NZ Post asks customers to change how they shop

Friday, 29 October 2021

The postal service is promising its couriers will be “the last van in the driveway before Christmas.”

New Zealand Post is asking customers to start planning their Christmas shopping now to relieve pressure on parcel delivery services, which are 'busier than ever' in Auckland.

A 90 per cent surge in online shopping in Auckland because of lockdown restrictions has led to delivery services being pushed to the limit. In response to the demand, NZ Post has gone from delivering 440,000 parcels per week in Auckland to more than 740,000.

Because it was uncertain how much longer the restrictions would go on for, NZ Post was asking New Zealanders, and particularly Aucklanders, to shop differently ahead of the Christmas rush.

Chief customer officer Bryan Dobson said shoppers should start thinking ahead and planning their spending now. He advised making a list so that people could place fewer, but larger orders to reduce shipping costs.

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He also encouraged the use of 'click and collect” services wherever possible and to consider bulk buying items that would normally be purchased monthly or weekly.

“Our teams have been working incredibly hard to deliver for Kiwis while retail stores remain closed. We’ve brought on 800 extra people and are still recruiting 300 more.

“We’ve extended our operating hours and are processing 24/7, and we’ve re-designed our Auckland network to get parcels where they need to be as fast as we can. Our posties are now helping out our couriers too – delivering even more parcels alongside mail,” Dobson said.

However, there were limits on what the service could physically do to increase capacity and so Aucklanders needed to play a part in relieving the pressure, he said.

NZ Post was currently delivering 2 million parcels a week, or four every second.

Outside of Auckland services were operating closer to normal but it was still asking shoppers to plan ahead and follow the same tips.

NZ Post’s latest eCommerce Spotlight report showed that New Zealanders spent $1.7 billion online over the last three months, an increase of 22 per cent on the same period last year. This was even more significant considering there were lockdowns in the same quarter last year as well, Dobson said.

Auckland has had the biggest quarter for online shopping ever, with Aucklanders spending over $700m online over the last three months, $122m more than the same quarter last year, and a massive 51 per cent increase on 2019.

The report showed Aucklanders had made 6.3 million transactions online in the last three months, about 70,000 online transactions every day. This was an increase of almost 30 per cent compared to the same time last year.

“All indications show that these trends are going to continue over the next three months in the lead up to Christmas,” he said.