Extended Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales has made November the biggest month in online shopping history, according to Australia Post.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The extended sale saw the postal service deliver more than 21 million parcels across Australia, beating last year's November record by more than 13 per cent, and smashing the 2019 figure by 76 per cent.
On Average Australia Post said it delivered more than 2.3 million parcels every weekday across the extended sales period, with around 800,000 delivered over the Black Friday weekend itself.
READ ALSO:
Australia Post General Manager for Parcel and Express Services Ben Franzi said extended pre-Black Friday sales had completely transformed this year's event.
"With many cyber sales starting sooner than last year people have been able to snap up online deals for longer than just those traditional four big days from Black Friday," he said.
"We're working hard in what's still a challenging environment, with our delivery teams managing to get almost a million parcels a day to front doors across NSW alone on December 1 and December 2, and we've got our delivery people and processing around the country working around the clock as we head into a busy Christmas."
Bargains were being snapped up well ahead of the traditional four-day shopping sales period, with many sales kicking off earlier and lasting longer, Australia Post said.
Almost one in four purchases was from a fashion and apparel specialty retailer, while pet products, tools and garden were up more than 21 per cent from last year, footwear was up 17.8 per cent and fashion accessories were all in hot demand up 12.4 per cent.
NSW had the most deliveries, accounting for over 36 per cent of all purchases during the sales.
Australia Post said it moved 15 per cent more air freight across the cyber weekend than last year, with 444 tonnes of parcels transported via 21 dedicated planes on the busiest day Cyber Monday. This was also the biggest day for parcels entering the network with more than 2.8 million lodged.