Blog

What is Australia Posts OnDemand shipping service?

By Nathan Huppatz | Published: November 7, 2018

Australia post recently launched their new ‘OnDemand’ carrier services which ReadyToShip integrates with.

There are three different services available including:

  • NOW (Which is a 3hr courier delivery option)
  • SAT (Which is a Saturday afternoon delivery option) and
  • TON (Which is an evening delivery option)

These new services offer some great courier/same day options to Australia Post/Startrack’s offerings.

For retailers that sell product required for events or in faster time frames, the ability to offer a same day or courier service is highly sought after.

What are these services?

Here is some more detail about the three services.

They are only available in certain metro postcodes, and the same/next day coverage is usually to the same postcode area.

For an up to date list of serviced areas, please view the Auspost OnDemand service area list here.

NOW: This is a 3 (or 4) Hr courier delivery service, which is a point to point pickup via a Startrack Courier van.

It is direct delivery, from your business to the customer. Manifest must be done as soon as possible, so a job can be allocated by the Startrack courier.

TON: This is a great service providing same day delivery to the customer in the evening.

Booking again must be manifested before a cut off time for pickup (usually around 3pm). Bookings are picked up by Startrack Courier vans, and delivered to customers between 6 and 9pm that evening.

SAT: This is a Saturday afternoon delivery, which can be booked on a Friday or Saturday morning.

These bookings can be made on Friday, or Saturday morning up until 11am, for delivery between 1 and 6pm Saturday afternoon.

How does the Auspost OnDemand pricing work?

The pricing model is quite simple.

Each service is a flat fee added to your local Auspost metro delivery rate. This means that each service is the one cost, regardless of delivery postcode.

How do you qualify for OnDemand services?

Qualification is required, and retailer fit can be examined on a case by case basis. You need to be in the serviceable area, and meet some other general requirements. For more questions, contact your Australia Post account manager.

To generate OnDemand labels and update tracking to your customers via your webstore or marketplace you can connect OnDemand to ReadyToShip.

Simply sign up for a ReadyToShip account for free here, then follow the prompts to connect to OnDemand services.

Sendle releases new pricing from October 29th

By Nathan Huppatz | Published: October 19, 2018

Sendle is one of the more popular carrier integrations in ReadyToShip as there are a number of great features available including free Premium pricing for 12 months when using ReadyToShip and Sendle together, along with flat rate pricing Australia wide.

This month we have a number of updates to share regarding our integrations with Sendle. The first is upcoming price changes, including some great looking local satchel rates.

To find out more about the Sendle pricing information below please get in touch with the Sendle business team.

Not a Sendle user yet? Signing up is free and easy to do – just click here.

The announcement from Sendle is included below:

Announcing $4.75* (ex GST) 500g Satchels!

Sendle has reduced local satchel rates.

For Pro Plan customers our same city 500g satchels are down $1.00 to a super sharp price of $4.75* (ex GST). There’s also good news for those on Sendle’s Premium plan, with same city 500g satchel rate discounted by 14% to $5.80 ($5.27 ex GST).

If you’d like to access these rates for your business, contact Sendle’s business team.

 

Sendle Price Guarantee: Cheaper than Parcel Post*

 

Sendle New Rates and Extended Price Guarantee

Sendle have adjusted their rates to reflect standard changes in markets and CPI. Some rates have come down, some have stayed the same and others have gone up. Scroll down to see the full rates for each plan. These rates will come into effect on 29th October 2018.

To help your business succeed, Sendle developed the Sendle Price guarantee so you can send your 500g satchels, 2kg, 5kg, 10kg and 25kg parcels to Sendle’s same-city and national zones for less than standard Parcel Post rates.

If the standard Parcel Post rate is cheaper, Sendle will beat it. That’s a like-for-like, kilo-for-kilo better price guarantee! For business plans, save 30% to 60%† on same city parcels and save 16% to 72%† on national parcels! 

Sendle Plan Discounts†Savings are compared to the latest standard Parcel Post rates, published 1 October, 2018. Percentage comparisons shown range from destinations in the same state (min) to prices from Perth to Hobart (max).

 

Remote and International: Sendle to Alaska or Alice Springs

In line with their commitment to simplify, Sendle added a simple $13 surcharge for remote parcels. So even if you’re sending a full 25kgs of love to folks in Ghan, Northern Territory, it’ll still only cost $13 more than the national rate.

Aussie goods are going cheap with the dollar at a 2.5 year low, and the good news is, there’s never been better time to start exporting. Sendle maintained their international rates just as they are, so you can compete with the folks overseas.

Here are the rates for Sendle’s Easy, Premium and Pro plans. These will come into effect on 29th October 2018.
Sendle Easy Pricing
Sendle Premium Pricing
Sendle Pro Pricing

5-reasons-to-use-sendle

 

If you want more information, reach out to Sendle’s Business Team, or talk to us here at ReadyToShip on live chat.

How to connect Sendle to Amazon Australia

By Nathan Huppatz | Published: December 13, 2017

Connecting your Amazon Australia account to Sendle is super easy with  ReadyToShip’s integration with Amazon.

This integration connects your Amazon Australia account to Sendle for easy shipping with the click of a button (full list click here).

The integration has great features such as:

  • Automatic importing of Amazon orders into ReadyToShip
  • Address verification (suburb/postcode matching)
  • Automatically assign carrier services based on customer’s selected shipping method
  • One click label printing
  • One click manifesting
  • One click tracking update to Amazon!

Speed is of the essence and Amazon Australia (like other Amazon marketplaces around the world) has strict performance metrics. ReadyToShip help sellers maintain high standards with shipping time by optimising the label printing and order updating process with Amazon.

Connecting Sendle only takes a few minutes and can be done without any assistance.

We provide detailed instructions here: > Connect to Sendle

Once Sendle is connected, Amazon orders are imported automatically into ReadyToShip.

Sendle pricing is shown for each order (using the item weights and dimensions from the Amazon order).

Then simply select orders to ship, and click a button to print labels, and click again to update Amazon with tracking information. Simple!

 

Need a Sendle Account? Get one a free account in a few minutes, with Premium Pricing for 12 months! Click here to create a Sendle account

Amazon Australia is Amazon’s newest marketplace, and for now is offer merchants the ability to list product and self-fulfil. This is called Fulfilled By Merchant (or FBM for short).

ReadyToShip is a multicarrier/multi-store shipping platform that now integrates with Amazon Australia, allowing sellers to manage their orders, print labels, and update tracking numbers back to their Amazon account. ReadytoShip now help sellers ship nearly 1 million items a month in Australia.

Start a FREE 30 day trial of ReadyToShip, and if you don’t sell on Amazon Australia yet, click here to register.

ReadyToShip’s Australian eCommerce Christmas 2017 Market Update

By Nathan Huppatz | Published: December 8, 2017

New figures from Australia Post have highlighted strong eCommerce growth for the Christmas season in Australia. Coupled with our own ReadyToShip data, we dig a little deeper into November and Christmas activity for online retail in Australia.

Australia Post Online shopping is still growing much faster than traditional retail, with online growth at 13.8% versus 2.2% for traditional retail. A pretty large difference.

Online shopping activity in Australia is also increasing, with online shoppers buying 28% more often in 2017 compared to 2016

ReadyToShip has also seen strong growth in the SME online retail market, with a record November . This November ReadyToShip helped dispatch nearly 1 million items to people Australia wide, a large lift on 2016.

ReadyToShip also saw strong  week on week growth for Black Friday/Cyber Monday shipping. In 2016, Cyber monday shipping volumes were 15% up on the previous week. This year 2017 Cyber Monday shipping volumes rose 18.9% on the previous Monday, highlighting the continuing strong adoption of these shopping holidays in Australia.

We predict further growth next year in 2018 as more and more local retailers provide discounts and deals for this weekend, and consumers become more aware of them. Coupled with Click Frenzy earlier in November and ‘Singles Day’ in China, November is quickly becoming the Christmas shopping month. But are consumers getting conditioned to only shop when sales are on?

Finally, Australia Post predicts they will ship over 10 million parcels in the week leading up to Christmas. Strong growth, helped a little by Amazon’s entry into the market.

View the Australia Post Online Shopping Report Christmas 2017 here.

 

ReadyToShip integrates with Amazon Australia

By Nathan Huppatz | Published: December 5, 2017

Connecting your Amazon Australia account to major Australian Shipping carriers today became simple with ReadyToShip’s integration with Amazon.

This integration connects your Amazon Australia account to carriers such as Australia Post’s eParcel, Couriers PLease, Fastway, Sendle, DHL, Startrack and more (for a full list click here).

The integration has great features such as

  • Automatic importing of Amazon orders into ReadyToShip
  • Address verification (suburb/postcode matching)
  • Automatically assign carrier services based on customer’s selected shipping method
  • One click label printing
  • One click manifesting
  • One click tracking update to Amazon!

Speed is of the essence and Amazon Australia (like other Amazon marketplaces around the world) has strict performance metrics. ReadyToShip help sellers maintain high standards with shipping time by optimising the label printing and order updating process with Amazon.

All of our carrier integrations can be used with Amazon Australia accounts including:

  • eParcel (standard and express)
  • eParcel international
  • Startrack
  • Couriers Please
  • Sendle
  • Fastway
  • DHL eCommerce
  • TIG Freight
  • and more

For a full list of integrations, click here

Amazon Australia is Amazon’s newest marketplace, and for now is offer merchants the ability to list product and self-fulfil. This is called Fulfilled By Merchant (or FBM for short).

ReadyToShip is a multicarrier/multi-store shipping platform that now integrates with Amazon Australia, allowing sellers to manage their orders, print labels, and update tracking numbers back to their Amazon account. ReadytoShip now help sellers ship nearly 1 million items a month in Australia.

Start a FREE 30 day trial of ReadyToShip, and if you don’t sell on Amazon Australia yet, click here to register.

 

 

New Features : ReadytoShip now integrates with DHL eCommerce and Couriers Please

By Nathan Huppatz | Published: April 12, 2017

We have been working hard over the past few months to roll out new features and we are pleased to announce the launch of two new integrations.

DHL eCommerce and Couriers Please are very popular carriers in Australia and we now offer seamless integration with both. If you sell on platforms such as eBay, Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, NETO, ChannelAdvisor, BigCommerce (and others) you can now easily integrate with DHL and Couriers Please.

 

DHL eCommerce Integration

Seamlessly print labels and manifest for DHL eCommerce from within ReadyToShip. We also store information about your items such as their Country Of Origin, Goods Description and HS Tariffs codes to save you re-entering them.
Click here for more info

 

Couriers Please Integration

Connect to your Couriers Please account, get live rates, print labels and more. Labels print directly from within ReadyToShip.

Couriers Please is a growing freight providers in Australia, offering domestic satchel and parcel services as well as international services. In 2016 they shipped over 17 million consignments so they serve a significant portion of the market and offer a great alternative to other Australian carriers.
Click here for more info.

For a full list of our Store and Carrier integrations click here.

 

Retail Global 2017 – Conference for Online Retailers

By Anita Williams | Published: April 12, 2017

Nathan Huppatz, Co-founder for ReadyToShip and Costumes.com.au will again present at the annual Retail Global conference held on the Gold Coast in May 2017. He is a regular speaker on topics such as multi-channel retailing, online freight/logistics, Google Analytics, online marketing and more.  

The ReadyToShip team is looking forward to another amazing event, catching up with customers, and finding new ideas to implement. A highlight is the networking and learning from other business owners.

Heading into its 11th year, Retail Global’s no.1 goal is to ensure value to the online seller community so it continues to grow in Australia and globally. At Retail Global you’ll find inspiring original content to put you and your business in a winning position. With over 100 speakers over 3 days, you’ll have the power to select the content you want to learn about.

You can learn more about Retail Global Australia., or click here to buy your tickets. Use Nathan’s speaker code READYTOSHIP17 for a $100 saving off your ticket!

 

 

 

New Feature : Importing eBay weights and dimensions

By Nathan Huppatz | Published: January 20, 2017

ReadyToShip will now import weights and dimensions from an eBay store.

We keep a copy of weights and dimension (plus a few other attributes like warehouse location) if a sales feed provides them. You can also save your own values for an SKU if the sales feed doesn’t provide them. We use these values the next time we see the same SKU so you don’t have to enter them every time.

You can choose which data you want to use: the local copy in ReadyToShip or the data from the store.

Go to the store configuration and choose the values that will use the local copy.

This gives you the best of both worlds; you can use the values in your store if it provides them, and you can override values in ReadyToShip for a particular SKU if you need to.

 

New feature: Live Rates displayed

By Nathan Huppatz | Published: December 7, 2016

Recently we started rolling out some changes to the way we handle and display quoted prices from some of our carriers.

Carriers like eParcel, Sendle and Fastway now allow us to provide live rates so you can make quicker and more accurate decisions on who to ship with.

If you have set up a Sendle, eParcel (Domestic) or Fastway courier you will now see rates on every order where they are valid. This will help you compare prices and decide the best way to ship your packages. Simply click the suggested rate to ship the order using that service.

We will be adding live rates for other carriers, with eParcel International and Couriers Please coming in the next couple of months.

Note: Due to limitations of the Fastway API, we are not able to get accurate prices. You will still see the available services but prices will not be shown.

After you make changes to an order you can click the refresh icon to reload rates. If there is more data required to get a rate quote (eg, weight, order dimensions) then ReadyToShip will alert you.

New features and fixes for November 2016

By Nathan Huppatz | Published: December 7, 2016

We are always working hard on new features, improvements and bug fixes so thank you to all of our customers who provide us feedback and suggestions, it is highly appreciated.

November has been a big month, with ReadyToShip breaking records in the volume of shipments we processed and new customers coming on board (welcome!)

We just wanted to share some recent news, new features and some updates on product improvements that you might like.

  • Sendle Integration
    ​    We now integrate with Sendle. Sendle offers flat rate national pricing door to door and will pick up from your home or business. ReadyToShip is the first platform to integrate with Sendle and we already have a bunch of customers using them. Plus, get free Sendle Premium pricing for 12 months when you use Sendle via ReadyToShip and get a great integration with live rate quoting!
    Click here for more.
    ​
  • Live Rates
    We have now enabled live rate quoting for eParcel, Sendle and Fastway, with more couriers to come. You can see rates in your order tabs and refresh them if you make changes. Click here for more.
  • Customer Carrier names
    ​    Upload customer carrier names with tracking to your store. This gives some customers more flexibility in the carrier names they upload with tracking numbers.
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  • New Invoice Template
    New template with cleaner styling. Check it out by selecting the newest one in your Store settings (Settings > Stores, then edit your store connection).  As usual, it is HTML and new templates can be made and edited in Settings > Templates.
    ​​
  • Product images in templates
    Now you can see item images in pick lists and new invoice template for most store connection types. Make sure you choose the newest templates (see previous point)
    ​​
  • Ability to edit total order weight
    You can now edit the total order weight for orders. This should be another time saver.
    ​

As usual, if you have any questions or comments our team would love to hear from you. Just reply to this message and we will respond as soon as we can.

Wishing you a fantastic Christmas season of sales!​

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