Amazon expands national operations ahead of peak holiday period

Amazon Australia has this year significantly invested in and expanded its operations network to enable a seamless, faster and reliable shopping experience for customers across the country.

Over the last few months, the company has further bolstered its infrastructure with a new Fulfilment Centre and new Amazon Logistics sites.

Amazon Australia has expanded its fulfillment network in Australia in 2021, with the launch of its second Melbourne fulfilment centre in August. This increased its storage capacity by 60% and increasing the available storage space available for the small and medium size Australian business, who use Fulfilment by Amazon to seamlessly service customers around Australia.

The company now has over 3.86 million cubic feet of storage space and the addition of the new site has doubled Amazon’s capacity for larger items, ranging from cases of soft drink and beer, air fryers to electronics like computer monitors and sound bars, across its fulfilment network. 

Delivery network strengthened

Amazon has strengthened its delivery network in Australia with the launch of Amazon Logistics sites and its last mile delivery service Amazon Flex in three new cities: Newcastle, the Gold Coast and Adelaide.

With 14 Amazon Logistics sites around Australia, providing more than 18 million Australians with access to an enhanced delivery experience, including faster delivery, delivery on evenings and weekends, and reattempted deliveries for customers when they are not home. 

Additionally, the company now works with more than 2000 Amazon Flex delivery partners in seven Australian cities, providing flexible earning opportunities to interested individuals who deliver Amazon packages to customers. 

Parcel pick up network expanded

Recent research commissioned by Amazon Australia revealed that one in two Australians have taken advantage of parcel pick up as an alternative delivery location.

Amazon has expanded its parcel pick up network of Lockers and Counters, adding more than 300 new locations around Australia in the last year, to give customers more choice and control on where and when their parcels can be collected. There are now more than 800 Amazon Lockers and Counters nationally, located in cities and towns all over Australia including Townsville in Queensland, Happy Valley in South Australia and Barragup in Western Australia. They are located at convenient locations including shopping centres, banks, petrol stations and newsagents proving customers with a safe and secure alternative delivery location. 

Amazon has also announced an extended returns window for the holiday season with most of the items purchased between 1 October and 31 December able to be returned until 31 January 2022. 

Amazon Australia’s Director of Operations Craig Fuller says, “Our continued investments in infrastructure across our fulfilment and delivery network enables us to support our Australian customers more effectively during the festive season, and beyond. We are currently well placed to meet customer demand during the holiday season and are expanding our workforce and delivery network to help us fulfill customer orders during that time. 

“We remain committed towards investing in Australia and enabling our sellers to reach customers, while creating local jobs. As always, we encourage customers to shop early and take advantage of great offers over Black Friday / Cyber Monday and we will have plenty of gifting options available for the holidays as we work hard to provide customers with a seamless, fast and reliable experience.”

Amazon.com.au launched in Australia in December 2017 and now operates five fulfilment centres and 14 logistics sites around the country. Amazon offers 125 million products across 31 different categories on amazon.com.au, including Amazon devices. Amazon Australia has launched a number of products and services that help Australian businesses reach local customers, including Fulfilment by Amazon, Global Store, Prime, Shop Local and Amazon Launchpad programs.