Online shoppers break records ahead of festive season

(Kira auf der Heide/Unsplash)

Online shoppers have once again broken a record, recording the biggest month in Australia’s online shopping in November.

Data has shown over six million households made an online purchase during the month, which was half a million more than October.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday was a record, with the number of online purchases surpassing last year’s record Cyber Weekend by 6.6 per cent.

Data showed that 4.9 million households shopped online during the two-week period, up four per cent from last year, with New South Wales the most popular destination, with one in every three parcels processed bound for its residents, followed by Victoria and Queensland.

In terms of items purchased, Australians proved their love for comfort clothing as athleisure was reported as the most popular purchase category experiencing year-on-year growth of 24 per cent, followed by footwear, tools and garden and general clothing, which all saw growth of more than 13 per cent.

Australia Post customer and commercial executive general manager Gary Starr commented, “Cyber sales are clearly here to stay, increasingly starting earlier in November and lasting longer into December,” he said.

“More people are holding out for the sales, given inflationary pressures, with online purchases growing by 42 per cent during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales when compared with the two weeks prior.

“We’re already seeing our biggest Christmas season, however our customers can be assured that we’ve added more capacity across our workforce, more electric delivery vehicles, more delivery days, and more freighter capacity to manage this increased volume.”

Australia Post also saw an uptick in freight volumes compared to the same time last year, with more than 758 tonnes of freight moved by air between 25 and 28 November.