NZ Post prepares for Black Friday online shopping event: Extra people, flights, vans and sites
Last year Black Friday and Cyber Monday online sales saw more online purchases than Boxing Day, taking the top spot as the biggest online shopping event in New Zealand, according to The Full Download 2020 research by NZ Post.
In 2019 Kiwi shoppers spent a record $6.1 billion in the month before Christmas, with Kiwis spending $450 million in Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, about $250 million more than they did on Boxing Day.
“We’re expecting this growth in online shopping during Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales to continue to soar. Last year online shopping on Black Friday increased 27%, but this year COVID has completely changed the way Kiwis shop, with more New Zealanders shopping online than ever before,” says NZ Post Chief Customer Officer Bryan Dobson.
“When the country first moved into Alert Level 3 earlier in the year, online shopping increased a massive 105%. Since then, online shopping has remained about 30% up, which will have a big impact on the online shopping purchases we see in the next four weeks as Kiwis take advantage of these sales events to get ready for Christmas.
“Many New Zealanders will be looking to buy Christmas presents in the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Our message to Kiwis is to send on those Christmas presents to your loved ones as early as possible to make sure they arrive under the tree in time.
“If New Zealanders are looking to buy Christmas presents from overseas in Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales they should take note of what the e-tailer’s websites say about delivery time-frames into New Zealand. Cut-off dates for sending Christmas presents are available on our website, but the message this year is “send early”, due to the unpredictability that COVID brings.
“NZ Post has planned for a range of different scenarios to prepare for the busy season. We are bringing on three additional sites to manage surges in volumes, 200 more courier vans, 185 extra flights, more than 1500 extra transport runs and 350 additional processing people to deliver Christmas presents for New Zealanders,” says Bryan Dobson.
NZ Post is planning to deliver about 2 million parcels in the week following Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. This compares to almost 1.8 million parcels for the same period last year.