Australia Post to open superstores | IR News

Australia Post to open superstores

David Mortimer and Ahmed Fahour at Australia Post's Melbourne Gateway Facility.

Posted Date: 27/03/2012

By Inside Retail

Australia Post is to open 30 Superstores across Australia to help meet growing demand for parcel services from the online shopping boom.

The mail monopoly will also create free "digital mailboxes" for all Australians in a further response to the digital age.

The 30 superstores are in direct response to the 10 million Australians now shopping online, which resulted in Australia Post delivering an extra 3 million parcels during Christmas last year.

The new superstores will have a 24-hour zone with vending machines, parcel lockers and self-service terminals, as well as a Harvey World Travel store, an American Express currency exchange outlet and a concierge to help customers.

"With our parcel volumes growing a staggering 13 per cent since July last year due to online shopping, our superstores are where people's physical lives will connect with their digital lives," said Australia Post MD and CEO, Ahmed Fahour, in a statement.

The 24/7 zone will give customers around-the-clock access to post and collect parcels, pay for postage, purchase stamps and packaging products, pay bills and use an Australia Post ATM.

"With online shopping booming, Australians have told us they want to be able to collect their parcels at a time and place that suits them. Following successful parcel locker trials in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane we are now extending parcel lockers to a total of 10 sites, with plans for a national rollout to further expand this service.

"Customers have told us they don't have time to wait in a queue so we're also investing in self-service terminals in our superstores so customers can skip the queue and spend more time doing the things they enjoy," said Fahour.

"Bridging the divide between physical and online shopping, the superstore will have Apple Macs, iPads and digital screens to allow customers to shop or research online, arrange their parcel delivery electronically and navigate key products and services."

To help small to medium businesses take advantage of the online shopping boom, Australia Post will open a further 16 dedicated Business Hubs around Australia by the end of June, in addition to the seven already open.

The second superstore opens today in Melbourne, following the flagship superstore opening in Brisbane late last year. The next superstores will be in Werribee and Collins Street West, Melbourne (VIC), Cairns and Capalaba (QLD), Queanbeyan, Shellharbour and North Sydney (NSW), Launceston (TAS) and West Perth (WA).

Meanwhile, the Australia Post Digital MailBox will allow businesses, government entities and customers to communicate through a secure online portal that can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, wherever they are, said Australia Post chairman, David Mortimer.

"Just as the traditional letterbox has been a vital part of people's communications for the past 200 years, we think a personal digital mailbox for every Australian is the perfect complement to the letterbox in this online revolution," he said.

Australians can register for an Australia Post Digital MailBox at auspost.com.au/digital-post.

Keywords: Australia Post, online shopping

Comments:

Friday, March 30, 2012 by Ilde

I too would like to see more of an SME tuned service. Australia Post do nothing to assist the number of SMEs that support this service every year with what must be billions of dollars, given that we spend thousands...

This article looked good to me, until I realised I wouldn't benefit at all in my business and in fact wouldn't really use the new services at all. And yet my questions on cost, priority membership for SMEs and post security remain unanswered. I wonder if there was any communication with the business community to work out the best solution? I too wondered if virtual mailboxes could simply be one of my 5 current email addresses???

Wednesday, March 28, 2012 by Scott

Hear hear Emma! As an online retailer I am struggling to survive - I have products that cost $6 just to post within Australia, while Hong Kong sellers can put the same product up for as little as $1, including all their international shipping and eBay costs, and still turn a profit! My own efficiencies mean nothing if international shops can ship into Australia for a tenth of the cost of domestic postage.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012 by Chris

Hmmm, a Personal Digital Mailbox that can be accessed 24/7 wherever we are. Dont we just call that "EMAIL"???

Tuesday, March 27, 2012 by Eddie

Emma, you are so correct, but how's this.... Auspost rate for 'ebay parcels' will increase by 10% on April 2nd.

Auspost is a poorly managed monopoly who claim to be striving to continously 'create efficiencies' within their operation to benefit customers. Where are the efficiencies for business?

And shouldn't their increased volumes leverage operational scale economies that mean savings to be passed on to customers?

Oh yes, that's right. Manopoly.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012 by Emma

All good news, but Australia Post has also raised their prices for SMEs by 3.8% for sending parcels and bulk mail. It's obviously trying to make up for ongoing losses in letters sector as digital age chugs along, but penalising SMEs (instead of revisiting their business model) just doesn't make sense: especially as these businesses are the most likely to help grown their services, what with the growing import/online shopping model many SMEs are involved in.

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