Australia sees record-breaking online shopping boom ahead of Christmas: postal service

2020-12-04 04:05:42 GMT2020-12-04 12:05:42(Beijing Time) Xinhua English

SYDNEY, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- Australia had experienced an unprecedented online shopping boom amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with a record number of parcels to deliver every day this week, Australia Post said on Friday.

Over 2 million Australian families had placed orders online during the 2020 Black Friday/Cyber Monday online shopping sales period, up more than 42 per cent for the same period, beating the record set in 2019, according to a statement from Australia Post.

Australia Post Executive General Manager for Business, Government & International Gary Starr said while the record busy week had made history for the Australian e-commerce industry, the results came unexpectedly.

"No-one could have predicted in March the seismic shift the COVID-19 pandemic would create; it's exceeded every expectation, and we're looking forward to seeing how this continues this month," Starr said.

"This week is shaping to be our busiest ever. From Monday, we'll deliver more than 13 million parcels in total - almost 3 million more than the same week last year."

As a result, the national postal service has been delivering over 2 million parcels every day since this week, over half of them ordered by people living in New South Wales and Victoria, the two most populous states in Australia.

Food and liquor, home and garden, variety store purchases and health and beauty were among the most popular categories to online shoppers, with sales up 72 percent compared with the same time last year, Australia Post said. Enditem

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