Australians are about to embark on what is expected to be the biggest weekend in online shopping yet, with Australia Post forecasting people will flock to this year’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales with numbers to eclipse last year’s event.
Last year 2.2 million Australian households bagged a bargain in the four days to Cyber Monday, and this year is tipped to be even bigger, coming hot on the heels of the Click Frenzy sales which drove a 16 per cent online shopping spike across the week to 13 November.
Last November was the biggest month in Australian online shopping history, up more than 55% on the previous year, with the two weeks either side of the 2020 Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales the biggest weeks of last year.
Australia Post Executive General Manager Business, Government and International Gary Starr said he expected savvy shoppers to take full advantage of the online sales and get their Christmas presents sorted as early possible, with plenty of time left before Australia Post’s recommended last sending dates.
“We know people are keeping a close eye on the big online sales events and planning ahead for what they want to buy, so we’re expecting this year to be huge,” Mr Starr said.
“Immediately following last year’s bumper cyber sales weekend we saw two of our busiest days ever, handling 3.22 million parcels on December 1 and 3.12 million on December 2.
“And to make sure we get these purchases to people’s doors as quickly as possible we’ve set ourselves up with 30 per cent more processing capacity, more planes in the air, and thousands of extra people to sort and deliver parcels, including weekends and twilight deliveries where they’re most needed.”
With many sales kicking off early this year, Australians are expected to spend even more than the record-breaking $5.57 billion spent last November.
Customers are reminded to send their Christmas gifts by December 13 for Parcel Post in metro areas, and by December 20 for Express Post. For some locations, including Western Australia, the Northern Territory and outside of metro areas, we recommend sending earlier and to check online at auspost.com.au/christmas for details.
The best way to manage deliveries is with the Australia Post mobile app, which allows customers receive updates about when items are due and to choose the best place for deliveries, including at any of the free 24/7 Parcel Lockers in more than 1000 locations around Australia.
