Meet the Australian resellers selling switches, Macs and more on Amazon Marketplace

A handful of local Australian resellers have already listed products for sale following the launch of Amazon marketplace in Australia last week.

Bundaberg's Queensland Computers made the decision to list its dedicated online Apple reseller business, iFrog, on Amazon Marketplace at launch.

Owner Geoff Augutis told CRN that the reason for listing on Amazon came down to a simple adage: "If you can't beat them, join them".

"Our brick-and-mortar business is going to make less and less over the years, so we have to get onboard now," he added.

Queensland Computers, which ranked No. 34 in this year's CRN Fast50, also sells products on Ebay, as well as its own online store. Augutis said there was a drastic difference between selling on Ebay and Amazon, mainly the increased level of support from Amazon's local representatives.

Another advantage for Amazon, according to Augutis, is that the marketplace requires Apple resellers to prove they are authorised resellers before listing products, which Augutis hopes will help combat grey imports of popular consumer products.

Margins on Apple products are already notoriously tight, and Augutis said there would be no point selling iPhones on Amazon, opting to sell Macbooks and iPads instead, which he said had enough margin to support Queensland Computer's revenue.

Queesland Computers' iFrog marketplace store is selling a 13-inch Macbook Pro 13-inch with a 2.3Ghz i5 chip, 8GB RAM and 128GB storage for $1,828.74.

An 128GB iPad with wi-fi and cellular costs $769.44.

Amazon allows sellers to set their own price for products, while taking a percentage on sales based on the product, which ranges anywhere between 6 and 15 percent.

As an indicator, Australian tech company KoalaSafe told CRN that the company paid an 8 percent commission fee for selling its child-safe wireless routers on Amazon.

Another seller with its own online store is Harris Technology, which is both a reseller and distributor through its Anyware brand. Chief executive Garrison Huang told shareholders last month that the company worked with its key vendor partners to go live on Amazon once it launched as part of its new strategy.

"Amazon is going to help our business because it provides a very strong platform from which we can sell all of our products either via our resellers or via vendor dedicated stores," chief executive Garrison Huang told shareholders.

Harris has a wide range of products up for sale, stretching not just consumer products like HP and Lenovo laptops, but commercial SKUs as well. Other products on offer include Cisco and Netgear switches, Synology NAS drives, PC components and printers.

Harris' range on Amazon includes a 2.1Ghz HP ProLiant server for $1894, a four-bay Synology NAS drive with 4GB RAM for $875 and the Mac edition of Microsoft Office Home for $210.

Gaming resellers have flocked to Amazon Marketplace, including Perth Computers & Office Supplies, which is selling a range of Corsair, Gigabyte and G.Skill products.

The Amazon marketplace of online reseller PC Byte is selling Corsair, SanDisk and WD products, including a SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB memory card for $125.95.

A handful of dedicated printer resellers have also set up shop on Amazon, including Cartridgestore, Toner Bee and Inkjet Wholesale.

Another company selling printers is Warehouse1, which also sells Linksys routers, Seagate hard-drives, Lenovo laptops LG monitors and Lexmark printers.