Online shopping takes nearly 10% longer to arrive in heavy rain. Here’s what retailers should do to avoid delays ahead of La Niña

As the east coast of Australia gears up for the third consecutive wet spring — and possibly summer — retail businesses should be anticipating deliveries to take 9% longer than in drier years and make contingency plans now to prepare.

That’s according to data from retail logistics platform Shippit, which services more than 3500 retailers including Target, Myer, Cotton On and BIG W in delivering some 40 million parcels across Australia.

The Bureau of Meteorology has warned of a 70% chance of La Niña reforming this year — around triple the normal likelihood — increasing the probability of “above-average rainfall for northern and eastern Australia during spring and summer”.

Shippit analysed time matrix Weekly Carrier Transit Times and found the average delivery in 2020 and 2021 took up to 9% longer to fulfil in heavy rain compared to finer weather conditions.

In real-hour terms, it means more than 80,000 courier drivers took an additional 7200 hours to fulfil deliveries each year, leaving retailers dealing with customers frustrated by delivery date delays.

Rob Hango-Zada, co-founder and co-CEO of Shippit, says the wet months ahead will “again disrupt supply chains and test consumer tolerance”.

“Consumers’ expectations are increasing and they have lower tolerance for when their expectations are not met,” Hango-Zada tells SmartCompany.

“During the devastating floods earlier this year, we saw delays in excess of 10 days on many of Australia’s busiest routes.”

So what should retail businesses do now to prepare? Contingency plans for long periods of wild weather are “essential”, Hango-Zada warns.

“Retailers, particularly those with multiple physical locations, need to consider their ability to operate across different logistics providers to ensure they’re prepared for any type of disruption,” he said.

“Carriers with route optimisation are more resilient to increasingly extreme weather with the ability to re-route and share work more efficiently with a range of couriers with adequate capacity and diverse freight specialities.”

It comes after unprecedented rainfall in February resulted in Australia’s second-most costly weather event ever, particularly impacting businesses and homes in southeast Queensland and northern NSW.

Last month the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) revealed insured losses surpassed $5.1 billion, with commercial claimants — including small businesses ravaged by floodwaters — claiming an average of $71,000.

Another soggy La Niña also comes as retailers gear up for a peak period: Christmas shopping. Last week, Australia Post warned online shoppers to start tackling their present list “now” to ensure items arrive ahead of the big day.

Australia Post chief executive Paul Graham cited several factors at play: supply chain issues from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the historic labour and skills shortage, and pandemic absences among them.

“We just haven’t had one thing come out of sync, we have had three or four things come out of sync at the same time,” Graham said.

Parcel deliveries took off during the pandemic as people turned to online shopping amid lockdowns. Last year acting CEO of Australia Post Rodney Boys said Australia Post sent 32% more parcels compared to pre-COVID times.