Australia Post has deemed November 2021 the “biggest month in Australian online shopping history” after delivering a record 21 million parcels across an admittedly extended sales event period.

According to AusPost, online shopping throughout November beat last year’s record by 13 per cent, and jumped 76 per cent on 2019’s figures.

The clincher was Cyber Week 2021’s earlier start, said Australia Post general manager of parcels and express services Ben Franzi.

“Many cyber sales [started] sooner than last year [and] people have been able to snap up online deals for longer than just those traditional four days from Black Friday,” Franzi said.

Throughout the weekend between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Australia Post said it delivered 800,000 parcels, with 444 tonnes of parcels transported through air freight – 15 per cent more than the year prior.

According to AusPost, almost a quarter of sales were made up of fashion purchases.

Franzi added, however, that the logistical issues that have plagued Australian retail’s supply chain and delivery network throughout the pandemic are not yet over, and said Australia Post was still working in a “challenging environment”.

“Our delivery teams [managed] to get almost a million parcels a day to front doors across NSW alone on December 1 and December 2, and we’ve got our delivery people and processing around the country working around the clock as we head into a busy Christmas,” Franzi said.