Hot on the heels of the establishment of a book printing and fulfillment operation close to its massive Western Sydney warehouse, Amazon is expected to add localised signs and banners to its printed offerings. The e-commerce behemoth with global sales approaching half-a-trillion dollars, is in the process of creating up to 2,000 new jobs at Kemp's Creek, close to the site of Sydney's future airport at Badgery's Creek. Andy McCourt goes up the Amazon and finds we're not headed up the Swanee.
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| Get yourself Amazoned so you don't find yourself up the Creek |
Like the first rule in Douglas Adams' book 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' (available on Amazon for $15.54) - Don't Panic!
If Amazon follows it's US Sign & Print model, the offerings will mostly consist of generic high-use signs such as 'Happy Birthday' - 'Sale Now on' etcetera. You can see examples here.
Amazon is not going to eat your lunch - or you, like the Pirhanas of the eponymous S. American river. Its primary purpose in life and e-commerce is to be obsessed by looking after customers and be the fastest fulfillment force in the West. And East. And outer space.
Speaking of space, the new robot-populated (as well as people to oil the robots and test out water coolers) warehouse about to open at Kemp's Creek, is around 200,000 square metres. In this age of neologistic units of measurement, that's around two 'Bondeaches' - Bondi beaches, or twenty-four 'Leafiels' - Rugby League fields. I should like to express it in the maritime 'Sidarb' units - the amount of water in Sydney Harbour, but conversion to volumetric escapes me.
Suffice to say, it is flamin' huge.
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| Generic haircuts - USD$22.99 on Amazon |
It's all about fulfillment. People order stuff online and literally at the speed of light, the order arrives at Amazon's warehouse for picking, packing and delivery. Now, they can do that with stock signage too. It remains unclear if custom signage will be offered but if the book printing model is followed, it will be template-driven bog standard yard signs, flags, banners, corflutes etc.
Perhaps the custom signs will be left to Amazon's reseller community, where like e-Bay, you sign up and sell via its platform and a commission is taken from the sale. This is an example 'Sold by Signs Authority and fulfilled by Amazon'
Currently, Amazon's idea of customised banners is to supply edge-roped and grommeted blank white canvas on which you can 'paint or apply your own text' and 'personalised' template signs. True custom signs are left to resellers such as ABG signs here.
So, any sign supplier can sell on Amazon too - and probably should if you have a unique or innovative product and service.
Amazon is being very good to the Australian economy and employment - it also has a fulfillment centre in Brisbane and may open smaller satellite FCs all over the place. In the USA, Amazon is that country's largest corporate investor - in 2020 at least.
Amazon is already printing its own T-Shirts and face masks (and owns a slice of Kornit Digital) and yet the independant DTG market is still blossoming - and selling on Amazon's platforms. I see no reason why this can not be the case with Signs & Banners too.
Andy McCourt
