon on books, clothing, music, DVDs, and other items.

Amazon may or may not capture up to a tenth of Boxing Day’s $2.5 billion or so dollars of retail turnover, but the really interesting thing to see will be whether there is evidence of widespread industry discounting.

A look at major retail lines for laptops, shavers, and a range of household goods suggests that the answer may prove to be a resounding yes in 2018.

As Chris Weston of IG once said, dance near the exit when the disco’s on fire.

Retail deflation: it’s on.

This article was originally published on Pete Wargent’s blog, and was republished here with permission.

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