Ship Smarter Down Under: Best Shopify Shipping Apps for Australia

A 2022 survey from the Baymard Institute reported that over 68% of online shoppers abandon their cart. Out of this staggering number, 70% of these shoppers abandon cart because of issues around shipping options, affordability, and speed.  Shipping is without a doubt, the #1 factor holding shoppers back from completing a checkout experience.

If this last leg of your customer’s journey isn’t optimised, you’re wasting a lot of time, money, and resources; while losing customers you tried so hard to acquire. 

You need a shipping app, but there are way too many half-baked options in the Shopify marketplace right now. What are the best shipping apps for Shopify stores in Australia? Keep scrolling to find out. 

At the end, we’ll share our favourite app and why it outshines the rest.

What You Need in a Shipping App

Some Shopify shipping apps excel in some places and lack in others. This leads many business owners to purchase multiple apps, eating into overall profit margins. 

Given there’s no comprehensive solution, some businesses will turn away from apps entirely, opting to spend hours upon hours attempting to create their own suboptimal “optimisations”.

Shopify store owners need a shipping app to excel not in one area, but in all of the areas below.

• Competitive Shipping Rates: Shipping fees are some of the biggest turn offs to online shopping. A good shipping app should offer competitive rates and multiple delivery options. Having multiple options puts delivery price, speed, and add-ons (e.g. insurance) in the hands of the customer; reducing the likelihood of cart abandonment.

• Simple, Streamlined Fulfilment: Shipping and fulfilment go hand-in-hand. A better shipping experience for customers should not create more work for your pick ‘n’ pack team. It should make their work easier and more efficient. Apps should automate packing list printing, calculations for shipping weight and type of packaging use, and batch fulfilment.

• Order Tracking: Rather than having customers take multiple steps to multiple websites to track their order status, they should be able to visit one place to see all the information they need on fulfilment status and postal tracking.

• Easy International Shipping: Overseas orders can be a bottleneck for your fulfilment team. Very few Shopify Australia apps do international shipping right, forcing many business owners to build these shipments manually. This is a massive waste of time. And in a non-revenue-generating department like fulfilment, time is literally money. You need an app that can optimise this entire process.

• Automation: Customers remember a swift, transparent delivery experience. As your business scales, the only way you can keep delivering this same quality of service is through automation. Apps that turn complex processes into one click will save your business money on labour and shipping costs, allowing you to ship more orders faster.

The 8 Best Shipping Apps For Shopify Australia

Below are 8 of the best shipping apps for Shopify in Australia. Each has slightly different features and pricing*. Rest assured there is an app here for every budget and business size.

*All pricing is in USD.

1. Shippit

The Complete Shipping App

Shippit offers merchants and customers competitive live shipping rates at checkout. On top of this, the app gives merchants trackable insights and reporting across various aspects of the shipping experience.

Through shipping analytics, merchants can learn things like: which carrier their customers prefer, the average cost per shipment, average delivery times, and track downtrends in shipping costs. All without ever leaving Shopify.

Shippit’s standout feature is Smart Carrier Allocation. Using an algorithm based on historical data across multiple major couriers, Shippit will automatically select the best courier for each leg of a parcel’s journey. This algorithm factors in shipping, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. 

Your customer gets their order faster. And you potentially save money on shipping.

Main Features

• Offer live quotes for multiple delivery options at check-out.
• Discounted shipping rates with leading carriers.
• One-click label printing, picklists and pack slips to fulfil orders fast.
• Smart carrier allocation and insights to keep shipping costs under control.

Pricing

Free plan available. 30-day free trial for all other plans. Paid plans start at $54/month with higher tiers offering greater discounts on shipping rates.

2. Australia Post MyPost Business

For MyPost Business Account Owners

Have MyPost Business or AusPost eParcel account? The Australia Post MyPost Business app could help streamline your pack & ship process. Within the app, you can bulk print shipping labels and picklists, attach tracking numbers to Shopify orders, and view live rates. 

If you primarily ship via AusPost, MyPost Business is built with your needs in mind. And if you already have a contract with AusPost, you can easily upload your contract shipping rates into the app.

Main Features

• Bulk print Auspost MyPost & eParcel shipping labels, invoices and picklists.
• Attach tracking numbers to Shopify orders.
• View live rates for all orders (Domestic and International).
• Do efficient batch processing, deferring orders and use basic shipping rules.

Pricing

$9.99/month. 7-day free trial.

3. ShipStation

The Branded Shipping Experience

Want to create a completely branded experience at every step of the customer journey? ShipStation could be ideal for your business. 

Merchants can customise tracking emails, SMS, and even shipping labels. This allows brands to create unique moments for customers at all touchpoints. Outside of this, ShipStation also offers competitive rates across multiple established carriers. 

Basic branded features do not come at an extra cost, with deeper customisation available at higher price tiers. Take care to assess your margins before determining how customised you want your shipping experience to be. 

Main Features

• Competitive rates across multiple top carriers.
• Sync orders across unlimited selling channels. This could be multiple Shopify stores and/or markets, or through external integrations.
• Create rules to tag, batch, or split certain order types.
• Deliver custom emails, SMS, and branded tracking to customers.

Pricing

From $9.99/month. 30-day free trial.

4. ReadyToShip

For Expediting Your Fulfillment Process

For merchants that use multiple Australian carriers and need an easy way to compare rates, ReadyToShip could help. This app allows merchants to connect many different carrier accounts and select the most economical shipping provider after a customer has placed an order. 

ReadyToShip is primarily focussed on expediting your internal fulfilment process, giving your team multiple options for categorising orders. Using these filters, pick-packers can batch-pack similar orders quickly. 

Main Features

• Connect and compare multiple Australian carriers, and choose the best shipping option for each order.
• Bulk print labels, invoices, and picklists.
• Manage your shipments in one place, and send tracking numbers back to Shopify once orders are fulfilled.

Pricing

Free to install. Variable fee per shipping label printed, starting at 5c.

5. Shippo

The App For International Shipping

Does your business send lots of parcels overseas? Shippo might be a good option for you. Shippo has its own competitive rates with various local and international shipping providers. And like many other apps, it also gives you the option to use the rates within your own carrier accounts.

Shippo claims to offer the best rates for UPS and DHL. If you use these carriers often, it might be worth comparing your current rates with theirs.

If you upgrade to the Professional plan, the app also has more options for merchants to create a branded customer experience.

Main Features

• Sync order & package info (tracking) to Shopify to keep customers updated in real time.
• Customize emails, packing slips, and more.
• Access competitive rates across multiple carriers.
• Effortlessly generate labels, import orders, and batch print up to 100 labels at once.

Pricing

Free to install. Variable fee per shipping label printed, starting at 5c. 

Paid plan starts at $10/month with no label printing fee.

6. Starshipit

Automate Shipping Fee Comparisons

Starshipit gives merchants the option to automatically default shipments to the cheapest option available. And like other shipping apps, it also gives merchants the option to compare rates across multiple carriers before bulk printing labels and picklists. 

On the customer end, you can set up a checkout experience to let customers choose between multiple couriers and delivery options, displaying the rates for each. 

Lastly, the app has a self-service returns feature, enabling customers to easily create returns in their own time. 

Main Features

• Set automations to go with the cheapest option every time.
• Enable multiple delivery options, shipping rates​ and transit times at checkout.
• Send tracking notifications and branded tracking pages during delivery.
• Offer a self-service returns journey with branded returns.

Pricing

From $35/month. 30-day free trial.

7. Better Shipping

Set Custom Shipping Rates

There are so many factors that influence shipping costs. Weight, package shape, contents, distance, and more. Sometimes shipping fees can change again once a package is scanned into the carrier depot. If you feel like you need more control over your rates, consider Better Shipping. This app lets merchants customise rates at checkout and shipping rules for specific products in-store.

If you ship items of all different shapes and sizes, having custom rates could help you manage your profit margins on each order. If your store provides free shipping for large purchases, creating custom rates could help subsidise the shipping costs on these orders.

Main Features

• Set individual shipping rates for each product or variant in your store.
• Restrict shipping based on zip/postal codes.
• Apply tiered shipping rates (e.g. $10 shipping for 1 item, $5 if purchasing 3 or more).
• Use shipping rules to combine shipping by product, variant, location and more.

Pricing

Free to try test mode. 

From $19.99/month with a 14-day free trial.

8. ShipHero

For The Multi-Warehouse or Enterprise Merchant

ShipHero brands itself as a warehouse management system (WMS), suitable for big brands with complex operations. It has many features that lean towards optimising your fulfilment process so that customers get their orders quickly, in full, and on time. ShipHero also attempts to integrate all aspects of your business; from the early supply chain to pick-packers and finally couriers.

Similar to Shippit, you can track the performance of carriers across different regions, and use these insights to find more effective, cheaper options to deliver to customers. It’s a catch-all app that tries to do everything for businesses that ship in enterprise volumes.

Main Features

• Reduce mistakes and mis-picks, and automatically save a photo of every packed order.
• Increase efficiency with team and courier performance tracking.
• Include up to 10 stores in one subscription.
• 24/7 customer support.

Pricing

From $1,995/month. Add-on Fulfillment App is free to install.

Winner: Shippit

There are so many shipping apps out there, but none quite match up to Shippit. It’s the one we recommend to our ecommerce clients whether they run a small, mid-size, or enterprise business. 

Shippit doesn’t just solve the problem of shipping. It gives you real, trackable insights along the way. Using these insights, merchants can get a true understanding of where they are saving or losing money in shipping fees, and then optimise accordingly. This potentially cost-saving feature makes the comparably small monthly fee a non-issue for most businesses. And with Smart Carrier Allocation, businesses could save even more in shipping costs.

Runner-Up: Starshipit

While Starshipit may not have as many features as Shippit, its automation capabilities could help merchants save money over time. Merchants can set up Starshipit to default to the cheapest carrier for each order. This saves merchants time and money, as they no longer need to compare rates for every individual order.

Starshipit also has simple, branded returns; a feature many shipping apps don’t have. Dealing with return inquiries can be a very time-consuming process for mid-size and small businesses. Having the ability to automate this expensive process frees up a business to deal with more urgent customer inquiries.

What if You Don’t Rely on Third-Party Couriers?

Deliver directly to your customers? 

If delivery costs aren’t already factored into the price of your product, you’ll need to create your own custom rates. The Shopify Carrier API empowers tech-savvy retailers and agencies to develop their own internal app. This app can then be used to carry out complex, accurate decisions on shipping rates and methods through a user-friendly interface.

Does this sound like something your business needs? Reach out to us and we’ll help you build a custom app.

Fewer Cart Abandons, More Sales, & Scalable Shipping With the Best Shipping Apps

In the world of online shopping, customers want it easy. Customers want things simple. The more time they spend on that checkout page, the less likely they are to convert. This is why you need a good shipping app.

Make the purchase seamless. Make the delivery efficient. And they’ll be back again and again.

Ready to optimise your shipping experience? Drop us a line here.