E-commerce giant Amazon has launched its fulfilment service in Australia today.

The thousands of businesses registered to sell on Amazon’s Australian marketplace will be able to access Fulfilment By Amazon (FBA) service and use the company’s logistics capabilities.

“Size doesn’t matter in the digital economy and Amazon marketplace helps to level the playing field when it comes to starting or growing a business,” said Amit Mahto, head of FBA in Australia.

“We are focused on helping Australian businesses of all sizes succeed by inventing on their behalf and making our technology available to them and FBA is a fantastic example of this.”

The service operates by allowing businesses to send the products they wish to ship through FBA to Amazon’s fulfilment centre and when a customer places an order, Amazon will pick, pack and ship the product on behalf of the business, while Amazon said the service handles also handles customer returns.

“With the help of FBA, we’ve been able to enter countries including the US and the UK, which we could have never done on our own,” said Kevin Lippy, founder of the Sydney-based baby brand Hip Cub. “Fulfilment by Amazon really changed the game for us, and we’re thrilled it is now launching in Australia. FBA has allowed us to concentrate on the things we’re good at such as digital marketing and product development, leaving the logistics such as packing and delivery to Amazon.”

Amazon said with its Prime offering set to launch in mid-2018, all FBA orders will also be eligible for the Prime shipping benefits.

In 2017, more than 140,000 small and medium-sized businesses surpassed $100,000 in sales on Amazon.

Globally, approximately 50 per cent of Amazon’s total units sold come from marketplace sellers.

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