Peak season arrives, Australian parcels surge, fashion items are most popular

Australia Post CEO Paul Graham has warned online shoppers to start tackling their Christmas lists 108 days in advance to avoid parcel delays and disruptions.

The reason is that despite the rising cost of living, Australians have no plans to cut spending and continue to enjoy online shopping. With the arrival of the Christmas peak season, the volume of parcels has surged. Compared with before the epidemic, Australia Post sent 32% more parcels.

The impact of the pandemic, supply chain issues caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and historic labour and skills shortages at postal companies mean that the delivery of Australian Post parcels will become difficult and uncertain in the near future.

Paul Graham said that postal delivery will not be smooth as usual this year or next year. And transportation costs have soared, and the cost surge will not go away in the next 12 to 18 months or longer. Australia Post is looking to hire 5000 to 7000 workers, including thousands of forklift operators and drivers, to support parcel operations, two and a half months earlier than usual because of market pressure.

Australia Post has also made major changes to its infrastructure, including automating distribution centres, in preparation for the Christmas rush as parcels overtook letters as the main postal type for the first time in recent years.

Australia Post handled about 526 million parcels last year, and with Australians' online spending habits showing no signs of slowing, that number is expected to double to one billion in the next decade.

It is reported that Power Retail's August trajectory report shows that about eight in ten Australians (79%) either plan to increase their online spending or keep it the same, of which 23% of consumers plan to spend more online and 56% plan to spend the same amount. For the remaining 21% who plan to spend less online, 58% said they are saving money for necessities.

Fashion remains the most popular purchase category for Australians, accounting for 26%, followed by electronics, accounting for 21%.

It is important to note that in the past six months, 30% of shoppers surveyed said they had a purchase canceled by a retailer due to out-of-stock items after they had paid. In addition, 75% of consumers said a merchant’s return policy is extremely or very important when considering an online purchase. 75% of consumers said they would be unlikely or extremely unlikely to purchase from the same retailer again if they had a bad returns experience.

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