Advice for launching into AU market

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Forums › Startups › Advice for launching into AU market

Sancho

119 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#128869 26-Aug-2013 17:06

Hi All, (hoping this is OK to post here)

We have a fairly well established small e-commerce website that enjoys decent google rankings and does OK with NZ sales (could always be better :) )

Over the last 2 years we field an email or 2 a month from Australian customers wanting us to ship over there. I have done some research and we are extremely competitively priced for the AU market before even taking into account the exchange rate.

Now I have done a little research but find it all a bit confusing really. Has anyone much experience in this area?

As far as I can tell I'd need

An AU bank acct

Possibly an AU registered business (is this possible without being a citizen)

An Au domain name and an AU hosted website

Ideally duplicating our own website would be the easiest way but then surely google will see this as a duplicated site and punish them both, or will having the different domain extensions of co.nz and .com.au get around this?

Am I on the right track or miles away?

Obviously once I have this side of sorted, to see if it's even viable I have the whole logistics side of it to consider, it may be worth simply having stock in AU and using a storage/shipping company to send the orders out.

Any advice is hugely appreciated. Happy to call anyone if you know the answers but can't be bothered typing a novel in reply :)

Mark

Camera accessories? www.camera-shop.co.nz | Studio Lighting? www.studio-lighting.co.nz | Photos? www.markbennett.co.nz

RunningMan

9184 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4834

#884876 26-Aug-2013 17:39

http://www.business.govt.nz/support-and-advice/advice-mentoring/for-exporters

Sancho

119 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#884879 26-Aug-2013 17:49

Was more after the AU side of things...

Camera accessories? www.camera-shop.co.nz | Studio Lighting? www.studio-lighting.co.nz | Photos? www.markbennett.co.nz

Publius

276 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 27

#884913 26-Aug-2013 18:45

If you're happy to keep your existing website and sell to Australians from that, then theres nothing more to do than just take their money and ship them stuff.
Obviously shipping goods from NZ to AU is going to cost a bit more for the customer, and you'll have to sell them at a gst-excluded price which your accounting software will need to deal with.

You can register a company in any country in the world (pretty much) as a "foreign company". Plenty of info on the AU govt website around this, but if you're just taking money via credit card I wouldn't see any reason to register in AU.

With most of our banks owned by AU banks your NZ bank can probably help you start an AU bank account without forming a AU company and without visiting AU.

old3eyes

9158 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1364

Subscriber

#884917 26-Aug-2013 18:58

Publius: If you're happy to keep your existing website and sell to Australians from that, then theres nothing more to do than just take their money and ship them stuff.
Obviously shipping goods from NZ to AU is going to cost a bit more for the customer, and you'll have to sell them at a gst-excluded price which your accounting software will need to deal with.

You can register a company in any country in the world (pretty much) as a "foreign company". Plenty of info on the AU govt website around this, but if you're just taking money via credit card I wouldn't see any reason to register in AU.

With most of our banks owned by AU banks your NZ bank can probably help you start an AU bank account without forming a AU company and without visiting AU.

Not from what people I've met have said about Ozzy banks. (Wespac and ANZ) They treat their NZ operations as a different bank and no favors given even if you have had a good NZ bank record in NZ for years..

Regards,

Old3eyes

Publius

276 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 27

#884924 26-Aug-2013 19:02

old3eyes:
Publius: If you're happy to keep your existing website and sell to Australians from that, then theres nothing more to do than just take their money and ship them stuff.
Obviously shipping goods from NZ to AU is going to cost a bit more for the customer, and you'll have to sell them at a gst-excluded price which your accounting software will need to deal with.

You can register a company in any country in the world (pretty much) as a "foreign company". Plenty of info on the AU govt website around this, but if you're just taking money via credit card I wouldn't see any reason to register in AU.

With most of our banks owned by AU banks your NZ bank can probably help you start an AU bank account without forming a AU company and without visiting AU.

Not from what people I've met have said about Ozzy banks. (Wespac and ANZ) They treat their NZ operations as a different bank and no favors given even if you have had a good NZ bank record in NZ for years..

If your sales are via credit card you can always charge them in AUD.