Australia Post expecting an ecomm boom this sales season

Australia Post has released its latest quarterly update for its Australian Online Shopping Report, with FY24 first quarter results showing online purchases are increasing incrementally. Despite the ARA calling a softer than expected sales boom this holiday season, Australia Post has found that ecommerce has experienced a “modest” uplift due to customers taking advantage of deals and are expecting this to increase as we enter sales season. Australia Post examines the frequency of online shopping, not just the spend.

 Online Marketplace deals have seen 30 percent more customers getting involved than this time last year as shoppers have to further tighten budgets, and sales events such as AfterPay Day, held in August, saw 4.1 million households making an online purchase. 5.7 million Aussie households made an online purchase on average every month of Q1FY24, an increase of 4.3 percent on last year. 

Looking ahead into November and beyond, the Report predicts Black Friday sales will be particularly popular this year for fashion and beauty shoppers. Athleisure will have an expected 139 per cent increase compared to non-peak periods, Beauty – a 124 percent increase, and Footwear up 121 percent.

Tasmania received the most parcel deliveries per household in Q1, and online shopping in Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland all recorded a YoY increase of 5.7 per cent, 5.6 percent, and 4.5 percent respectively.

With these delivery increases in mind, earlier this week, Australia Post urged customers to download its app for verifiable delivery updates as with the sales season, SMS scams run rampant. The scammers send a text with a link pretending it is parcel tracking but can lead to a variety of data mining issues. “The AusPost app is the best place to get trusted, accurate and legitimate notifications that protect customer security,” the announcement read. 

Australia Post Executive General Manager Parcel Post and eCommerce Services Gary Starr said the online shopping boom leading up to Christmas will be especially evident during the November cyber sales events.

“With increasing cost-of-living pressures, Aussies are being more savvy with their money, which is why we’ve seen shopping purchases stay steady for most of this quarter with upticks driven by key sales days,” Mr. Starr said.

“However, the cyber sales frenzy followed by the Christmas shopping season will likely tell a different story with strategic shoppers coming out in droves, hunting for bargains and looking to stretch their dollar further, possibly across several stores.”