New research shows that 72 per cent of Aussies believe parcel delivery has improved in the past three years due to online shopping.
The CouriersPlease (CP) survey of a nationally representative panel of 1021 Australian online shoppers found the industry needs to continue to evolve to encourage shoppers to purchase more online.
Respondents reflected on their parcel delivery experiences and 65 per cent said parcel tracking has been a key factor to the improvement of delivery services.
A quarter said that delivery is the biggest factor that needs improvement to encourage more online sales.
After-hours and weekend parcel delivery is something 80 per cent of respondents want to see, but almost half (47 per cent) say they wouldn’t be willing to pay an additional fee for the service.parcel delivery
A CP spokesperson said Australians love online shopping and there’s no sign of this trend slowing down.
“It’s so important that we as an industry improve parcel delivery services continually. One challenge for carriers is Australia’s relatively small population on a very large landmass,” she said.
“In addition to transparent track and trace technology, it’s important that carriers including CP provide flexible delivery options that enable people to receive deliveries where and when they choose.”
In the 2019 annual report, Australia Post said that the nationwide … has over 12.1 million delivery points.
There was a record parcel delivery of 40 million parcels in December last year, including 3 million on one day and 10 days over 2 million.
94.3 million additional items were automated, a 29 per cent increase on last year. Current trends indicate that the figure will increase year on year.
“The trend towards shopping online is expected to continue, so we need to invest to capitalise on the opportunities presented by eCommerce growth,” Australia Post executives stated.
“We have commenced a large, transformational capital investment in infrastructure and technology across our network, of $900 million over three years (2018/19 to 2020/21).”
Last year Australia Post opened the largest facility of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. The new 50,000 square metre parcel-processing facility follows the automation facilities at Westringia Road (Brisbane), Melbourne Gateway and Sydney West Letters Facility, that were implemented in 2018, increasing the network’s capacity to automatically sort an additional 121 million parcels.