Amazon’s mammoth warehouse paves way for free next-day delivery

A mammoth automated warehouse in western Sydney, the biggest in Australia, is enabling small and medium sized enterprises to grow their businesses through faster delivery promises.

Merchants across Australia are now able to offer free next-day delivery to consumers in Sydney and Melbourne thanks in large part to the new robotic fulfilment centre, which opened in April.

At 200,000 sq m, the warehouse, the largest in the country, employs 1100 new full-time workers, and is the only one of Amazon’s six Australian warehouses to be automated.

“That’s a huge part of the equation here, to have the storage space, but also then to have great locations that can access the Australian customer,” Amazon Australia country manager Janet Menzies told AAP.

The program means sellers store their products in Amazon’s fulfilment warehouses, empowering them to make fantastic delivery promises, Menzies said.

“If you think about it – if you’re an Australian small business, the idea that you could offer next-day delivery probably wasn’t something that you imagined you’d be able to do just five years ago,” she said.

“For a lot of our sellers, we know that’s going to help them grow.”

Denise Billsborough, owner of Sunshine Coast-based baby products company Little Archer & Co, has been using the Amazon’s fulfilment program since 2018 and calls it incredibly convenient.

All her products are sent directly from the manufacturer to Amazon, which handles shipping. She’s used the program to expand into the UAE and Singapore, with her first shipment soon arriving in the United Kingdom.

“I do get emails from customers saying, ‘can this be delivered tomorrow? We need it for a baby shower,'” Billsborough said.

“Or it might be a new mum, and they need nursing pads or something, and they want it quick. So I think it will really help those customers.”

Sydney and Melbourne customers can receive goods the next day with the right package.

with news from AAP