How to ship with Australia Post eParcel on Shopify, step by step

This guide takes you from an approved eParcel contract to a working Shopify setup: API credentials, contract rates at checkout, labels, the daily manifest, returns and international orders. It finishes with the problems that most often stop rates or labels working, and how to fix them.

What eParcel is and who it's for

eParcel is Australia Post's contract service for regular senders. Australia Post says the eParcel Contract is for businesses sending more than 2,000 domestic parcels a year. You get a contract account with negotiated rates, and you need to be approved first: apply through Australia Post, or through your account manager if you have one. Rates are reviewed periodically.

Smaller senders usually start with MyPost Business instead:

This guide covers the eParcel Contract. If you're weighing it against prepaid satchels for lighter orders, see prepaid satchels vs eParcel. For the wider picture, read the complete guide to Shopify shipping in Australia.

What you need before you start

• An approved eParcel contract and your eParcel account number.
• A Shipping and Tracking API key and password from the Australia Post Developer Centre. Step 1 covers this.
• A Shopify plan that allows app-calculated rates, if you want live rates at checkout. As of October 2026, an app's live rates at checkout need the Advanced plan or higher (Advanced, Plus), or the Grow plan (formerly called the "Shopify" plan) with yearly billing, or with the feature added for a monthly fee (ask Shopify Support). They're not available on Basic or Starter.
• A weight on every product and variant. Shopify treats a product with no weight as weighing nothing, which under-quotes postage.
• Your sender address and a contact phone number.
• A label printer: an ordinary A4 printer or a thermal label printer.

Step 1: Get your Shipping and Tracking API credentials

Software talks to your eParcel account through Australia Post's Shipping and Tracking API. To connect anything, you need three details: an API key, its password, and your eParcel account number.

1. Sign in to the Australia Post Developer Centre with your business login.
2. Find or create the Shipping and Tracking API key for your eParcel account. It comes with a password.
3. Keep the key, password and account number together in a password manager. Treat them like any business password: they let software act on your account.

If you can't see the option, or aren't sure which account number belongs to your contract, ask your Australia Post account manager rather than guessing.

Step 2: Connect your eParcel account to Shopify

To use your contract inside Shopify, you need software in the middle: an app (or other software) that uses the Shipping and Tracking API with your credentials. When you choose one, check that:

• It uses your own eParcel contract, so Australia Post keeps billing postage on your account at your negotiated rates.
• It can show rates at checkout as well as create labels, if you want both.
• It covers the rest of your day: the manifest, returns, international orders and, if you use them, prepaid satchels.

Connecting is then a matter of pasting in the three details from Step 1. In EZOZ, for example, you go to Settings > Account & health > Australia Post account and paste your API key, password and account number. Australia Post bills postage on your contract, as it does today, and there's an option to use a test account if you'd rather try things out first.

Step 3: Set your sender address and the address checkout prices from

Two addresses matter here, and for most stores they're the same place.

• Sender address. This prints on your labels. Use your business name, the full street address your parcels leave from, and a phone number.
• The address checkout prices from. Postage depends on where a parcel starts as well as where it's going, so live rates should be worked out from the place your parcels actually leave. If you ship from a warehouse, use the warehouse, not the office.

If you dispatch from more than one location, check how your app handles that before going live.

Step 4: Turn on live eParcel rates at checkout

With your account connected, add the app's rates to your checkout. Check your plan first (see the checklist above). Shopify is moving shipping settings into Markets (shipping options by market, also called market-driven shipping), so the steps depend on whether your store has moved.

If your store uses shipping by market

1. Go to Markets and open your Australia market.
2. Open Shipping and choose Add shipping option.
3. Pick Carrier or app calculated and select your eParcel app.

If your store uses the older shipping setup

1. Go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.
2. In a shipping zone that includes Australia, add a carrier or app calculated rate and select your eParcel app.

Then review the other rates in the same market or zone and remove any you no longer want customers to choose.

Your contract price is what Australia Post charges you, not necessarily what you want to charge. Many stores add a markup (a percentage, a fixed amount or both) to cover packaging and handling. As an example only: if a parcel cost you $10 on your contract, a 10% markup plus $1 would show $12 at checkout.

Now test it: go to checkout and try a few postcodes (a capital city, a regional town, somewhere remote) and check each shows the services you expect at sensible prices. The illustration below shows the idea, with example prices.

Our guide to showing live Australia Post rates at Shopify checkout covers this step in more detail.

Step 5: Label your first order

Start with one order before you do a batch. For each parcel you set four things:

• Weight. The packed weight, including the box or bag. A single domestic parcel can weigh at most 22 kg, so split a heavier order into more than one parcel.
• Box size. The box or bag you're actually using, not the product's own size.
• Service. Parcel Post or Express Post, matching what the customer chose at checkout.
• Signature. Signature on delivery, or none, so the parcel can be left safely under Authority to Leave. Many stores ask for a signature on higher-value orders.

Create the label and print it. The order should then be fulfilled in Shopify with its tracking number, which lets Shopify send the customer its shipping confirmation email with the tracking link.

In EZOZ this all happens in the Shopify admin: check the weight and box size on the order, press Label, and print on A4 (four labels to a page) or a thermal printer. For a batch, select the orders and press Label once. Each order is fulfilled with its tracking number, so Shopify emails the customer. Orders going to the same address can be merged into one parcel.

Here's one order's day, from label to the customer's tracking email:

Step 6: Create the day's manifest and hand over your parcels

A manifest lodges the day's labelled parcels with Australia Post. (In the API it's called an "order", which can be confusing next to your Shopify orders.) You print its summary and hand it over with the parcels, to the driver at pickup or at the counter.

1. Label every parcel going out today.
2. Create the manifest once the last label is printed.
3. Print the manifest summary.
4. Hand the parcels and the summary to the driver, or take them to the counter.
5. File the summary with your dispatch records.

Step 7: Set up tracking emails, returns and international orders

Tracking emails

When an order is fulfilled with its tracking number, Shopify sends the shipping confirmation email with the tracking link. Check that email once in your Shopify notification settings so it reads the way you want.

Returns

On eParcel, a return label can be created on your account and given to the customer. Decide in advance who pays for return postage and say so in your returns policy.

International orders

Each item in an international parcel needs a customs description, an HS tariff code and its country of origin. Store these against each product so nobody is looking them up at the packing bench. If the goods in one consignment are worth more than A$2,000, you need to lodge an export declaration with the Australian Border Force first, and its number (the EDN) goes on the consignment.

If you sell overseas, add your app's calculated rates to the markets or zones for the countries you ship to, as you did for Australia in Step 4.

International labels in EZOZ carry the customs details you keep per product (HS code and country of origin), plus the export declaration number for consignments over A$2,000. Return labels are attached to the Shopify return, and Shopify emails them to the customer.

Troubleshooting common eParcel problems on Shopify

No rates at checkout, or rates that look wrong

A label is refused

• No weight on the parcel. Enter the packed weight and try again.
• Parcel over 22 kg. Split the order into more than one parcel.
• Incomplete receiver details. Check the name, street, suburb and postcode, and that the order has a phone number or email address.
• Missing customs details (international). Each item needs a description, HS tariff code and country of origin, plus an EDN when the consignment is worth more than A$2,000.
• Credentials not accepted. Check the API key, password and account number all belong to the same eParcel account.

Once everything runs smoothly, our guide to saving on shipping with Shopify in Australia has ways to bring your postage costs down.