NZ Post Prepares For Busy Black Friday And Christmas Period

This year’s big sales events mark the beginning of a massive month ahead for NZ Post – with around 15 million items forecast to be delivered in the lead up to Christmas.

One of the biggest shopping calendar days in the year, Black Friday (November 25) traditionally signifies the start of the Christmas shopping season.

“Black Friday marks the beginning of a massive few online shopping days and provides a good opportunity for Kiwis to buy what they need often at a lower price and have us deliver them in time for Christmas,” NZ Post General Manager Business Marketing Chris Wong says.

NZ Post’s eCommerce Spotlight report figures showed more than $1.3 billion was spent on buying physical goods online during Quarter 3 (July to September) 2022 and 75% of that spend was with local online retailers.

“It’s good to see Kiwis making the positive choice to buy from local online retailers,” Wong said.

With the biggest volume weeks of the year approaching, NZ Post expects to see parcel volumes increasing 50% (on average) over the next four weeks and has brought in hundreds more people to work across the business.

“Compared to the last couple of years, where we saw Covid-19 lockdowns create high parcel volumes, our network is operating at a more normal rhythm, but we know it will still be a big month ahead for us and our people. We’re really entering the heart of our busy period.”

Wong said NZ Post will continue to monitor online spending trends to see how inflationary and cost of living pressures could impact Kiwis spending over the Christmas period.

“We know it’s a very different sales environment out there this year but one thing we do know for sure is we are incredibly proud to deliver Christmas for all New Zealanders.”

Despite rising living costs, some NZ Post business customers are taking advantage of the popular shopping events.

Not Socks managing director Jude Burnside says Kiwis are becoming savvier and more confident when it comes to online shopping.

“We knew Black Friday was going to be massive this year, so we’ve been working closely with NZ Post to ensure we’re both fully prepared for what is looking like our biggest Black Friday sales event ever,” Burnside said.

“Last weekend we were over 20% up on the same weekend last year – which reflects our year to-date. We have never felt the pull from customers like we have over the last month. We anticipated we would be busy earlier but the demand for our products has actually shocked us… it’s gone crazy.”

Hallenstein Glasson Holdings Chief Executive Officer Stuart Duncan says online sales since the beginning of November had remained steady.

“We haven’t seen a dip in online sales yet. We are expecting to see a spike in the next coming days when our Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales begin,” he said.

NZ Post also encourages customers to visit their website to check out delivery options if they are not going to be home to receive their parcels.

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