A dedicated Irish Amazon platform is set to “transform” the Irish online shopping space

Alan Coughlan, founder and CEO of Lansil Global, is currently building warehouses in the US to reduce delivery times and enable his customers to keep up with Amazon.

Coughlan, now based in Dubai, founded the company 10 years ago at the age of 27, after moving from Cobh, Co. Cork, to China. It currently supplies everything from home and garden furniture to cosmetics, toys, clothing and more to European and US online retailers that operate on Facebook, Amazon, Shopify and other e-commerce platforms.

The third-party logistics provider currently has extensive operations in China, and this year Lansil achieved annual revenues of €40 million. Coughlan hopes to reach €100m (€92m) in the coming years as it expands its network of warehouses across the US and eventually Europe, with the Netherlands being a likely location.

Lansil opened its first warehouse in Texas after Coughlan realized that delivery times were a key factor in the success of his China supply chain business. It just opened a new 32,000-square-foot (2,973 m2) warehouse in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and a third is planned for Texas.

Each warehouse allows Coughlan to increase sales by about $10 million, he said.

A key motivation for warehouse expansion is to try to match Amazon’s delivery speeds as much as possible. By opening multiple warehouses in the U.S., Lansil aims to reduce delivery times from a week to an average of just three days.

This means that everyone else will have to up their game or Amazon will take over all their inventory

He said this had not yet been a big factor for retailers or logistics companies in the Irish market, where Amazon orders come from the retail giant’s platforms in other countries, but all that would change soon, he warned.

“When Amazon launches its service in Ireland, two-day delivery times will become essential across the industry,” he said.

Amazon.ie is scheduled to launch in 2025, meaning faster delivery times for Irish customers.​

“I think it’s fantastic and long overdue. This means that everyone else will have to up their game or Amazon will take over all their inventory.

Coughlan believes Amazon’s market dominance will force other companies to dramatically improve their delivery speeds.

“Currently in Ireland delivery takes four or five days from many websites. But in the UK it usually takes two or three days at most. This is because of Amazon’s influence.”

The arrival of Amazon’s Irish platform will force Irish retailers to consider listing their goods on the Amazon marketplace, he said.

“Outside Ireland. If you have an online brand, you need to be on Amazon. This would amount to 20% of your revenues.