Australia market entry costs are smaller on paper than most brands expect: about A$933 (roughly ¥4,350) in 2026 for a company, a business name and one trade mark class, then A$342 a year. The real money sits a few floors higher: platform fees on every order, a local team (about A$58,500 a year for one full-time employee at the minimum wage) and, above all, mistakes. Recent product safety penalties reached A$150,240. So don't haggle over a A$47 fee. Test demand before you hire, keep your safety test reports, and add costs only when sales justify them.
Ask an overseas brand what entering Australia costs and you usually get one big number. That number hides two very different kinds of cost: small, fixed fees set by government, and large, flexible costs set by your own choices. This article puts every cost we could verify on one tower, sorted by size, using 2026 fees from ASIC, IP Australia, the Australian Border Force and the platforms' own price lists. It is the money companion to our guide to assessing the Australian market, and it skips what we have already covered: warehousing and delivery are in our 3PL cost guide, and channel commissions in launching in Australia. The examples stay with everyday products: strollers, cots, toys and home goods.
How much do Australia market entry costs really add up to?
The official paperwork is under A$1,000. The costs that decide whether you make money are people, stock and mistakes, which are 50 to 160 times larger.
Put every cost on a scale where each floor is ten times the one below, and the picture becomes clear. The bottom floors hold registration fees: free, tens or hundreds of dollars. The middle floors hold monthly tools and border charges. The top floors hold a salary and a penalty. Saving A$33 on a business name is nice; avoiding one penalty pays for the paperwork 160 times over.
The paperwork lives on the bottom three floors; one salary and one penalty sit two floors higher.
Each floor = 10 × the floor belowFirst stock order · sea freight · lab testing · design · ads. They depend on your product and have no public price list, so we have not invented one.
Notice what is missing from the tower: the first stock order, freight, testing and advertising. For most consumer brands these are the largest lines of all, but they have no public price list, so we have not guessed. That is exactly why the order in which you commit money matters more than any fee schedule. Our six-step market entry process is built around that order.
Which government fees are part of Australia market entry costs in 2026?
About A$933 (around ¥4,350) for a company, a business name and one trade mark class in year one; then A$342 a year to keep the company.
From 1 July 2026, ASIC charges A$636 to register a proprietary company, A$47 for a one-year business name (A$108 for three years) and A$342 for each annual review (business.gov.au, 2026). An ABN and a director ID are free (Australian Business Register; ABRS). A trade mark costs A$250 per class if you choose descriptions from IP Australia's picklist, or A$400 per class without it, and it takes at least seven months from filing to registration (IP Australia).
Converted at the Reserve Bank's rate, year-one paperwork is about ¥4,350; a second trade mark class takes it to about ¥5,520.
A$1 = ¥4.6647 · RBA, 20 Oct 2026- ABN and director ID: A$0
- Business name, 1 yearA$47
- Trade mark, 1 class (picklist)A$250
- Register a companyA$636
Two choices change the total. If you would rather sell through your existing overseas company, ASIC requires it to register as a foreign company and to appoint a local agent who lives in Australia (ASIC). And if your range falls into more than one trade mark class, each class is charged separately, so budget for every class you will sell in first. Tax registration has its own rules; the basics are in our market assessment guide. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.
Which costs grow with every order?
Platform percentage fees. Monthly subscriptions only matter while you are selling a handful of orders a month.
Here is the same A$96 order, the average online basket in Australia in 2025 (Australia Post, 2026), sold two ways: through your own Shopify store on the Basic plan (A$56 a month, Shopify Payments at 1.7% + 30c), or on Amazon Australia with a Professional account (A$49.95 a month plus an 11% referral fee for baby products over A$20). We spread the monthly fee across the orders sold that month.
At 10 orders a month the subscription is most of your cost per order; by 200 orders it hardly matters and the percentage fee is almost everything.
Fee per A$96 order, A$Read the chart honestly: a marketplace costs more per order because it also brings the shoppers. Your own store is only cheap per order if people find it, and that takes ads, content and community work the chart does not show. Two small checks still help. Amazon's Individual plan charges A$0.99 per item instead of A$49.95 a month, which is cheaper below about 50 items a month (Wise, 2026). And card fees are falling: Stripe's standard rate for Australian cards dropped from 1.7% to 1.65% + 30c on 1 October 2026 (Stripe, 2026). For which channel to open first, see launching in Australia.
What does a product safety mistake cost?
Recent ACCC penalties for toy and baby products ranged from A$49,500 to A$150,240: 53 to 161 times the year-one paperwork.
In 2024 a wholesale distributor paid A$49,500 because three novelty toys with button batteries had not been fully tested before supply; the ACCC said a visual check is not enough (ACCC, 2024). In 2023 Riff Raff Baby paid A$132,000 over ads that suggested its sleep aid toys were safe for unsupervised sleep with babies under seven months (ACCC, 2023). In 2025 Hungry Jack's paid A$150,240 because a toy given away with children's meals did not carry the required button-battery warnings, even though the toy itself met the safety standard (ACCC, 2025).
The navy square in the corner is a year of paperwork; every penalty around it is a block 53 to 161 times bigger.
Area = amount- No warnings on a toy, 2025A$150,240× 161
- Sleep toy ads, 2023A$132,000× 141
- Toys not fully tested, 2024A$49,500× 53
- Year-one paperworkA$933
None of these were large recalls. They were a missing test, a missing warning and one line of advertising copy. The cheapest insurance is boring: test a representative sample before you ship, keep the reports, print the warnings, and have someone check every claim before it goes online. The rules for cots, strollers and toys are in our import compliance guide. This is general information, not legal advice.
Which costs can wait until you have sales?
Most of them. File the trade mark early because it takes seven months; hold the salary, the extra classes and the extra channels until orders arrive.
Sorting costs by when you need them is the simplest way to keep cash in the business. One full-time employee on the national minimum wage costs A$1,005 a week from 1 July 2026, plus 12% superannuation (business.gov.au, 2026; ATO): about A$58,500 a year before leave, insurance and other on-costs, and most roles are paid above the minimum under their award. That is 63 times the year-one paperwork, so it is the cost most worth delaying.
File the trade mark early; anything with a salary attached can wait for proof.
Our suggested order, not a rule- ABN and director IDfree
- Trade mark, first classA$250 · 7+ months
- Company, once demand is testedA$636
- Safety tests and warningsbefore anything ships
- One sales channelA$56 or A$49.95 a month
- Card and platform feesper order
- Import charge, shipments over A$1,000A$50 or A$152
- Warehouse and deliverysee our 3PL guide
- First local hire≈A$58,500 a year
- More trade mark classesA$250 each
- A second channel or a retailervaries
- Company annual reviewA$342 a year
Before the first hire, many brands lean on a partner for the Chinese-language side of the business. Our Chinese social media management team can run your accounts and replies while you test, so the biggest fixed cost stays flexible until orders justify it.
How can you cut Australia market entry costs without cutting corners?
Swap, don't skip: use the cheaper version of the same step, and never drop a safety test to save money.
The fees on the bottom floors can be trimmed, and you should trim them, but the totals are small. The real savings come from the top floors: not paying a salary before demand is proven, and not paying a penalty at all.
The first four swaps save a few hundred dollars; the last two protect tens of thousands.
Old block → new block- 01Trade mark without the picklistA$400 per classChoose descriptions from IP Australia's picklistA$250 per classSave A$150 per class
- 02Business name renewed yearly for 3 years3 × A$47 = A$141Register it for 3 years at onceA$108Save A$33
- 03Shopify Basic billed monthlyA$672 a yearBilled yearlyA$504 a yearSave A$168 a year
- 04Amazon Professional while selling 20 items a monthA$49.95 a monthIndividual plan at A$0.99 per itemA$19.80 a monthSave about A$30 a month
- 05A full-time hire before the first sales≈A$58,500 a yearA partner or part-time help until orders justify itstop when you need toKeeps the biggest fixed cost flexible
- 06A visual check of button-battery productsfree todayLab-test a representative sample and keep the reporta test feeAvoids penalties like A$49,500
Testing demand is the other big saving. Baby Island, our community platform with 10,000+ members, lets a brand run a small pre-sale with real parents before the larger costs are committed, and DAY Concept has helped 6 brands enter Australia. If Chinese-speaking parents are likely to be your first buyers, see how we reach Asian-Australian consumers, or tell us what you are budgeting for.
Keep reading
Questions about the cost of entering Australia
How much does it cost to register a company in Australia in 2026?
From 1 July 2026 ASIC charges A$636 to register a proprietary company and A$342 for each annual review. An ABN and a director ID are free. A business name costs A$47 for one year or A$108 for three years (business.gov.au, 2026).
How much is a trade mark in Australia?
A$250 per class if you use IP Australia's picklist of descriptions, or A$400 per class without it. Registration takes at least seven months from filing, so it is worth filing well before launch (IP Australia).
Is it cheaper to sell on Amazon Australia or on my own website?
Per order, your own store is usually cheaper: on an A$96 order at 50 orders a month we calculated about A$3.05 in Shopify and card fees against about A$11.56 on Amazon for baby products. But Amazon brings the shoppers, while your own store needs you to bring visitors, and that costs money too.
How much does it cost to hire someone in Australia?
The national minimum wage is A$26.44 an hour, or A$1,005 a week, from 1 July 2026, plus 12% superannuation. For one full-time employee that is about A$58,500 a year before leave and other on-costs, and many roles are paid more under their award. This is general information, not employment advice.
What is the most expensive mistake when entering Australia?
In our experience, selling a product that does not meet a mandatory safety or information standard. Recent ACCC penalties for toys and baby products were A$49,500, A$132,000 and A$150,240, far more than all the registration fees combined.
Want a cost plan for your first year in Australia?
We help baby, toy and home brands decide what to pay for now, what can wait, and how to test demand with real parents on Baby Island before the big costs start.
- business.gov.au, Changes for businesses from 1 July 2026 (9 June 2026): ASIC fees and the national minimum wage.
- IP Australia, Trade marks: timeframes and fees (accessed October 2026).
- ASIC, Register a foreign company in Australia (accessed October 2026).
- Australian Business Registry Services, Do you need a director ID?; Xero, How to apply for an ABN (on applying through the Australian Business Register), accessed October 2026.
- Australian Taxation Office, The final SG rate increase is coming on 1 July (12% from 1 July 2025).
- Reserve Bank of Australia, Exchange rates, 20 October 2026 (A$1 = 4.6647 CNY).
- Australian Border Force, Import processing charge (page updated 20 October 2026).
- Shopify Australia, Plans and pricing (accessed October 2026).
- Amazon Australia, Selling on Amazon: pricing (accessed October 2026); Wise, How to start selling on Amazon Australia (updated 30 January 2026).
- Stripe, Updates to card pricing in Australia from October 2026.
- Australia Post, 7 eCommerce trends from the Australia Post eCommerce Report 2026 (average basket of A$96).
- ACCC media releases: Riff Raff pays penalties after admitting that ads for infant sleep aid toys likely breach consumer law (29 November 2023); Novelty toy supplier and the operator of Timezone, Kingpin and Zone Bowling pay penalties for alleged button battery testing non-compliance (19 June 2024); Hungry Jack's pays penalties for supplying toys with its children's meals that allegedly breached the mandatory information standard for button batteries (6 May 2025).
This article is general information about the cost of entering the Australian market. It is not legal, tax, employment or financial advice. Fees, wages, platform prices and exchange rates change; check the current figures and get advice for your own situation before you commit.