Boxing Day home deliveries doubled – or increased by 100% – between 2019 and 2021, according to new address validation data from global information services company, Experian.
In 2019, the number of address validations was 784,000 and this jumped to 1.56 million in 2021 for the period 26 to 31 December.
Between 2019 and 2020 saw the biggest increase of 115% with the growth almost held going into 2021 with only a 7% fall. This is line with ABS retail trade figures which show a 4.4% drop in retail sales in December 2021 – the largest monthly fall since April 2020.
Australia Post data revealed that 3.7 million households purchased between 26 December 2021 and 8 January 2022.
A significant contributing factor to the number of address validations doubling during the Boxing Day sales period compared with pre-pandemic sales is the number of people turning to online shopping, according to Experian general manager for data quality and targeting, Steve Philpotts.
“Another contributing factor is the pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions, leading to widespread stock unavailability. Customers are heading instore to find items unavailable, then either opting for store managed deliveries, or reverting online to alternative options.”