Australia Post is one of the most popular shipping carriers that ships your parcels to domestic and international addresses. Apart from handling shipment themselves, they have offered APIs that can be incorporated with other technologies to access Australia Post services. Your store location has to be based in Australia and currency set to Australian Dollars (AUD).
When it comes to WooCommerce, there are very few plugins that emerged as most functional plugins for WooCommerce. In this article, we will compare the premier WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Method and ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Plugin with Print Label & Tracking.
We will look into factors that are crucial for WooCommerce shipping management. Factors that an ideal shipping plugin should have and also see the advantages one has over the other.
Factors for comparing the WooCommerce Australia Post Plugins
- Services
- Printing shipping labels
- Shipment tracking
- Parcel packaging methods
- Special services
- Price
Let’s drill down each factor…
1. Services
The WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Method offers non-contracted rates. This means, all the available services to the selected address will be returned and can be shown to the customer. Based on their product documentation, the plugin offers the following services –
- Courier Post
- Express Post International
- Registered Post International
- Air Mail
- Regular/Parcel Post
- Express Post
- Express Courier International Platinum
- Express Courier International
- Pack and Track International
- Sea Mail
The Satchel services, that fall under Regular/Parcel Post service, can be enabled, prioritized, or disabled as required. In addition to this, you can increase the shipping rates by a flat amount or percentage value.
When it comes to ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Plugin, the plugin offers non-contracted, eParcel contracted rates, and Australia Post StarTrack services. You can use either of them by enabling the required service. The plugin offers the following services for non-contracted accounts –
- Regular / Parcel Post
- Express Post
- Courier Post
- EXPRESS POST
- PARCEL POST W/SIGNATURE
- EXPRESS POST W/SIGNATURE
- PARCEL POST + SIGNATURE
- EXPRESS POST + SIGNATURE
- EXPRESS POST SATCHELS
- PARCEL POST + SIGNATURE
- EXPRESS POST + SIGNATURE
- NATIONAL FULL RATE
- EXPRESS NATIONAL FULL RATE
- PACK & TRACK INT’L 8
- International Post Courier
- International Post Express
- International Post Standard
- International Post Economy Air
- International Letter Courier
- International Letter Express
- International Letter Registered Post DL
- International Letter Registered Post B4
- International Letter Economy Air
- REGISTERED POST INT’L 8
- EXPRESS COURIER INT’L MERCH 8Z
- INTERNATIONAL AIRMAIL 8Z
- EXPRESS COURIER INT’L DOC 8
The plugin offers Satchel and Letter services under Regular/Parcel Post, Express Post, and Courier-Post, which the WooCommerce’s version fails to provide. Also, for price adjustments, while the WooCommerce’s version offers the option to only increase the shipping rates, the ELEX’s version offers both discount and markup option, in a fixed amount and percentage value.
2. Printing shipping labels
The WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Method does not offer shipping label printing option.
Whereas, ELEX‘s version allows you to print domestic as well as international shipping labels. You can even print Order Manifests as well. The print label feature is offered only for contracted accounts. In addition to this, if you wish to print shipping labels in bulk, you can use the bulk label printing add-on to ease your label generation task.
Below is a screenshot of a sample shipping label generated using ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Plugin.
You can also customize the shipping label by choosing label sizes for domestic & international shipments, choose customer address type, adding custom message & Australia Post logo on the shipping label, and so on.
3. Shipment tracking
The shipment tracking feature is not available in WooCommerce’s version of Australia Post plugin.
Whereas, in ELEX’s version, a shipment tracking ID is generated for each package whenever the shipment is created for the order. You can use this ID to track the current status of the package. Moreover, the plugin has an option to send the shipment tracking ID to customers via email. This would help customers to track the current status of their package(s) in transit.
The following screenshot shows the shipment IDs generating for a sample order with two packages.
When you click on the tracking ID, it will be redirected to Australia Post site showing the current status of the package.
4. Parcel packaging methods
Both WooCommerce and ELEX’s version offer the same three parcel packaging methods.
They are –
- Individual Packing
- Pack into boxes with weight and dimensions
- Order Total Weight
The difference here is in the box sizes option.
In the WooCommerce’s version, when you select “Pack into boxes with weight and dimensions” option, you need to manually specify the box sizes, as shown in the screenshot below.
Whereas in ELEX’s version, predefined boxes are provided for non-contracted rates. You can enable, disable, or add custom boxes based on your requirement.
A sample screenshot of the box sizes table is shown below.
5. Special services
Apart from the general services returned from Australia Post, both the plugins offer some special services as well.
Let’s look at them.
In addition to Satchel service, the WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Plugin offers Extra Cover and Signature Required services. The Extra Cover option applies insurance to packages and the Signature Required option makes the receiver signature mandatory while receiving the package. These settings can be enabled/disabled by store owners only.
The ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Plugin provides Extra Cover and Signature Required options to store owners. In like manner, you can give these options at checkout page for customers to opt for these services. In addition to the above-mentioned services, customers can choose to enable “Authority to Leave” service, which allows the package to be left on the door. These services are available for both contracted and non-contracted accounts.
Below screenshot shows how Extra Cover, Signature Required, and Authority to Leave fields are shown at the checkout, for the customers.
6. Price
Here comes one of the most deciding factors everyone looks for!
Both the plugins offer annual subscription plans. While a single site subscription for WooCommerce’s version is $79, the ELEX’s version is available at $69, which makes ELEX’s version of Australia Post plugin a better choice, as it has more features to offer and at a lesser cost.
The five-sites and the 25-sites license are offered at the same price for $99 and $199 respectively.
7 Advantages of ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Plugin over WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Method
Now that we have compared both the plugins, let us see seven advantages of ELEX’s version of Australia Post plugin over WooCommerce’s.
1. Australia Post eParcel and StarTrack services
eParcel and StarTrack are two of the top most popular services that are being used by Australia Post customers. If you are one of those, then look no further. Choose ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Plugin. All you need to do is register for eParcel or StarTrack account, enter the credentials in the plugin, and access the services. The plugin shows only contracted services that you have selected in your Australia Post account. Read the setup documentation for eParcel and StarTrack to understand all the features and how to configure them.
2. Easy switching to Non-contracted rates
If you do not want to use the plugin for label generation & shipment tracking and want to access only real-time rates from Australia Post, you can use the non-contracted services. You can access more services, but with higher rates compared to contracted rates. You can opt for non-contracted rates if you are offering services like Satchel or Letter. The switch from non-contracted to contracted rates is easily handled by the plugin.
3. Bulk shipment creation
A time saver! The plugin allows you to select multiple orders from the WooCommerce Orders dashboard and create bulk shipment in a single click!
4. Bulk printing shipping labels
Although the ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Plugin is capable of printing both eParcel and StarTrack shipping labels, you need to manually generate labels in each individual order page. Hence, to make things faster and easier for you, we came up with a solution.
With the ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Bulk Label Printing Add-On, you can generate multiple shipping labels at once and download in a single PDF file. You can use the WooCommerce Order IDs or Order date range for bulk label generation. This will save you time and a lot of manual work. You can even print multiple shipping labels in a single sheet. Wanna know how? read our blog article.
5. Shipment Tracking
Every customer is curious to know the current status of their package after they have ordered it. When you let customers know the current whereabouts of their package, you are showing transparency in your service.
As a store owner, shipment tracking can make your job easier in keeping up with the current status of the packages. When a package is lost in transit, you can track the last point of location and enquire. Read our blog article for tips on WooCommerce shipment tracking using Australia Post.
6. Customs Handling
If you are shipping globally, the plugin makes your job a lot smoother. After the plugin is installed and activated, three additional settings appear in each product page settings for HS Tariff Code, Country of Origin, and Custom Shipping Description. Read International shipment settings section in the product documentation for more details.
7. Customization
From easily switching non-contracted rates to eParcel & StarTrack contracted accounts to showing only the cheapest rates. From showing Australia Post services to only selected countries to customizing shipping labels. From shipment tracking to handling Customs. There is some functional customization in every aspect of the plugin.
Conclusion
Even though the WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Method is developed by WooCommerce themselves, there are not many features that are offered and is not worth $79 (for single-site).
Looking at the features and prices comparison, the weight on ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Plugin is heavier. The plugin has more features like label generation, shipment tracking, and so on. It is relatively reasonably priced at $69 (for single-site). Also, our customers are quite happy with the plugin. You can check the plugin reviews anytime.
Need more reasons? Read the following articles –
- Why should you choose ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Plugin with Print Label and Tracking?
- Why ELEX’s WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping plugin is the Best in the Market?
So a costlier plugin with fewer features or a plugin with more useful features at an economical price? You choose!
Are you looking for a specific feature in an Australia Post plugin and don’t know if the ELEX Australia Post plugin could be the right choice? Share your queries in the comment section or contact our support team.
To explore more details about the plugins, go check out ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Plugin with Print Label & Tracking.
Read the product setting up article to understand the plugin, in detail. Or check out the product documentation section for more related articles.
You can also check out other WooCommerce and WordPress plugins in ELEX.
