Shipping to Australia—Our Guide

What do you need to know about shipping parcels to Australia? It’s a large market with about 20.6 million online shoppers. 14% of the e-commerce market there is cross-border (data for 2022)—there is a lot of potential in Australia. In this guide, we will outline the main market trends you need to consider and explain how to start shipping your parcels to this country. Read on to find out more!

Parcel Delivery to Australia—Main Market Trends

Did you know that 27% of cross-border e-commerce in Australia comes from the UK? This proves that you can achieve success in this market and you should expand your operations to this country. But to do so, you need to know the market inside-out. We’re here to help you—below, you’ll find the most important statistics on the trends regarding shipping to Australia and cross-border e-commerce in the country.

Shipping Trends

Let’s start with by analysing what is critical for Australian online consumers regarding shipping.

• 71% of Australian online shoppers want clear pre-purchase information about the delivery charges.

• 61% of Australian online shoppers make their decisions based on their trust towards the delivery company.

• 58% of Australian online shoppers expect free delivery over a certain value.

• 55% of Australian online shoppers want a simple and reliable returns process.

• 45% of Australian online shoppers want to have the possibility to select the delivery location.

Additionally, we also need to look at some general statistics, such as:

• The most popular delivery options:

  • at home: at the door,

  • at home: mailbox,

  • post office,

  • office/workplace,

  • parcel locker.

In the end, we can come up with the conclusion that Australian consumers value the delivery experience the most.

Shopping Trends

Knowing the trends regarding shipping to Australia, let’s look at the more general, cross-border e-commerce trends in this market.

• 47% of online sales are conducted via computers, while 53% via mobile devices,

• clothing and footwear are the most popular category in cross-border shopping in Australia (37%),

• Australian consumers prefer digital wallets (42%); debit cards and credit cards are also popular (28% and 23% respectively),

• Australian consumers are mostly tempted to buy cross-border due to lower prices.

Parcel Delivery to Australia—Preparing Your Shipping Strategy

How do you enter this emerging market? What do you need to consider? Let’s look at the most important steps of preparing a shipping strategy for the Australian market.

Calculate Your Shipping Costs

Estimating your shipping costs may not be easy, especially if you haven’t sent a single parcel to Australia yet. Nevertheless, it is possible to do it—you need to factor in the following elements:

• the number of parcels,

• the volume of parcels,

• parcel dimensions,

• product type (to calculate customs duties),

• the final destination.
  

• Perth,

• Melbourne,

• Sydney,

• Brisbane.

Thanks to this, we can deliver your products to 100% of the country’s population!

Select Your Logistics Partner

To fully calculate your costs (and start shipping parcels to Australia), you need to select your logistics partner. Don’t focus only on the rates, but also on:

• reliability,

• coverage,

• delivery time,

• number of collection points,

• local infrastructure.

Prepare Your Store

Australia is an English-speaking country, so you don’t have to translate your website. Nevertheless, you should prepare your platform for this market. Consider buying a local domain and switching to local servers, as it will boost the performance of your site.

Additionally, make use of the marketplaces. Amazon and eBay are the most popular ones (67% and 31%), so it might be worth offering your products on them to increase your reach and sales.

You should also remember to adjust the prices since they are the main driving factors behind Australian cross-border shopping.

The Takeaway

Shipping to Australia requires a good parcel delivery service, but it will truly pay off. After all, the consumers there already like and trust British e-commerce stores, so you should find it a bit easier to acquire customers and make a steady profit.

You might also read: Navigating Cross-Border E-commerce with Jonathan Matchett

Sources:

• IPC Cross-border E-commerce Shopper Survey 2023 – Australia Report

• IAB Pureprofile Australian Ecommerce Report 2023

• Trade.gov