AusPost Invest $1b To Speed Up Delivery As Online Sales Surge

Australia Post will spend nearly a billion dollars over the next three years overhauling its parcel delivery systems to meet surging customer demand for faster delivery amid increased online sales.

The money will go towards infrastructure building and automation in its sorting centres.

The postal service’s annual e-commerce report estimates a 24 per cent rise in online shopping since 2017, with sales events being a key driver.

Australian shoppers “fully embraced” Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales last year, overtaking the first week of December to become the biggest for e-commerce sales.

Australia Post’s general manager of eCommerce Ben Franzi told the Sydney Morning Herald buy-now-pay-later services like Afterpay and Zip also helped contribute to the higher than expected growth.

Retailers were also looking to increase delivery speed in order to gain an edge on competitors, fueling customer expectation for faster shipping times.

Currently around 2 per cent of parcel volume handled by Australia Post are same-day deliveries, but Mr Franzi said that could grow up to 30 per cent in the next five years.

This growth would require a change in Australia Post’s distribution to a point-to-point model rather than standard routes, and retailers would also need to dispatch parcels in waves rather than at the end of the day.

Posties would also need to increase their share of parcel delivery, the majority of which is currently handled by StarTrack.