It’s the start of a new month, so, what new developments have there been?  

1. Amazon invests AUD$7 million to further Australian expansion plans

Earlier this year, Amazon announced an AUD$490 million investment package to expand its service provision in Australia.  The aim of this investment package was to open two new Amazon fulfilment centres by 2026 to support its regional operations in the country. 

Amazon’s announcement stated that the expansion plans would ‘[contribute] to the company’s efforts to deliver a smarter, faster and more consistent experience for customers in Sydney around Australia… [expanding] the capacity available to the Australian sellers who use Fulfilment by Amazon, enabling those with larger items to more seamlessly service customers around the country’. 

The expansion plans are estimated to create up to 1,000 permanent jobs across the two fulfilment centres, and an additional 3,000 jobs during the construction process. 

In a further boost to its expansion plans, Amazon recently invested another AUD$7 million to open a new logistics centre in Ravenhall, Victoria, to support existing fulfilment centres.   

This will further cement its commitment to the Australian market as the new site marks the 13^th logistics centre in the country, which are intended to support existing fulfilment centres.  Amazon logistics centres are designed to receive inventory from fulfilment centres for last-mile shipping. 

Amazon Australia’s Director of Operations Sandra McNeil commented that ‘the Ravenhall logistics site enables us to grow our contribution to the local economy through the creation of jobs and flexible earning opportunities and we look forward to building on our strong relationship with the local community’. 

2. Details of HMRC e-invoicing consultation to be announced

On the 30^th October, the new Labour government is set to announce its first Autumn Budget, which will set the United Kingdom’s fiscal policy for the next financial year.

The Autumn Budget is expected to contain further details relating to a package of reforms previously announced on the 23^rd September. 

Within the package of reforms, HRMC is expected to launch a consultation on the introduction of electronic invoicing (‘e-invoicing’), and promote its wider use across both UK businesses and governmental departments.

The UK government’s announcement states that ‘…the introduction of e-invoicing can significantly reduce administrative tasks, improve cash flow, boost productivity, introduce automation, and reduce errors in tax returns – all helping to close the tax gap. The consultation will gather input from businesses on how HMRC can support investment in and encourage e-invoicing uptake’. 

Further details regarding the consultation are expected to be announced during the Autumn Budget statement.

The consultation may also be intended to support the future publication of a new Digital Transformation Roadmap – this is currently planned for Spring 2025, and will replace the previous roadmap.  The push towards e-invoicing comes as the European Union Commission has also continued to pursue internal discussions between Member States over its VAT in the Digital Age (VIDA) proposals, which also aims to digitalise VAT compliance measures including invoicing.

3. Is your business ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

The 2024 Amazon Black Friday and Cyber Monday year-end holiday shopping season is about to begin! The Black Friday promotions will kick off on the 22^nd November (Friday) and continue until the 4^th December. 

Black Friday traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season in the United States – many stores will offer discounts on a wide variety of products.  In more recent years, other countries have also embraced the event as a promotional period for sales.  Cyber Monday was coined to describe discounted e-commerce sales that continued to take place after the Black Friday weekend.  

Compared to previous years, Amazon’s sale period has been significantly extended, offering nearly two full weeks of promotion, fully unleashing consumer purchasing power and giving sellers a longer sales window. 

As a result of the extended promotion period, sellers are likely to face severe challenges in managing their operations.

One of the first major impacts is likely to be stock management issues – insufficient stock may lead to sellers not being able to fully participate in the promotional period, whilst overstocking may result in excess unsold inventory after the promotions are ended.   Sellers must be able to estimate their anticipated demand during the promotional period.

Additionally, it may be difficult for sellers to assess their advertising spending and return on investment (ROI), as it is no longer possible to rely solely on advertising during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  Sellers should ensure that they have adequate investments in advertising campaigns to ensure an optimum ROI during the sale period.

Many tax and compliance solution providers such as TBA Global are ready to offer extensive support in anticipation of the upcoming promotional period.  Is your business ready to take advantage?