Shipping to Australia – All You Need to Know

It requires lots of effort when it comes to shipping to locations either cross-border or even within the same region. The distance between regions makes the shipping complicated. Ideally, the shipping cost depends on the weight and dimension and to where the items are being shipped. Let’s get to know shipping to Australia and what you need to know about the same.

You can see that the eCommerce market is growing tremendously in the past few years with the majority of the population buying online. With the growing eCommerce businesses, you need to know all about shipping to various locations without any issues. Australia is one such region where online shopping is truly booming.

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Things to Consider while Shipping to Australia

There are certain things to be considered when you are shipping to Australia, they include:

Make sure that the customs related documents are attached and processed correctly, as the Australian customs are strict enough. Also, ensure that the values mentioned in the description regarding the products are accurate and also match the commercial invoice generated. The Australia–United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) allows free trade between the US and Australia.
According to the shipping rules in Australia, any imported goods with a customs value of $1000AUD or above will be charged GST, at the point of sale itself.
If you are shipping from abroad, then you will not be able to ship to the Post Boxes or even lockers.
It is important to know which items are restricted and prohibited while shipping without a proper licence.

Australia does not facilitate the shipping of meat, fruits, tobacco etc. If you are selling such products in your store, then it is important to mark the products as prohibited or restricted accordingly before selling to the Australia customers.

If you are considering selling certain products on your store which are hazardous or fall in the category of restricted items, then you can beforehand mention the same in the individual product settings in the product page. Here if you are shipping dangerous goods, you can categorize the product using the settings as shown in the below image and select the required category of dangerous goods. To access the same, you can go to individual product settings, then product meta box and then the shipping settings. All this can be made possible using the ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Plugin with Print Label & Tracking plugin.

Tick the relevant checkbox to enable the dangerous goods option of the product. Further, you need to specify the type of goods you are selling from the following options available:

Radioactive Excepted Limited Quantity UN2910
Radioactive Excepted Instruments/Articles UN2911
Bio-Substance B UN3373
Lithium-Ion/Polymer Contained in Equipment UN3481
Lithium Metal & Alloy contained in Equipment UN3091

How long does it take to ship to Australia?

As we all know that Australia is a distant space, it takes about 5-10 business days for a shipment to reach the desired destination from the US via air freight. For shipments sent via air freight, it takes 2-3 days approximately depending on the location from which you are shipping. You can make use of the shipping calculator to find out the shipping rates and time to receive the shipment.

On your WooCommerce store, if you want to display the estimated delivery date on the shipping options, you can make use of the ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post shipping plugin. All you need to do is enable the plugin’s settings to display the estimated date of delivery in the front end for the customers to choose the right one for shipping. The settings will look like as shown in the image below:

Upon checkout the estimated delivery date will be displayed along with the shipping option as shown in the image below:

What is the best way to ship to Australia?

Shipping to Australia is indeed not very cheap and also has an expected delay of 5-6 business days when it comes to reaching the desired location. Since it is not cheap, it is always ideal to provide a markup price and adjust the pricing in terms of shipping to retain your customers and stop them from abandoning the cart. There are several options to ship the packages to Australia.

The best options to ship from the US to Australia (International Shipment)

USPS – First Class International
DHL eCommerce – Packet Priority

To get the parcels quickly delivered then you need to have express options like:

DHL Express
APC – Parcel Connect

If the items are weighing more than 4 pounds, then you can consider cheaper shipping options like USPS, Aramex Parcel services etc. But again for international shipping to get your packages on priority, you need to use DHL Express and USPS Priority Mail Express.

The best options to ship from Singapore to Australia

When the package is lightweight, less than or around 1 kg:

Singapore Post – ePack
DHL eCommerce – Packet Plus

If the weight is more than 1 kg then consider these quick shipping options:

Aramex – Parcel
UPS – Worldwide Saver

For items weighing more than 1 kg, then you can make use of these cheap options:

DHL eCommerce – Parcel Direct
Aramex – Parcel
UPS – Worldwide Saver

The Best Shipping carrier to ship to Australia and when to use them

When you consider shipping to Australia here are 4 popular shipping carriers that will offer you the cheapest options, they are USPS, UPS, FedEx and DHL. These shipping services are reliable and affordable when it comes to shipping to Australia. They offer their services in tie-up with other shipping companies to offer the shipping at reduced rates. Here are shipping rates by those shipping carriers to Australia.

Here is the approximate price for the corresponding shipping option when the package weight is close to 2 kg.

Shipping Service	Shipping options	Approx. Price	Estimated Delivery Time
USPS	Priority Mail Express International	~$47	3-5 business days
USPS	Priority Mail International	~$33	6-10 business days
USPS	First-Class International Service	~$15	11-20 business days
UPS	Worldwide Expedited	~$72	2-5 business days
UPS	Worldwide Saver	~$63	6-10 business days
FedEx	International Priority	~$71	3-5 business days
FedEx	International Economy	~$64	6-10 business days
DHL	International Express	~$65	3-6 business days

Let’s take a look at each shipping carrier in detail.

USPS

When you are looking for shipping your packages at a meagre cost, then choose USPS. USPS offers its services worldwide at the cheapest rates, which makes it the ideal choice for shipping to Australia too. Again you should not expect the delivery to be quick, as the USPS shippings are quite slower. You can easily go for a flat-rate or pay according to the USPS shipping option you want to choose for your shipment. USPS, while shipping to Australia, transfers the package to Australia Post, hence the order tracking information from USPS will no longer be active when the parcel reaches Australia Post.

Here are some international options to ship via USPS:

Priority Mail Express International
Priority Mail International
First-Class International Service

Find out more about shipping to Australia using USPS here.

When to use USPS:

When you want the lowest shipping cost.
And also when quick delivery is not a priority.

To integrate the USPS shipping service on to your WooCommerce store, you can always make use of the following plugins. These plugins will seamlessly integrate the USPS shipping to your WooCommerce store providing you accurate shipping rates, shipping label and tracking information.

UPS and FedEx

Want to get your packages quickly delivered? Then go for UPS and FedEx. Both UPS and FedEx have guaranteed delivery time and it is quite reliable when it comes to shipping at the quickest possible way. You also get all the tracking information which is updated on a real-time basis, which will keep the customers’ anxiety at par. The packages are not transferred to Australia Post.

Remember that the UPS and FedEx shipping options are expensive when it comes to shipping items that weigh more than 10 pounds.

UPS International Options

UPS Worldwide Expedited
UPS Worldwide Saver

FedEx International Options

FedEx International Priority
FedEx International Economy

When should you consider UPS & FedEx?

When you want to track the packages during the whole transit.
And when you are willing to pay more for quick delivery.

To integrate the UPS and FedEx shipping to your WooCommerce store you can use the ELEX EasyPost (FedEx, UPS, Canada Post & USPS) Shipping & Label Printing Plugin for WooCommerce which will give you live shipping rates from the UPS and FedEx.

DHL

DHL is one such shipping carrier, which is ideal for your international shipping. When you are looking for better rates, then DHL is a perfect choice. Again the charges depend on the items you are sending and the weight of the package.

When you should consider DHL:

You want the tracking information.
Quick Delivery.

You can make use of the ELEX WooCommerce DHL Express / eCommerce / Paket Shipping Plugin with Print Label plugin on your WooCommerce store to fetch the real-time rates, get the estimated delivery date and much more for your customers.

Conclusion

Shipping from one location to another is always a cumbersome task. Shipping to Australia is yet again challenging as it takes a longer time and also costs you more. It is important to ensure that your shipments are reaching the recipients correctly using the signature collection option which makes it trustworthy. Choosing the right shipping carrier to ship your products to Australia is important when it comes to eCommerce business. You can provide a flexible and trustworthy option to ship the products using various shipping carriers as mentioned above.

Further Reading:

Sreepriya

Content Writer Writing on Various ELEX WooCommerce Plugins.

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