Figures released by Australia Post last week have highlighted the shift towards online shopping and parcel delivery during the coronavirus pandemic. It achieved record growth for the past financial year, with group revenue up 7% to $7.5 billion. Parcels revenue was up 15% on the previous year.
“In the second half of the year parcel revenues were boosted by the continued growth of eCommerce as consumer demand grew as families adapted to lock down restrictions and more businesses went online as their physical stores hibernated,” Australia Post said in a statement.
In Victoria, hit by a second wave of covid-19 infections and Stage 4 restrictions, an Australia Post spokesperson said parcel volumes were up 186% for the third week of August.
The NAB Online Retail Sales Index July 2020, released yesterday, stated: “We estimate that in the 12 months to July, Australians spent $37.4 billion on online retail, a level that is around 11.1% of the total retail trade estimate (Preliminary July 2020, Series 8501, Australian Bureau of Statistics), and about 28.6% higher than the 12 months to July 2019.”
This week, Federal Parliament also signed off on extensions to the JobKeeper and JobSeeker programs until the end of March, reflecting its expectation that the pandemic will be a major factor in Australian lives until at least then. But for eCommerce businesses that also means the shift online will also likely continue.
Your eCommerce business must be ready to capitalise on this growth, or it will be left behind.
In our June blog discussing best checkout practices, we highlighted the need for providing multiple shipping options. To achieve this, your website should integrate a leading order fulfilment platform into your checkout. The Playhouse Group specifically recommends Shippit.
Shippit offers:
- Multiple Delivery Options – providing options such as standard or three-hour delivery at the checkout
- Live Shipping Calculator – giving your customers an accurate delivery estimate on any page of your website
- Instant Shipping – turning orders into shipping labels with a single click, and automatically notifying customers with shipping information
- Unified Tracking – providing alerts and notifications to your customers regardless of the courier used, and presented on your brand
- Insights – providing data on how long it takes you to ship orders, how much you’re spending on each order and on each courier, as well as insights on how your customers feel about their delivery experience.
The Shippit platform integrates into a range of eCommerce platforms, including our recommended Magento 2, as well as a number of accounting and inventory platforms. With the Shippit API, The Playhouse Group is also able to create customised solutions for your store.
If you would like to discuss how your business can improve its order fulfilment, or for any other eCommerce matters, don’t hesitate to click below to set up a free consultation now.
Get in touch with our team and we can talk to you about this or any eCommerce questions you may have.