Australia Post’s plan to handle online shopping boom
Australia Post is investing $25 million in a brand new parcel facility in Adelaide - to meet the demand for parcels boosted by the unprecedented growth in online shopping in the state.
This will be the company’s biggest operational investment in South Australia ever.
The new site will consolidate operations currently carried out across multiple sites into one state-of-the-art facility, featuring automated parcel processing for the first time ever in the state, significantly boosting parcel processing capacity and improving service standards for residents in South Australia.
Australia Post Group chief executive Christine Holgate said South Australians are shopping online more than ever before, with this investment part of Australia Post’s ongoing efforts to keep up with demand, particularly in growing areas such as Adelaide.
“It is no secret Australians love shopping online, spending over $4.4 billion in April this year alone, and South Australians love it more than most with a huge jump in online purchases during COVID-19,” Ms Holgate said.
“More than 14,000 South Australian households shopped online for the first time in April, with Adelaide’s postcode alone ranked third nationally by percentage of new online shoppers. This drove the state’s overall online shopping growth figure for the month to an incredible 86 per cent up on last year.
“I am so thrilled to be making this investment as it will be the first time we have introduced any parcels automation in South Australia so it truly will future-proof our operations.”
According to Australia Post’s 2020 Inside Australian Online Shopping Report, South Australians are big buyers of fashion, health and beauty and home and garden products with growth in the state across the three categories up 19.2 per cent, 12.6 per cent and 11.9 per cent year-on-year respectively in 2019.
Preparations for the new Adelaide parcels facility are already underway with the site due to become operational in 2021.
Have you started shopping online for the first time this year? How much of your shopping do you do online now?
Recently our family ordered 3 parcels online. The parcel of colouring books arrived torn and dishevelled - the bottom colouring books were also damp. The pots arrived but they were the wrong ones - even though my invoice saiid I had ordered and paid for the expensive ones, they sent much cheaper ones. The seeds I ordered took six weeks to arrive and the company I ordered them from was only 40kms from where I live. Online shopping is a farce as far as I am concerned.