Using Australia Post Shipping

NOTE: At the time of writing, this article refers to functionality in your Store Toolbox that is currently being added, so what you see in your Store Toolbox may be different from what is documented here. This article will be updated when functionality for this section has been finalised.

Spiffy Stores links in with Australia Post to calculate the cost of shipping an item to your customer based on the weight of items in their cart. To add an Australia Post shipping rate, go to the "Preferences >> Shipping & handling" section of your Store Toolbox, and follow the instructions below.

Enabling Australia Post as a shipping agent

If you haven't already enabled Australia Post as a shipping provider, go to the "Preferences >> Shipping & handling" section of your Store Toolbox, and follow the instructions below.

1. Click on the "Add a shipping agent" button in the top right of the "Shipping & handling" page
   
   
2. From the list of available shipping agents, click the "Activate" button in the Australia Post section
   
   
3. Select the services from Australia Post that you want to offer to your customers.  Currently, the following services are supported;
   
   • Regular Parcel Post (Domestic)
   • Registered Post (Domestic)
   • Express Post (Domestic) 
   • International Air Mail 
   • International Sea Mail 
   • Express Courier International Merchandise
   • Express Post International
   

We're currently unable to provide shipping costs for Australia Posts' Platinum Express service, as the Australia Post API doesn't provide these costs. 

Creating a weight-based shipping rate using Australia Post

1. Click on the "Add a weight-based rate" link under the country that you want to add a new shipping rate for.
   
   
2. Name your shipping rate. This name appears in your checkout when a customer places an order, so generally you would write the method that it's being shipped by… for instance "Australia Post Parcel Post".
   
   
3. Add the weight range that this postage rate applies to. The first box is the starting (lowest) weight that applies for this weight range. The second box is the ending (highest) weight that applies for this weight range.
   
   Note: In order for the weight range to apply to the current contents of the shopping cart, the weight of the cart must be greater than or equal to the lowest value in the range, but less than the highest value in the weight range.
   
   
4. Select the Shipping Service that applies to this shipping rate in the section titled "Choose a Shipping Rate Calculator", for example if you're creating a rate for "Australia Post Parcel Post", then choose "Australia Post".
   
   
5. Click the "Save Rate" button.
   
   

If you want to adjust the price for different regions in the country (including custom regions that you've created), edit the rate that you've just created, and use the arrows to adjust the rate up or down. You can also disable the rate for any regions as well, so you can create a custom rate that only applies to customers in your local area, or a rate that applies only to a range of postcodes etc.

Creating a shipping rate for Australia Post Registered Post

1. Click on the "Add a weight-based rate" link under the country that you want to add a new shipping rate for.
   
   
2. Name your shipping rate  "Australia Post Registered Post".
   
   
3. Add the weight range that this postage rate applies to. The first box is the starting (lowest) weight that applies for this weight range. The second box is the ending (highest) weight that applies for this weight range.
   
   Note: In order for the weight range to apply to the current contents of the shopping cart, the weight of the cart must be greater than or equal to the lowest value in the range, but less than the highest value in the weight range.
   
   
4. Select "Australia Post Parcel Post", in the section titled "Choose a Shipping Rate Calculator" and click the "Save Rate" button.
   
   
5. Edit the shipping rate that you've just created, and add $2.00 to the "handling charges" box displayed on this page.  At the time this was written, the cost of Registered Post is $2.00 on top of the standard Australia Post Parcel Post rate.  Please refer to the Australia Post web site to confirm this before adding this shipping rate!