To help estore owners using Australia Post as their postal service manage parcel shipments and deliveries from within their stores, our AppJetty team has developed two efficient modules:
– Australia Post Shipping Extension
– Australia Post Parcel Send
Though both these extensions are highly useful for Magento store owners, there are some differences between the features of both. And of late, many of our clients and audience had been enquiring about the differences between the two plugins. So, here we are with this post fully dedicated to the differences between Australia Post Shipping Module and Australia Post eParcel/Parcel Send that can help merchants choose the right module for their stores.
Before we delve into the detailed explanation of features, let’s have an encapsulated view of major differences between the two.
Australia Post Shipping Module and Australia Post Parcel Send both are useful in the management of parcel deliveries. However, while Australia Post Shipping Extension is ideal for store owners with yearly shipments below 1000; Australia Post eParcel (soon to be Parcel Send) is the only solution to make distribution streamlined for vendors with yearly shipments above 1000.
Besides, Parcel Send provides some exclusive features for vendors that include:
– Advanced consignment management
– Manifest generation
– Mass label printing for consignments
– Support for third-party shipping methods within the store that are not present in Australia Post Shipping Module.
Apart from the difference between these two modules, Australia Post Shipping module comes in two versions with differences in the extent of functionalities non-eParcel Online account holders and e-Parcel Online account holders can avail. The two versions are as below:
– One basic version for vendors with non-eParcel (soon to be Parcel Send) Online accounts who can avail only PAC API live shipping rates and satchel services.
– The advanced version for vendors with eParcel accounts who can avail the exclusive functionalities of Shipment Tracking and Label Printing as well.
Now that you have got a basic idea of major differences, read on to know their features in detail to get deeper insights into both plugins.
Australia Post Shipping Extension for Magento 2
The very first difference, as you have read above, starts with the number of yearly shipments. This shipping extension is ideal for small and medium-sized vendors with yearly shipment count not exceeding 1000.
Live Shipping Rates
The admin can display live shipping rates for various types of shipments on the storefront so that end-customers don’t need to go to the Australia Post official site to cross-check the rates.
Note: Though live shipping rates are generally more preferable among users of this extension, our developer team also provides support for displaying contract service rates to end-customers for eParcel account holders whose shipment count exceeds 1000 as they prefer those rates for higher profit margins.
Flexibility of Shipment Configurations
This plugin also offers configuration options like ‘Signature on Delivery’, insurance coverage charges for shipments, and item-level packing to ship every item separately.
Multiple Shipping Services
This plugin lets you set domestic and international services for letters and parcels. You have the freedom to choose between international services depending on the type and size of letters and parcels.
Shipping Rates Configurations
This plugin also lets you define default product dimensions for the weight unit to consider while generating shipping rates. You can also set default values of parameters like height, width, and length when product dimensions are not explicitly specified.
AusPost Configurations
This plugin also lets you set up handling fee and warehouse postcodes for your Magento 2 store. Further, you can also set satchel services and COD charges for your parcels. These rates will be added to calculated live shipping rates based on either standard or contract rates.
Label Printing
Through the Australia Post Label Printing service, you can also generate a shipment label with the Australia Post logo in predefined size and format. You can create label layouts for parcels and express posts and decide on the number of labels to print per paper. However, you can use only one label per order.
Australia Post Parcel Send for Magento 2
This plugin is ideal for e-store owners with yearly shipments exceeding 1000. One thing to note here is that Australia Post Parcel Send is just a minor variant of the all-inclusive Australia Post service with several exclusive features for vendors with higher shipment count over 1000.
Flexibility to Manage Third-Party Shipping Methods
Through this extension, you can integrate the functionality of shipping method management of Australia Post shipping extension and set charge codes for all third-party shipping methods to offer to your end-customers.
For instance, if your end-customer chooses FedEx for delivery, you can still assign the order to Australia Post Parcel Send for Magento 2.
Manage Shipping Methods
With this extension, you can display or hide particular shipping methods as per your requirements on your storefront. You can also offer free shipping by setting the minimum order value from your store backend.
Consignment Management
This is an exclusive feature that gives you the freedom to define custom article presets of different dimensions and also create customized articles for a single shipment. You can also manage all your consignments easily, view their details, and generate shipments in bulk. You can also send them for label printing and create and download labels for bulk consignments unlike order-wise label printing in Australia Post shipping module. Thus, it saves you valuable time and effort and speeds up the label generation process.
In the same way, you can also generate return labels in bulk.
Manifest Generation
Unlike Australia Post Shipping extension, you can generate manifest immediately after you submit a consignment. You can add multiple reports to a single manifest and view a manifest summary report of all such auto-generated manifest reports containing multiple orders.
Therefore, this plugin makes it easier to handle bulk orders via consignments and manifest summary reports, unlike Australia Post Shipping plugin where you need to maintain order-wise reports.
Concluding Note
Now that you have understood all the major differences between Australia Post Shipping Extension and Australia Post Parcel Send, we hope it would be easy for you to choose the right extension for your store. If you still have any queries or want to get any kind of information about them, drop us a line at [email protected] and our support team will revert to you within 24 hours. Meanwhile, you can explore features of our plugins right from here.
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