KeenToDesign Shipping with Australia Post for WooCommerce vs ShippingIQ – Freight Calculator for WooCommerce

A simple, lightweight shipping plugin that connects your WooCommerce store directly to Australia Post so your customers automatically see real shipping prices at checkout. No manual rate tables, no guessing. What it does in plain terms When a customer adds items to their cart and enters their delivery address at checkout, the plugin quietly contacts the Australia Post API in the background, tells it the total weight and size of the order and where it needs to go, and Australia Post sends back the exact price. That price is then shown to the customer as a shipping option, live, accurate, and automatic. No more overcharging customers on shipping. No more absorbing losses because your flat rate was too low. Just the real Australia Post price, every time. What the customer sees At checkout, instead of a flat “Shipping: $10.00”, they see real options like: Australia Post Parcel Post ($8.50) 3 to 5 business days Australia Post Express Post ($14.20) 1 to 2 business days You can rename these to anything you like, for example “Standard Delivery” and “Express Delivery”, so it looks professional and on-brand. What you control as the store owner Which services to offer Parcel Post, Express Post, or both. International services too if you ship overseas. Service renaming Show “Standard Delivery” instead of “Parcel Post” so customers understand what they are choosing. A handling fee Add a flat amount on top of every rate, for example $2.00 for packaging. You can also use a negative number to discount. A fallback rate If Australia Post cannot return a price for some reason, show a fixed rate instead so customers can still checkout. GST Optionally strip the 10% GST from the rates if WooCommerce is already adding tax separately. Delivery time display Show or hide the estimated delivery days next to each option. Debug mode See exactly what the plugin is sending to Australia Post and what it gets back, useful for troubleshooting. How it handles products with no dimensions set If a product in your store does not have weight or size data entered, the plugin uses a set of default dimensions you configure so it never breaks at checkout and always returns a rate. Best suited for This plugin works best for small to medium sized items that can fit in a single parcel or satchel. It is ideal for stores selling: Books and stationery Clothing and apparel Accessories and jewellery Cosmetics and beauty products Homewares and gifts Electronics and small gadgets Toys and games Art prints and posters Phone cases and tech accessories Supplements and health products Pet accessories and supplies Candles and skincare products Baby clothing and accessories Craft supplies and hobby items Greeting cards and gift wrap DVDs, Blu-rays and media Sunglasses and eyewear Bags and wallets Socks, underwear and activewear Kitchen utensils and small cookware Sports accessories like water bottles, resistance bands and gym gloves Music accessories like picks, strings and small instruments Office supplies and desk accessories Basically if it fits in a standard Australia Post satchel or a small to medium parcel box, this plugin will calculate the rate accurately. It is not recommended for large or bulky items such as furniture, whitegoods or oversized equipment. Technical basics Rates are cached for 15 minutes so it does not hammer the Australia Post API on every page load The cache clears automatically whenever you save your settings Requires a free API key from Australia Post, takes a few minutes to register at developers.auspost.com.au No subscription fees. The plugin only contacts the Australia Post API to fetch live rates (see “External services” below). Compatible with WooCommerce shipping zones, add it to any zone including international zones Supports WooCommerce High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS) Works with WooCommerce block-based checkout External services This plugin connects to the Australia Post Postage Assessment Calculator (PAC) API, an external service operated by Australia Post, to obtain live shipping rates for domestic and international parcels. Without this connection the plugin cannot calculate rates, which is the plugin’s core function. What is sent and when: The plugin sends a request to the Australia Post API every time a customer reaches the checkout (or cart) page and a shipping calculation is required, except when a cached result from the last 15 minutes can be used. The data sent in each request is: the origin postcode (configured by the store owner), the destination postcode and country (entered by the customer at checkout), and the package weight, length, width, and height (calculated from the cart contents, falling back to the configured default dimensions when a product has none). The Australia Post API key (configured by the store owner) is sent in the AUTH-KEY HTTP request header to authenticate the request. No customer name, email address, street address, IP address, or other personal identifier is sent. The endpoints used are: https://digitalapi.auspost.com.au/postage/parcel/domestic/calculate.json for domestic shipments https://digitalapi.auspost.com.au/postage/parcel/international/calculate.json for international shipments This service is provided by Australia Post. By using this plugin you agree to the following Australia Post documents, which are linked here for your reference: Australia Post Terms and Conditions: https://auspost.com.au/terms-conditions Australia Post API Licence Terms of Use: https://auspost.com.au/content/dam/auspost_corp/media/documents/api-licence-terms-of-use.pdf Australia Post Privacy Statement: https://auspost.com.au/privacy

ShippingIQ connects your WooCommerce store to your actual carrier contracts. Install the plugin, create your free account inside WordPress, upload your carrier rate cards, and ShippingIQ calculates your real contracted freight costs at checkout automatically – no separate sign-up step, no manual configuration. How it works Install this plugin and go to WooCommerce -> ShippingIQ to create your free account Upload your carrier rate card (CSV or Excel) in the My Carrier tab Set your shipping rules in the Rules tab Your contracted freight is calculated at checkout automatically What makes ShippingIQ different Most shipping plugins use their own carrier accounts and add a margin. ShippingIQ uses your contracted rates – so your customers see exactly what you negotiated with your carrier, with no hidden markup unless you choose to add one. Supported carriers Any Australian carrier. ShippingIQ’s AI parser handles any rate card layout – Allied Express, Mainfreight, StarTrack, Hunter Express, and more. Upload it as CSV or Excel. If your carrier only supplies a PDF, Pro merchants can convert it to CSV first using the Rate Card Converter at shippingiq.com.au. Features – included on the free plan Real-time freight calculation at checkout Supports weight-break, basic charge + per kg, and depot-to-depot pricing models Per-carrier fuel levy – set your carrier’s levy percentage so quotes match your invoices Per-carrier cubic factor – set the conversion factor your carrier actually uses (default 250) Origin depot selection for carriers that quote from more than one depot Free shipping threshold with smart surcharge voiding Carrier eligibility rules – stop a carrier being offered when an item exceeds its weight or dimension limits Product tag overrides – force or exclude a specific carrier per product, using ordinary WooCommerce product tags Cheapest-only or all-carriers display mode Carrier and rules management directly inside WooCommerce admin – no separate app needed 100 checkout quotes per month 5-minute rate caching for performance Pro plan adds Unlimited carriers (the free plan supports one) Unlimited checkout quotes Surcharges – add charges such as tail lift or hand unload, with rules that trigger them automatically by weight, length or every consignment Freight margin – add a percentage or flat amount on top of the carrier rate to cover handling PDF rate cards – convert them to CSV with the Rate Card Converter at shippingiq.com.au, then upload the CSV here (the plugin itself accepts CSV and Excel on every plan) Requirements A ShippingIQ account – create one free inside the plugin after installing At least one active carrier with an uploaded rate card Products must have weight set in WooCommerce (kg) External Services This plugin connects to the ShippingIQ API for freight rate calculation and rate card analysis, and to Supabase Auth for account creation and login. ShippingIQ Freight Calculation API What it does: Calculates freight rates based on cart items, destination postcode, and the merchant’s uploaded carrier rate cards. What data is sent: Destination postcode, cart item weights and dimensions, quantity, and the merchant’s ShippingIQ Merchant ID. When data is sent: Every time a customer reaches the checkout page and a shipping rate is requested. API endpoint: https://soaxvqkkecqzarwmbeip.supabase.co/functions/v1/calculate-freight ShippingIQ Account API (Supabase Auth) What it does: Creates a new ShippingIQ merchant account or authenticates an existing one directly from the WooCommerce admin. What data is sent: Email address and password (signup or login only – entered once by the store owner in WooCommerce -> ShippingIQ). When data is sent: Only when the store owner submits the signup or login form in the plugin settings page. API endpoints: https://soaxvqkkecqzarwmbeip.supabase.co/functions/v1/register-merchant and https://soaxvqkkecqzarwmbeip.supabase.co/auth/v1/token ShippingIQ Rate Card Analysis API What it does: Analyses your uploaded carrier rate card to detect its pricing structure and extract rates and surcharges. What data is sent: The contents of your rate card file (as text, up to 100,000 characters) and the carrier name you entered. No customer data is involved. When data is sent: Only when the store owner clicks Analyse, and again when clicking Save, in WooCommerce -> ShippingIQ -> My Carrier. API endpoint: https://soaxvqkkecqzarwmbeip.supabase.co/functions/v1/rapid-api AI processing: This rate card content is processed via Anthropic’s Claude API to interpret the rate card structure. As API usage, this is governed by Anthropic’s Commercial Terms of Service (Anthropic does not train its models on data submitted through its API). Anthropic Commercial Terms of Service: https://www.anthropic.com/legal/commercial-terms Anthropic Privacy Policy: https://www.anthropic.com/legal/privacy Terms of Service: https://shippingiq.com.au/terms Privacy Policy: https://shippingiq.com.au/privacy A ShippingIQ account is required to use this plugin. Create one free inside the plugin after installing.