Lifting the lid: Amazon launches tours of its warehouses
TOUR-IFFIC: AMAZON AUSTRALIA LAUNCHES LIVE INTERACTIVE TOURS
Australians can join free virtual tours showcasing Amazon’s Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane fulfilment centres from today
If you’ve ever wanted to see inside one of Amazon’s fulfilment centres, here’s your opportunity. From today, Amazon Australia will offer free live virtual tours of its fulfilment centres in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Run four days a week, each tour will give Aussies a chance to get behind the scenes at all three sites, to see how their online shopping cart gets to their doorstep.
Led by three expert onsite tour guides in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, visitors will get up close and personal with Amazon’s world class technology, meet the people who help pick, pack and ship orders around Australia, and get to see the millions of products which are stored at its fulfilment centres. Visitors are able to make their experience truly unique by asking questions and interacting live with guides.
Mindy Espidio-Garcia, the newly appointed Director of Operations at Amazon Australia, started her Amazon career working in fulfilment centres in the USA for more than 8 years before moving to Sydney earlier this year to run the Australian operation. She says tours provide Australian customers with an opportunity to learn how their orders are fulfilled and meet some of the team who make that happen.
“At Amazon, our promise is all about providing great value and fast delivery for our customers. In order to do that, we’ve hired talented employees from right across the country, and invested in the systems and technology to support them. With online shopping now a part of everyday life, this is the perfect opportunity for customers to join us for an hour to see what happens after they place their order.”
Joshua Dawe, the tour guide based at Amazon’s Sydney robotics fulfilment centre is looking forward to giving people a sneak peek behind the scenes at Amazon Australia’s biggest site, showing the diverse roles of Amazonians working collaboratively with advanced robotics technology at the site.
“I grew up in Kemps Creek and it’s been exciting to watch this robotics fulfilment centre grow into a thriving community right here in my neighborhood. I can’t wait to show people the heart of our operations as well as the people and technology such as our robotic drives, which help move the inventory around the site. It’s not every day you get to see robots in action!” says Dawe.
The virtual tours will operate four days a week. Each tour provides an inside look at the three sites in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. The free tours will run for one hour at 10:30am on Monday and Thursday, and 1:30pm on Tuesday and Friday from 15 August, 2022 and offer an interactive experience for Australians to understand how the operations come to life with Q&As facilitated by the onsite tour host. I
Australians can book in their interactive virtual tours via https://amazontours.com/au/virtual. After registering, guests will receive a link that allows them to take the tour using a PC, tablet or smartphone.
About the Sydney Robotic Fulfilment Centre featured on the tour
The site is the largest warehouse ever built in Australia, and the first Amazon robotics fulfilment centre in the southern hemisphere. Located in Kemps Creek, it spans 200,000 square metres across four levels – around the land size of Taronga Zoo or 24 rugby league fields – and can house up to 20 million of the smaller items sold on Amazon.com.au including jewelry, books, electronics, pantry items and toys. It is Amazon’s second FC in Western Sydney (the first is in Moorebank) and has been equipped with cutting-edge technology to support the 1,500 Amazon team members who will work there. Robotic drives work collaboratively with associates by moving pods of inventory to them, reducing the time and effort that would otherwise be required for an employee to stow items for sale or pick them for new customer orders. They also save space, allowing up to 40 per cent more items to be stowed which in turn allows for increased product selection benefiting the small and medium sized businesses who use Fulfilment by Amazon to seamlessly service customers around Australia.
About the Brisbane Fulfilment Centre featured on the tour
The Lytton, Brisbane fulfilment centre is around the same size as two Rugby League fields, housing more than half a million items from Amazon.com.au ranging from health, household and personal care products, to electronics, books, gardening equipment and pantry staples. A high proportion of the items at the Brisbane FC are the products Queenslanders most commonly purchase from Amazon, ensuring the most popular items are closer to customers and can therefore be delivered more quickly. The Brisbane FC also benefits Queensland based small & medium sized businesses who utilise Fulfilment By Amazon to seamlessly service customers across the country. Local sellers can send their products to the Brisbane FC where Amazon will then pick, pack and ship orders to customers, provide customer service support and manage returns on behalf of the seller.
About the Melbourne Fulfilment Centre featured on the tour
The Ravenhall, Melbourne fulfilment centre, opened in 2020. It is 37,000 square metres – almost double the size of the Melbourne Cricket Ground – with capacity to house up to six million items from Amazon.com.au. Amazon’s Ravenhall FC is Amazon’s second FC in Victoria. The first opened in Dandenong South in 2017.
About Amazon Australia
Amazon Australia has more than doubled its operational footprint in 2022 with the launch of its first robotics fulfilment centre earlier this year. Since 2011, Amazon has invested over A$5.3 billion in Australia across all of its businesses in Australia, with $1.9 billion in the past year. Amazon now has a local team of over 5,000 employees across amazon.com.au, Amazon Web Services, Kindle, Audible, Alexa and Prime Video.
Amazon.com.au launched in Australia in December 2017 and now offers customers 200 million products across 31 different categories including Amazon devices. The new Amazon Robotics FC located at Goodman Group’s Oakdale West Industrial Estate in Kemps Creek, Sydney opened in January 2022, complementing Amazon’s existing network of five Australian fulfilment centres launched in Dandenong South, Melbourne in December 2017, followed by Moorebank, Sydney in August 2018, Perth’s Airport Precinct in November 2019, Lytton, Brisbane in October 2020 and most recently a second site in Ravenhall, Melbourne FC in August 2021.
Since launching, more than 11,000 Australian businesses, many of which are SMBs, are now selling through Amazon, and have sold more than 25 million units across its Australian and international stores in the past year.[1]
About the Author
Adrian Gunning Adrian lives in Melbourne Australia and has a huge passion for gaming, technology and pop culture. He recently finished his a Bachelor of Journalism and is currently focusing on games journalism. When not writing and playing video games, Adrian can be found in Comics 'R' Us debating the pros of the DC Universe and cons of the Marvel Universe.
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