Record BFCM online sales see 53.5 million parcels processed by Australia Post

This year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) sales proved too good for Australians to resist, with 5.2 million households making an online purchase between November 20 and December 3 according to Australia Post’s parcel sending data retrieved from the cyber sales period.

Last month was also the biggest November ever recorded for Australia Post, with 53.5 million parcels processed.

Fashion was the most popular purchase category for Australian shoppers with a year-on-year growth of 36%, which was followed by athleisure at 22%, footwear, and sporting and outdoor goods.

According to the Australia Post data, cyber weekend (November 24-27) was up 4.2% on last year and Cyber Monday saw its highest ever 5.1% growth on last year, receiving 3.5 million parcels.

For Showpo, the brand’s dresses proved to be a top seller this year with its founder and Shark Tank judge Jane Lu saying Showpo was significantly up on last year overall across the four days.

“For Showpo it was our best BFCM yet,” she said. 

“The record-breaking November is not surprising — what Australia Post saw aligns with our business and what I have seen across other retailers. 

“Australia Post experiencing an uplift in the fashion category doesn’t surprise me — the popularity of fashion products among shoppers is evident, and we noticed a significant increase in sales, which reaffirms our product offerings and customer preferences.

“Showpo like Australia Post was well-prepared for the increased delivery demands during this period and we ensured efficient order fulfillment and delivery to meet customer expectations, including same-day delivery service to metro areas.”

Lu added that the trend also reflects a strong consumer confidence in e-commerce, underscoring the importance of loyalty and trust in online retailers.

The Australia Post data also showed that some of the strongest growth in online purchases year-on-year at 7.6% was made by Queensland shoppers, followed by Western Australia and the ACT, both at 7.5%.

Queensland-based Naked Harvest co-founder Georgie Stevenson said the brand had a successful month.

“Traditionally across the years, the BFCM period is one of our largest months — including January when everyone really loves all things wellness,” she said. 

“2023 saw our strategy was about offering discounts, some of which were up to 70% off, and adding value by having great, functional, limited-edition accessories such as gym bags, luxe bottles and our sought-after hand mixer.

“Being based in Queensland, and having such a large following in this area, we saw our repeat Queensland customers reign supreme — so the data on Australia Post seeing QLD as one of the strongest in terms of growth doesn’t surprise us.”

Stevenson said Naked Harvest’s biggest challenge this year was keeping up with demand, with so many of its best-sellers selling out.

“Our Moon Mylk and Greens are always best sellers but during the BFCM sale we also had Cherry Cola Pre-Workout and our new product Busy Girl went crazy — at one stage we only had 20 units left,” she said.

“When our site went live on the 20th of November it actually crashed from the amount of people on there — we were able to fix it quickly but our stock moved quickly and has been replenished since but it was our biggest BFCM to date.

“In other years most people came and got 1-2 products whereas this year we noticed people purchasing larger varieties of products and also returning customers leaning into trying something new from the range.”

Tbh Skincare and York Street Brands co-founder Rachael Wilde said she believes the data shows that the Black Friday shopping period continues to grow in popularity year on year within Australia.

“I don’t think we are going to see it slow down,” she said. 

“I also think in a year that has put a huge squeeze on discretionary spending, a lot of people were holding out for this sale period.

“So there was probably more restraint used on purchases leading up to the Black Friday period and then probably more enthusiasm to get all the Christmas shopping for the year done within the sales.”

Tbh Skincare ran its Black Friday sale from November 9-27 and released a new product — its pucker up SPF30 lip balm — as well as 40% off storewide, and gave away the free product for any order over $90.

Wilde said to drive hype and manage inventory, they put the tbh Skincare website behind a password for the first 24 hours of Black Friday, so only its subscribers could get in. 

“Our launch day this year was 62% up on last year’s record day of sales,” she said

For serum-based brand BOOST LAB, Wilde said they took a similar strategy.

“We ran this sale from the 13th – 27th of November and also launched a new product on the first day of starting the sale – Fine Line Rewind Silicone Patches,” she said. 

“We offered these free for any orders over $70. We actually didn’t have enough inventory of this product to last through the whole Black Friday period, we ended up selling out before Black Friday.

“BOOST LAB’s launch of Black Friday was up 1600% on last year, a huge record day for the brand doing over six figures in one day.”