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Black Friday & Cyber Monday: A Shipping Checklist for Aussie Online Stores

|By Mos Sioli

Black Friday & Cyber Monday: a shipping checklist for Aussie online stores

Is your shipping ready for the rush? Black Friday 27 to 30 November, a 7-step checklist

Black Friday lands on Friday 27 November this year, and Cyber Monday follows on 30 November. For most Australian online stores, those four days now bring in more orders than any other week of the year.

Last year Aussies spent $1.5 billion online over the Black Friday weekend, with 3.1 million households shopping. That’s a lot of parcels heading out the door at once, and carriers, couriers and warehouses all feel the squeeze.

The sales are won on price. The customers are kept, or lost, on shipping. A late parcel, a surprise delivery fee or a “where is my order?” email can turn a Black Friday buyer into a one-time buyer.

The good news is that most shipping problems can be fixed before the rush starts. Here’s a 7-step checklist to work through in November so your store is ready.

1. Know your dates and carrier cut-offs

Peak season timeline: start now, mid November sales, Black Friday 27 Nov, Cyber Monday 30 Nov, Christmas Parcel Post cut-offs 14 to 22 Dec

Start by putting every key date on one calendar your whole team can see:

  • Mid-November: Click Frenzy and early Black Friday deals start.
  • 27 November: Black Friday.
  • 30 November: Cyber Monday.
  • 14–22 December: Christmas Parcel Post cut-offs, depending on where you’re sending.

Australia Post’s Christmas 2026 cut-off dates are 22 December for Parcel Post within the same state and 21 December for most interstate parcels. Western Australia (14–18 December) and the Northern Territory (14–17 December) are much earlier. Express Post runs to 23 December for most of the country.

Couriers set their own dates, so check each carrier you use. Then set your own store cut-off one or two days earlier than the carrier’s. That buffer covers the time it takes to pick, pack and hand the parcel over.

Tip: Black Friday orders often turn into Christmas gifts. Mention your Christmas cut-off dates in your Black Friday emails so customers buy early.

2. Get your stock right across every channel

Overselling is the fastest way to ruin a sale. If you sell on your own website plus eBay, Amazon or another marketplace, a single item can sell twice in the same minute.

Before the sales start:

  • Do a quick stock count on your top 20 sellers. These are the items most likely to run out.
  • Make sure stock levels sync automatically between your store and every marketplace.
  • Set a small safety buffer on fast-moving items, so a listing goes out of stock with one or two units still on the shelf.
  • Move your best sellers closer to the packing area so they’re quicker to pick.

If your stock lives in more than one location, decide now which site ships which orders. Shipping from the location closest to the customer is usually cheaper and faster.

3. Use packaging that saves freight

Stop paying to ship air: a 1 kg product in a 40 x 30 x 20 cm box is billed as 6 kg, in a 20 x 15 x 10 cm box it is billed as 1 kg

Most carriers charge on whichever is higher: the parcel’s actual weight or its cubic weight. Cubic weight is worked out from the box’s size. Many carriers use 250 kg per cubic metre, so a 40 × 30 × 20 cm box is charged as 6 kg even if it only weighs 1 kg.

That means an oversized box can quietly double your freight bill during the busiest week of the year. To keep costs down:

  • Stock 3 or 4 box and satchel sizes that fit your most common orders.
  • Use satchels for soft goods like clothing. They’re light and often cheaper to send.
  • Cut back on empty space and filler.
  • Pre-pack popular bundles before the rush so they’re ready to label and go.

Order your packaging now. Suppliers get busy in November too.

4. Line up your carriers, and a backup

During peak season, carriers can hit capacity, pick-ups can run late and some services slow down. Relying on a single carrier is a risk.

  • Compare rates on every order. The cheapest carrier for a 500 g satchel to Melbourne is often not the cheapest for a 10 kg box to Perth. Shipping software like ShipMarvel compares carrier prices for each parcel, so you pay the best rate every time.
  • Have a backup carrier set up. If your main carrier is delayed, you can switch without stopping dispatch.
  • Confirm your pick-up times. Ask your carriers whether pick-up windows change in late November and December, and book extra pick-ups if you need them.
  • Print labels in bulk. Creating labels one by one doesn’t scale when you have hundreds of orders waiting.

5. Make shipping clear at checkout

Surprise delivery costs are one of the main reasons shoppers leave a full cart. On Black Friday, when people are comparing stores side by side, that matters even more.

  • Show the shipping price early. Put it on product pages or in the cart, not just on the last step of checkout.
  • Think about a free shipping threshold. A simple way to set one: take your average order value and add 15–20%. Customers add an extra item to qualify, and the bigger order helps cover the freight.
  • Offer a fast option. Some customers will pay more for express, especially as Christmas gets closer.
  • Show expected delivery dates, not just “3–7 business days”. “Arrives by Thu 4 Dec” is easier to trust.

6. Keep customers updated

Every “where is my order?” email takes time your team doesn’t have in peak season. Most of them can be avoided with good tracking updates.

Send an update at each of these points:

  1. Order confirmed
  2. Order shipped, with a tracking link
  3. Out for delivery
  4. Delivered

If there’s a delay, tell customers before they have to ask. A short, honest message keeps their trust. Add a clear shipping FAQ page with your cut-off dates and delivery times, and link to it from your order emails.

7. Plan for returns now

Big sales bring more returns, and most of them arrive in December and January. A clear returns process now saves a headache later.

  • Make your returns policy easy to find and easy to read.
  • Think about extending your return window for Black Friday orders, so gifts can be returned after Christmas.
  • Decide whether you’ll offer prepaid return labels, and who pays for them.
  • Set up a simple process to check returned items and get them back on sale quickly.

Your Black Friday shipping checklist

Ready, set, ship: a 9-point Black Friday shipping checklist to finish before 27 November

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