Christmas rush begins amid delivery fears
Close to one-third of Christmas shoppers are buying gifts early, worried items won’t be available or delivered on time. And it’s causing a massive headache for Australia Post.
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Close to one-third of Christmas shoppers are bringing gift buying forward amid jitters around being able to secure items and have them delivered on time.
And Christmas shopping is becoming an exclusive online affair for a growing minority with one-in-ten Aussies saying they will do all their shop via the web this year.
The findings flow from a survey of the nation’s rapidly evolving online shopping habits by Amazon.
Imported online shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday have also cemented their place in the nation’s retail calendar with 350,000 more Aussies set to shop these events later this month compared to last year, the survey shows.
One-in-six say they will do more of their holiday shopping online than in the previous year, a massive 53 per cent jump from last year.
Lockdowns have also driven a sharp and lasting shift toward online retail with Victoria and NSW posting the largest increase in the number of people saying their online shopping has increased over the past year.
In all, 69 per cent of Victorians are now shopping more online compared to a year ago, just below the 71 per cent recorded in NSW.
This compares to 49 per cent in Western Australia.
The lockdown states are also more adventurous in their online shopping habits with respondents in these states far more likely to shop a wider range of goods and try a retailer they have never transacted with before.
Amazon Australia operations director Craig Fuller said while he believe the nation’s retail sector was well stocked, some retailers could run into trouble meeting delivery timetables.
“I don’t think retailers will run into product shortages, the issue is about delivery times,” he said.
Mr Fuller said Amazon was well prepared and was hiring around 1100 seasonal workers to help it hit delivery times during the festive season crush.
Mr Fuller said the upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales had rapidly established themselves as the nation’s major online shopping events, with the traditional Boxing Day sales a driver of bricks and mortar traffic.
“Boxing Day as a sales event is certainly important but from an online point of view its being superseded by Black Friday,” he said.
There are reports a crisis is brewing across the country and it’s going to impact almost every single Australian
According to a news.com.au report, Australia Post has been managing Christmas-like volumes for 18 months and expects Christmas to be its biggest ever.
Australia Post is delivering 10 million parcels a week and is adding more than 5000 new people ahead of Christmas - with 80 per cent of those roles already filled - to cope with the demand.
john.dagge@news.com.au
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