Towards the end of a year where online shopping well and truly accelerated, we’re now in the midst of an unprecedented ‘eCommerce holidays’. This is the moment to deliver on your customer experience promise – and take the opportunity to retain a growing number of online shoppers in the New Year.
Over the last few years, the peak holiday shopping season has represented an annual high point for online retail. But the pandemic has powered an eCommerce revolution in 2020, breaking ‘peak’ volume records again and again.
Parcel growth from July to September was more than the growth for the entire year just two years ago, with eight million households in Australia having shopped online, including 1 million new households since COVID began.
The holiday rush has come early
There’s no doubt we’re amid yet another recording-breaking surge in demand. In October the momentum of parcel volume growth continued. There have been over 130 days this year, where more than 2 million parcels have entered the Australian Post network.
“We are hurtling towards our biggest online shopping peak ever,” said Australia Post Executive General Manager Business, Government & International Gary Starr, in his opening session at Online Retailer FUSION 2020.3 “This will be a holiday season like no other.”
Keeping customers happy during peak demand
“Major events on the eCommerce calendar have a significant impact on our parcel volumes,” says Starr. Last year, Black Friday and Cyber Monday set new peak records when that sales week recorded 31.6% year-on-year growth.2
But this year, October’s events have already exceeded expectations. Vogue Online Shopping Night (October 6) volumes rose 52% year-on-year, and Amazon Prime Day (October 13-14)4 increased 53%.
To cope with a record-breaking holiday period, here are a few things the Australian Post has done:
- 3,000 additional road vehicles during peak, for a total of 18,000 – a 20% increase
- 18 dedicated air freighters and as many as 66 delivery flights per day
- 47 new delivery sites
- 30 additional Post Offices
- 5,000 more staff to help with parcel delivery, and assist in Customer Contact Centres and Post Offices
- New options for parcel collection
Traditionally Bastian Consulting operates almost entirely on a retained basis but due to this COVID-19 recruitment drive, Bastian Consulting has launched a new service called contingency placements to support businesses scale through the hiring increase process. This enables businesses to fill vacant roles quickly and on a suitable budget. To get started, call Tony on 0409 090 434 or email tony@bconsult.io
Source: Australia Post
