Amazon's American store will not be the only overseas e-commerce company to stop selling its products to Australia. Some of Australia's most popular overseas shopping sites may also be pulled out of Australia like Amazon.
From ASOS to Net-A-Porter, from eBay to Etsy, from July 1, every overseas company has to charge Australian shoppers 10 percent of GST, instead of taxes on items that are more than 1000 yuan.
While the federal government forecasts that the tax will generate an additional 300 million yuan a year for government, retail experts warn that it will also expose Australian shoppers to soaring commodity prices and a limited number of items they can buy.
News Corp's survey of more than 40 of Australia's most popular online stores found that some retailers plan to withdraw from Australia after tax reform, while others are uncertain how to continue to sell to local shoppers.
A spokesman for the U.S. department store Nordstrom confirmed that the company's main store items would continue to be sold and shipped to Australia, but cheaper items at Nordstrom Rack and HauteLook stores would close access to online shopping for Australian buyers.
Amazon U.S. and UK stores said last month that they would stop shipping goods to Australia as a result of GST law reform in Australia.
Amazon will provide a very limited range of items for Australian shoppers. Yohan Ramasundara, president of the Australian computer Society, criticized the move, saying "Australian consumers are second-class citizens."
Other big ecommerce companies are not quite sure why this reform means.
A spokesman for Adorama, the online camera store, said they had not received any information about the matter. The store hopes to continue shipping goods to Australia, where sales taxes are levied only on orders sent to New York or New Jersey.
A representative of Net-A-Porter, a fashion store, said the company had not yet identified tough and brittle measures for tax reform in Australia.
The examples show that businesses and consumers may be surprised in the coming months, says Thomas O 'Connor, a Gartner analyst. O 'Connor predicts that some of the commodities ordered overseas may be held in customs for a longer period of time, as the authorities also want to confirm whether the goods have been paid or not.
"there are still a lot of companies who don't quite understand this reform. There are many retailers who think they can still deliver goods to Australia without GST. Australian consumers' goods will not be as easy as they used to be in customs clearance. Some consumers in Australia may be in trouble. "
Retailers close online stores to Australian consumers or reduce the number of goods sold in Australia, the O'Connor said, with negative consequences, such as higher commodity prices and lower spending by buyers.
But many of Australia's favorite stores have also confirmed that they will continue to open their doors to Australia after the tax increases, including clothing stores ASOS,Topshop,Urban Outfitters and Treadless, and Book Depository, electronics retailers Expansys and Wiggle..
Etsy has also released a new system that will automatically collect GST, on behalf of sellers, while cosmetics retailer Strawberrynet CEO Rodney Miles told News Corp that the company is willing to follow the new rules to serve more than 1 million loyal users in Australia.
Overseas e-commerce companies that continue to open their doors to Australia after July 1:
ASOS
Topshop
Topman
Marks & Spencer
Nordstrom
Urban
Outfitters
Threadless
Etsy
Book Depository
Strawberrynet
Alibaba
Expansys
Bodybuilding.com
Wiggle
RevZilla
eBay UK
eBay.com
H&M
Zara
Overseas e-commerce companies that stop opening to Australia after July 1
Nordstrom
Rack
HauteLook
Amazon US
Amazon UK
It is not certain how to deal with overseas e-commerce.
Adorama
Net-A-Porter
The Outnet
Mr Porter