Australia Post launches next-day delivery ahead of peak season

Australia Post has launched a new next-day delivery service, Australia Post Metro. The service is set to offer eligible retailers and their customers “speed and more certainty when they shop online”.

Australia Post says the areas covered will include metropolitan Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, with plans to expand into new metropolitan geographies in the near future.

The service aims to address a desire for fast fulfilment and evolving consumer needs, with Australia Post suggesting 68 per cent of online shoppers are likely to abandon their shopping cart if they deem the delivery method too slow, and one in every three retail dollars projected to be spent online in the next 10 years.

Australia Post Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Paul Graham comments, “We’ve been listening to our customers, and know they expect more certainty, simplicity and speed when ordering online.”

Technology infrastructure changes and strategic retailer partnerships are said to underpin the Metro service. Graham explains, “To support this new service and ensure we meet the next-day delivery offering we have simplified our back-end systems to quickly identify the Australia Post Metro service orders, prioritising them for next day delivery. We have also been working in tandem with our retailers to ensure their distribution centres are set up to prioritise Australia Post Metro service orders.”

Selected retailers will initially have access to Australia Post Metro, with “more coming onboard over the coming weeks and months”. Myer is among the first retailers partnering with Australia Post on the initiative.

Myer’s Executive General Manager of Supply Chain, Tony Carr, says, “We know there is nothing more important than getting products to our customers in the quickest and most effective way, and our partnership with Australia Post, one of the most trusted organisations in the country, will ensure we continue to provide a leading online experience to our customers.”

Australia Post says it delivered over 2.7 billion items nationwide last year. Its new next-day service comes ahead of the 2023 peak shopping season, aiming to increase the agility and flexibility of deliveries heading into what is said to be the organisation’s busiest time of year.

Carr adds, “The Australia Post Metro service will be welcomed by Myer customers and will be particularly important to shoppers as we head into our busiest trading months of the year in the lead up to Christmas.”