The ‘friendly courier experts’ are seeing toys, wine and electronic products all topping the Christmas ‘wish list’, this year.
Reports reveal that there are more parcels in transit in Australia than ever before – online retailing is 5.7% higher, with Australians spending an estimated $17.6 billion online over the 12 months to September 20151. Additionally, Fastway Couriers estimates that in the months leading up to Christmas, their network will experience an increase of 15% in the amount of parcels delivered.
Toys
Fastway Couriers has built a reputation for providing friendly, cost-effective courier services to the B2B and B2C market. The company is viewed as an innovator in the online retail parcel delivery space and works with a number of online retailers.
Richard Thame, Chief Executive Officer at Fastway Couriers, says:
“This year, some interesting trends have emerged. As you would expect, a key contributor to the rush over the Christmas period is online toy sales. It’s been reported that the revenue in the online toy sales industry is expected to grow annually in Australia by 15%2. What we’re seeing is an increasing acceptance of the internet as an efficient shopping tool for everyday products and busy mums and dads are definitely jumping onboard.”
One of Fastway Couriers’ customers, TheNile.com.au, which is an Australian online department store stocking over 20 million items agrees.
Jethro Marks, Co-founder & Director of TheNile.com.au says:
“With the rise of e- and m-commerce, it can be far easier to research and shop for toys online to get organised ahead of time. With an extensive array of toys now available for purchase via websites, from ride-on toys and stuffed animals to action figures and books, there’s a broad collection to browse through and select. Toys are very popular for us at this time of year.”
Wine
Richard says that another hot favourite in the run-up to the Christmas period is of course, you guessed it, wine.
“With the liquor industry only just realising the boom of the online retail sector in the past few years, the industry’s revenue has been estimated to grow by 7.5% annually over five years3. Our couriers would certainly agree with this and we’re increasingly working with companies who sell products in this area,” adds Thame.
Greg Banbury, Marketing Director at Naked Wines, an Australian online wine retailer and long standing Fastway Couriers partner says:
“We distribute thousands of wine cases each year across Australia, with Christmas being one of our busiest times. Alcohol needs to be handled with care and Fastway Couriers carefully deliver our products to our customers.”
Electronic products
“Over the past five years, the online consumer electronics industry has grown by 21.7% annually. Everyone wants or needs to be ‘connected’ at all times these days, which has inevitably supported the demand for consumer electronic products such as desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones, making them a clear favourite for Christmas presents. Although popular all year round, Christmas is our busiest time of year for electronic items,” says Thame.
Helping businesses and customers this Christmas
To meet customers’ needs for speed and transparency, Jethro from TheNile.com.au says, it’s extremely important to partner with reliable, cost-effective courier services.
“Fastway has the experience and technology to provide efficient last mile solutions, with track and trace capabilities to better connect our customer to their products and provide them with the information they need. This is something that is particularly important for those special Christmas gifts,” adds Marks.
To make everything as easy as possible for customers, Fastway Couriers has also developed a range of innovative services including Parcel Connect, a convenient alternative to postal and traditional courier services. With Parcel Connect, customers can send or collect parcels via a local Parcel Connect agent at a time that suits them. Parcel Connect agents are situated in convenient locations such as, a newsagents, corner stores or petrol stations. All locations have extended operating hours, allowing customers to skip the queues and deal with their Christmas parcels outside the 9am to 5pm restrictions.
“Our customers told us that Parcel Connect was something that would make their lives easier. At this time of year, it’s particularly useful and, as the modern day Santa, we look forward to delivering Christmas gifts across the country,” explains Thame.
For more information on Fastway Couriers, visit www.fastway.com.au.