Amazon: the mystery of international shipping

[BarryK]

I first noticed this mystery about a month ago. I purchased a SOL Escape bivy from amazon.com, one of those survival bivys with reflective inner coating.

I bookmarked the Escape-bivy-page in my browser.

A couple of days after purchasing, I went back to that bookmarked page, and it stated "this product does not ship to Swan View Australia". Whereas, previously it had stated that it does.

I did a search for other vendors selling the SOL Escape bivy through, Amazon, none of them ship to Australia. I put that down as weird.

Then yesterday, it happened again.

I was looking at bivy tents, these are tents that are double-skin, a bit more than just a bivy. I was paying attention to whether it stated that the product ships to Australia. Note, you have to be logged-in to Amazon to get this information.

I found the Catoma Adventure Shelters Raider bivy tent:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AHSRM1A

It stated that it does ship to Australia. I bookmarked the page. Next day, went to that bookmark, and it stated that it does NOT ship to Australia.
I hunted all over amazon.com, could not find it anywhere shipping to Australia.

Then I stumbled across this site:
https://shoppie.com.au/product/view/B00AHSRM1A

...followed the link back to Amazon, hey presto, now it ships to Australia.

I placed an order straight away. That was yesterday, Amazon have already shipped it. Got to hand it to them, very fast delivery, my experience from years of buying from Amazon.

Here is a link to beware:
http://www.amazon.com/Catoma-Adventure-Shelters-MMI-Outdoor/dp/B018RRD7JI

...apart from it not shipping to Australia, they are trying to sell it for twice the price. I also found one vendor in Australia trying to sell it for over AU$700. There are always people who will try and rip us off (I have paid AU$312 to Amazon, including shipping).

Anyway, I thought you guys would like to know about my experience of going through shoppie.com.au.

[Gadgetgeek]

Hurray for distributor embargoes, and Amazon algorithms. It shocks me still that in general Aussie retailers haven't figured out how important a web presence is. They are willing to leave a competitive advantage on the table.

[wildbird]

I have similar experience, I have purchased a pair of boots from Amazon and it's delivered to my door by Amazon no problem. 2 days later when my friend want to get one the Amazon page clearly said no shipping to Australia. Thanks BarryK the shoppie thing looks nice

[GPSGuided]

I'm sure Amazon US and its retailers are keen to do the business but have to satisfy our local importers, so an imperfect system.

[Walk_fat boy_walk]

Some brands/items are incredibly frustrating. I (like many I assume) use https://www.myus.com/ or similar, but it isn't cheap.

[Franco]

Some brands/items are incredibly frustrating.
I am pretty sure that importers and retailer find it frustrating having the Australian cost of doing business yet having to compete with US prices.

[GPSGuided]

With all the free trade agreement around, the ultimate aim is to pull everyone in line in terms of 'cost of business'. We here in Australia will clearly have a hard time adjusting but it's unavoidable.

[icefest]

Some brands/items are incredibly frustrating.
I am pretty sure that importers and retailer find it frustrating having the Australian cost of doing business yet having to compete with US prices.

Don't want to start a flame war but a :

223.29 AUD converted = 168 AUD cost of doing business in AU
41% markup for AU


and

321 AUD converted = 168$ cost of Aussie business
34% markup for AU


And that's including US VAT

[Gadgetgeek]

As long as cascade runs under a one importer cartel, it hurts them. At the end of the day, I'll pay for service, and I have no problem paying a bit on conversion knowing that I can get a product. From everything I've seen, very few aussie companies try to compete, most just whine. the ones that do, provide awesome service. A few more of Simon around and we would have a great market.

[Franco]

As I have mentioned many times, I don't understand why with so many, apparently, very obvious ways to make money not more people here take the opportunity to start their own outdoor retail business.

[Walk_fat boy_walk]

..... I have no problem paying a bit on conversion knowing that I can get a product.

Yeh I'm very much in that camp. I have no problem paying more to a local supplier/manufacturer. The problem occurs if I want to buy, say, item X made by brand Y, and brand Y's international sellers are subject to embargo on selling that brand to Australia (or elsewhere), but the local supplier only stocks a subset of brand Y's line which doesn't include item X. I'm happy to pay the extra to get item X from an Aus retailer but if none of them stock it I shouldn't be expected to settle for a substitute item just so I can get it locally. The only other option is to purchase item X from a US retailer and send to a US forwarding address using a service like MyUS, which as I said before, adds a premium to the transaction. So for me it's not about cost it's about availability.

This isn't an issue for a) the really 'big' mass-market brands, as they are freely available in Australia; or b) the cottage-manufactured stuff, as those guys quite happily ship to all parts of the globe. It's more the brand-name stuff that isn't that well established in Australia that are subject to international shipping restrictions.

[icefest]

As I have mentioned many times, I don't understand why with so many, apparently, very obvious ways to make money not more people here take the opportunity to start their own outdoor retail business.

As touched on by walk fat boy walk, the issue is with some ones that have import restrictions and are only supplied by one single importer. This cannot be fixed by starting a new retail business, because the increased prices are encouraged by the manufacturer - and there is no way to avoid it.

There are many manufacturers where prices here are good enough not to bother with parallel importing. Tarptent, macpac, patagonia on sale, zebralights, black diamond rock climbing gear from climbinganchors.com.au

Example:
Black Diamond and Thermarest have very similar niche markets - high tech, low volume, high price. If one of them can be sold at the same price here and the other requires a 34% markup there must me something fishy going on.

in the US : 75USD (105 AUD) http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBF41O/ref ... UTF8&psc=1
In AU : 95AUD http://www.climbinganchors.com.au/produ ... malots-2-0

[photohiker]

Yep, I'll buy locally if I can, but when the local price is so far above overseas pricing there is a limit to my generosity.

Those overseas prices are still retail, not wholesale. I grant that retailers will cut margins to the bone, but I also wonder if some local retailers bring stock in via the parallel market to pick up better margins by selling at local retail price. I wouldn't blame them.

IMHO the fault here is not the retailers, it's the importers and their fat margins...

[Eljimberino]

We should all get organised and do group buys from cottage companies.

[GPSGuided]

We should all get organised and do group buys from cottage companies.

Far easier if all are located at the same locality.