The Australian ecommerce shake-up is real but misunderstood
The Australian ecommerce scene has gone through a brutal reset.
In 2025 alone, several well-known local names exited the market:
At first glance, this looks like a collapse of ecommerce demand in Australia.
It isn’t.
What we are witnessing is not the death of ecommerce, but the failure of mid-sized local platforms to compete with global-scale operators.
Local players are losing but not because customers disappeared
Consumers are still buying online. In fact, spending continues to concentrate just not on local platforms.
The real issue is structural. Global ecommerce players have advantages that local businesses simply cannot replicate anymore.
Here are three critical areas where big players win and locals fall behind.
1. Scale beats margins — every time
Global ecommerce companies operate at a scale that allows them to:
- Absorb logistics cost increases
- Negotiate better courier and warehousing rates
- Run thinner margins for longer periods
Local platforms like Catch, MyDeal, or MySale relied heavily on commission-based revenue models with limited room to subsidize growth. When freight costs, returns, and marketing expenses rose, their business models cracked.
Scale doesn’t just lower costs, it buys time. Local players ran out of it.
2. Ecosystems outperform standalone platforms
Big ecommerce names don’t operate in isolation. They come bundled with:
- Advertising platforms
- Data & attribution systems
- Payment, fulfillment, and loyalty infrastructure
Local marketplaces often depended on third-party tools for ads, tracking, fulfillment, and payments increasing cost and reducing control.
Cashrewards’ closure is a strong signal here: standalone value propositions are increasingly fragile unless they’re deeply embedded in a broader ecosystem.
3. Capital access defines survival, not innovation
Local ecommerce companies were often innovative, fast, and close to their customers.
But innovation doesn’t matter if you can’t:
- Fund losses during downturns
- Invest in AI, logistics, and automation
- Sustain long customer acquisition cycles
Global players are playing a longer game, backed by deep capital reserves and diversified revenue streams. Local platforms had to be profitable, or close, much earlier. In today’s ecommerce climate, that’s often unrealistic.
Ecommerce isn’t shrinking, it’s concentrating
What Australia is experiencing mirrors a global pattern:
- Fewer platforms
- Larger winners
- Tighter margins
- Higher barriers to entry
Local ecommerce didn’t fail because it was bad.
It failed because the rules of the game changed.
Final thought
If scale, ecosystems, and capital now decide who survives
what role is left for local ecommerce players in a market dominated by global giants?
One thought on “Turmoil in Australian Ecommerce: Why Local Players Are Losing”