A few days ago, Australia Post made a surprising announcement: the opening of a new US shipping forwarder service named ShopMate that allows Australians to shop online with US merchants and have goods that would otherwise be restricted to purchase by US residents only to be delivered to Australia.
The service is very similar to existing shipping forwarders: it works by providing subscribers with an address in Portland, Oregon that is given to the US merchant that you make your purchase from. The merchant ships your item(s) to the Oregon address, where Australia Post will redirect it to an address in Australia that you specify on the ShopMate website.
Costs for the ShopMate service seem to be largely in line with existing shipping forwarders such as ComGateway, starting at AU$24.95 per parcel plus AU$5.95 per 500g (the greater of volumetric or actual weight), with a bundling discount of AU$10.00 per subsequent parcel applied to parcels sent to Australia on the same day.
Insurance is an added extra, and the usual caveats for shipping forwarder services apply (particularly the fact that GST is payable on imported goods valued over AU$1,000). Australia Post claims a delivery time from their Oregon warehouse to your door of 5-8 business days.
ShopMate is also running a promotion to celebrate their launch, offering 20% off shipping costs until 30th November using the coupon code ‘ShopMateLaunch’.
With Christmas approaching and the ‘Australia Tax’ still applying heavily to most technology goods, ShopMate could be a useful tool to save a few extra dollars on gifts this year.
Do you use a shipping forwarder? Will you be trying ShopMate? Let us know in the comments.
If you are considering using Auspost’s freightforwarding service Shopmate, please google “SHOPMATE REVIEWS ” first! 1.1 out of 5 on Productreview is probably too generous.
Beware using Shop Mate. We had a truly terrible experience with Australia Posts’ ShopMate service. Firstly, whatever you buy in the US will be calculated at a much higher weight that the actual product. For example I was charged 12 kgs for a 5 kg baby swing purchased from US Toys R Us. Then, the 9 items I purchased online from Toys R Us were not delivered to me via courier, even though I was at home waiting for delivery. Australia post refused to deliver the items and dumped them at 2 different post offices in Sydney. After much stress… Read more »
I bought a OnePlus One and since OnePlus doesn’t ship to Australia, I needed to find a mail forwarder. My experience is still relatively negative. Getting the phone to Portland (where the warehouse is) was no issue; it is once it’s there that causes problems. The phone stayed there (in Portland) for 1.5-2 weeks before being shipping to Australia. I contacted AusPost and they said due to the Christmas period, delays are to be expected. I also found out (by a helpful AusPost worker) that they send the paperwork (customs, declarations etc.) as mail, not digital emails/faxes. So they send… Read more »
Can I just ask, was your delivery status stuck on “Departed facility’ for a while? Its been on that for 3 days straight with no change. (Shipping an OPO)
Yes. If I remember correctly it was about 5 days. I also don’t think it provided any other details about status and location. Don’t worry; it’ll come 🙂
It was at this point when I contacted AUS Post in regards to the OPO. They assured me that it’ll arrive.
As it’s the Christmas period, delays are to be expected.
Thanks : I should’ve just shipped with my other forwarder, also what was your ETA compared to your actual delivery?
About 1 – 1.5 weeks more than ETA.
Oh no… not looking forward to this wait… Thanks a bunch man.
No worries 🙂
If there is anything else you need; just let me know 🙂
To be fair it’s doing really well so far, its currently in Sydney!
Awesome! Depending where you are in AUS, you may get it before the new year!
Wow, it arrived today! All up it took 10 days so I’m actually going to go against the crowd and actually recommend it. Considering it arrived within 5 work days, (Taking away Weekends, X-mas & boxing day) I’m actually very impressed. I paid $27 all up so I’m actually really happy 🙂
That’s great news! I’m glad you had a good experience! Enjoy the OnePlus One- in my opinion it’s the best smartphone ever!!
Enjoy and take care! 🙂
This service is beyond bad, it was two weeks from when the item was marked as delivered on Amazon to when it appeared in my items. Now it’s been sitting, paid in my queue for 3 days and it still hasn’t shipped. There are no responses to emails and no communication what so ever. Please I beg you to use another service. Unless you feel the need to be ripped off and ignored then go ahead, enjoy.
I wish I had read this before deciding to give them a try. My package was delivered to them over a week ago – no email, nothing on the website, tracking id search fails, and worse, they have ignored all of my email requests. I can’t believe how bad this service is! So much for getting this before xmas
ShopMate is TERRIBLE. They took a week to respond to an email enquiring about where my parcel was when I had notice from FedEx that it was delivered to the address. I was then told my parcel couldn’t be shipped to Australia because it exceeded a girth limit – this limit was not on the list of restrictions on the website and when I purchased the product, I made sure that the parcel was within the stated length, volume and weight restrictions. So despite complying with the stated limits, I now have to have the product discarded or pay to… Read more »
Please note: Shopmate has mucked me around from day 1. Emailing them is hopeless as they respond to every 3 of mine. They have had my package for 28 days and I still cant get them to return it to the supplier or even forward it to goopling as they are so disorganised. STAY AWAY!!
I don’t know. I’m confused. Sounds like a total rip off to me.
I went over an old bill with Comgateway with 3 packages.
Shopmate would have cost me $150 AUD. ComGateway cost me $107.34 USD which at todays rate is $124.96 AUD. I did another one where CG was $57 USD and Shopmate was over $90 AUD.
Your savings will be eaten up by ShopMate. Even if I had packages sitting at ComGateway for a few months and had to pay storage it would still be the same or cheaper.
Just wait until the Ozzy retailers start to cry poor again. I hope AU Post doesn’t give in to this bleating.. I use the NZ POst one all the time. Even cheaper to use them than pay the Amazon postage on things like DVDs and books.
Link to nz post one? Thanks
Order Nexus 6 from Motorola website with free shipping. Pay $30 to have it shipping to Aus.
Nexus 6 = $850 shipped to Aus. 🙂
yeah, save yourself $20 for no warranty.
ROFL
Because the difference between $850 and $950 is $20.
Now I know why I failed Maths!
Yatango sells Nexus 6 for…
$869.95 16gb
$889.95 32gb
and Free Shipping
Do your maths on that one! 😛
LOL! Correct your pricing and specs and I’ll grab the calculator out. 😉
have a look on www. yatango .com .au/shopping
my pricing is correct 🙂
Members price is cheaper. Maybe that’s what the other posters are basing their calculation off.
You know the Nexus 6 US model has slightly different frequency support right? It’s largely the same for LTE, but doesn’t support the newer 700mhz frequency in use by Optus and Telstra.
They have listed products with lithium/ion batteries as “Prohibited Items” so pretty pointless unless they turn a blind eye.
I sent Aussie Post an online enquiry, I’ll post their reply when they get back to me.
NZ Post has the same service . If the batteries are included in the device no problem. The problem is if you order spare batteries
thanks!
I use Bongo, which is great, but it costs you $5 to receive each parcel and $10 to consolidate the shipments and then the shipping charges to Australia which seem to have increased over time. $24.95 + $5.95/500g should be much cheaper.
how does the $24.95 fee stack up against the competition?
ComGateway, my usual shipping forwarder, charges US$24.00 per parcel including the first 500g, then US$4.00 per additional 500g. Taking into account currency conversion, ShopMate works out to be just slightly cheaper than ComGateway at time of writing. I’d expect prices would be fairly similar across the board.
In my view, ShopMate also has the distinct advantage of being guaranteed to be able to use AusPost Parcel Lockers, something that’s very hit-and-miss when it comes to forwarders who use courier services such as DHL.
I use shipito, I’ll have to have a look at the cost difference
Shipto is much better value! $8 USD to recieve a parcel (less if you have an annual membership which is $50 p.a. ) and a whole lot more shipping options. I have actually been to their office in Torrance, CA and picked up items for the huge fee of $1 !
If you plan on going to the USA in the next 3 month’s use Shipito. Even if you don’t still use Shipito.
That’s incredibly cool. Well done AusPost!
Moto X <3
Have you tried this?