Auckland-based e-commerce platform Container Door has launched in Australia linking consumers directly to foreign factories on a mass market scale.

The platform, which has a similar factory-to-consumer category like Amazon, offers products that may look identical to Bunnings, Anaconda and high street furniture store Matt Blatt but at factory direct prices. Unlike Amazon however, Container Door stated its products are large and much more difficult to ship.

According to Container Door, ordering products on their site is the same as any online retailer, browse, pick and pay. Once there are enough customers that want to purchase the same item, a container of them are ordered and shipped to the customer’s individual front doors. The process takes six to eight weeks from purchase to delivery.

The model has been tested in New Zealand since 2015 where the business has now shipped around 3,500 deals and 80,000 products.

“The Australian retail environment is ripe for a disruptor like Container Door,” said Container Door founder Ben Nathan. “We offer the same products that consumers will find in-store at a fraction of the cost by cutting out the middleman.”

Nathan, who started the business after years of importing apparel to major Australian retail chains including Harris Scarfe, said in their three years of operation overseas, they have learned that consumers are more than willing to wait six to eight weeks for their purchases to arrive if the savings are worth it.

“In fact, they get what we call ‘double gratification’ – the initial buzz of bagging a bargain and then the thrill when it arrives at their doorstep,” he said.

Nathan started the business after years of importing apparel to major Australasian retail chains including Harris Scarfe, The Warehouse, Farmers, Max Fashions and Postie Plus.