Australia Post has committed to providing seven day-a-week service as Christmas Day draws closer.
From mid-November, parcel and express post delivery will be seven days a week, up to and including Christmas Eve.
“There’s no doubt that Christmas is our busiest time of year and we understand the huge importance to Australians of sending and receiving gifts, packages and parcels during the festive season,” said managing director and CEO Ahmed Fahour.
“We’ve been busy preparing for Christmas by focussing on providing convenient services seven days a week for our customers, to make sending and receiving parcels as easy as possible over the Christmas period.”
Australia Post retail outlets across the country will also have extended trading hours during the week and at weekends.
Fahour also encourage people to use the Australia Post parcel lockers to provide 24 hour a day, 7 days a week access to collect their online purchases.
“Last year we delivered an additional 100,000 parcels a day over the Christmas period compared to the year before and we’re predicting this Christmas will be just as busy, if not busier,” he said.
“More than seven million Australians now have the added convenience of picking up their Christmas parcels from one of 150 parcel locker locations within 10 minutes of their homes.”
These commitments have been welcomed by eBay, which is an online marketplace where more than 100,000 Australian businesses.
eBay spokesperson Adrian Christie said the initiative reflects the demand and maturity of the Australian retail market.
“Australia Post's commitment to support consumers and retailers is a clear indicator of their intent to drive better delivery service in Australia,” he said.
“From the early trends we are seeing so far, it looks to be a Christmas dominated by mobile transactions. Consumers are very clearly telling us that they want to be able to shop anytime anywhere on any device that's most convenient to them, and this Australia Post decision could help to facilitate that by giving consumers confidence that their gifts will be under the tree long before the 25th rolls around.”