Amazon has officially launched its operations in Australia, the online shopping giant announced on Tuesday.
The company was already selling one category of its retail goods, including Kindle e-reader devices and audio books, from its Australian website and conducted a soft launch in Australia late last month.
From Tuesday Amazon will offer its full service to the market Down Under, featuring its own products and items sold by local retailers.
The world's largest internet retailer said on Tuesday in a statement that it would be offering "millions" of products.
The company has set up a 24,000-square-metre logistics warehouse in Dandenong South, just outside Melbourne, in the southern state of Victoria.
"Over time, we will create thousands of new jobs and invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Australia," Rocco Braeuniger, country manager of Amazon Australia, said.
The company said it has also launched Amazon Prime Video, a Netflix-like movie and television streaming service, in Australia, but the Prime shipping benefits will be available only in mid-2018.
While Australian consumers are likely to benefit from the online behemoth's low prices and fast deliveries, market experts say local retailers, like David Jones, Myer, Harvey Norman and JB HiFi, are certain to come under pressure.
According to analyst firm Nielsen, Amazon's US website was already the second most popular retail website in Australia, with 4.6 million visitors in October, compared with 6.7 million for Woolworths, the top online retailer in the country.
The Australia Amazon site shows deliveries have started.
