Parcel Post vs Express Post: what to offer and charge

Parcel Post is Australia Post's standard service and Express Post is its faster, dearer one. For most Australian online stores the right setup is Parcel Post as the default, with Express Post as a paid upgrade priced from its own postage, not a flat add-on. Only offer Express Post if you can get orders lodged on the day they're placed, because that's where the speed comes from.

This guide covers what the two services actually promise, when Express Post is worth offering, and how to price both without losing money on the upgrade.

What's the difference between Parcel Post and Express Post?

Both are domestic Australia Post parcel services that reach every address in Australia. The difference is speed, how firm that speed is, and price.

At the time of writing, Australia Post's delivery speeds and coverage page lists these estimates, counted in business days after the day of posting:

	Parcel Post	Express Post
Same state	2–4 business days	1–2+ business days
Interstate	3–6 business days	1–3+ business days
Next business day	No	Only within the Express Post next business day network
Coverage	Australia-wide	Australia-wide

Australia Post notes that actual delivery speed depends on where the parcel is going from and to, and on congestion in its network at the time. Treat these as estimates, and check the page for current figures.

Price is set the same way for both: by the parcel's weight or cubic weight (whichever is greater), its size and its destination, with Express Post costing more for the same parcel. If cubic weight is new to you, our guide to Australia Post cubic weight explains why a big, light box can cost more than you'd expect on either service.

Express Post is only next-day inside its network

This is the part that trips stores up. "Express" suggests next day, but at the time of writing Australia Post says next business day delivery is only available within its Express Post next business day network. That network runs between capital cities (excluding Darwin, and with Perth delivery into the CBD only) and some major centres, plus some extra postcodes within the same state as where you lodge.

Outside that network, Express Post travels on existing transport links. It's quicker than Parcel Post, but it isn't next day. A customer in a regional town might pay the Express price and get their parcel a day or so sooner than Parcel Post, not the next morning.

Australia Post also has an Express Post guarantee: at the time of writing, if an item posted within the network on a business day, by the cut-off and under its conditions isn't delivered the next business day, it refunds the sender the cost of posting. That refund goes to you, the sender. It doesn't cover the customer's disappointment, a refund you choose to give them, or the cost of resending anything. Read the conditions before you lean on it in your checkout wording.

The clock starts when you lodge, not when they order

Every timeframe above is counted from the day the parcel is posted. If an order comes in at 2 pm and you pack it the next morning, an "express" order has already lost a day before Australia Post touches it.

So the first decision rule is about you, not Australia Post:

• If you lodge or hand over parcels the same business day for orders placed before a set time, Express Post can genuinely get metro customers their order next day.
• If orders usually wait a day before they're packed, Express Post mostly charges your customer more for a small gain. Either fix your dispatch process for Express orders or don't offer it yet.

If you do offer it, give Express orders their own cut-off time, put it on your shipping page, and pack them first.

Should you offer Express Post at checkout?

Run through this checklist. If you can tick most of it, offer Express Post as an upgrade. If not, Parcel Post on its own is a perfectly good checkout.

• You can lodge orders placed before a set time on the same business day
• A fair share of your customers are in capital cities or major centres, where next-day delivery is possible
• Some customers are paying for speed: gifts, events, replacement parts, things they've run out of
• Your checkout wording can be honest about delivery times outside metro areas
• You'll price Express Post from its own postage (see below), not as a flat add-on

One more thing to weigh: every extra option at checkout is a choice the customer has to make. Two clear options with honest delivery times beat four that blur together.

How much to charge for Express Post: a worked example

The common mistake is pricing Express Post as "standard plus a flat $5". The gap between Parcel Post and Express Post isn't fixed. It grows with weight and distance, so a flat upgrade that works for a small local satchel can lose money on a heavy interstate box.

Here's the maths. All figures below are illustrative, ex GST, and not current Australia Post prices. Check your own rates before using any of this.

Assume, for every parcel:

• packaging: $1.20
• packing time: $1.50
• so fixed cost per parcel F = $2.70
• payment fees f = 1.75% of the shipping the customer pays

The lowest shipping charge that covers all of that is:

Break-even charge = (postage + F) ÷ (1 − f)

Two parcels, both services

Say the postage for two typical orders is:

Parcel (illustrative)	Parcel Post	Express Post	Gap
A: small parcel, same state	$11.20	$15.40	$4.20
B: 3 kg box, interstate	$19.80	$29.60	$9.80

Now the break-even charge for each:

	Postage + F	÷ (1 − 0.0175)	Break-even charge
A, Parcel Post	$11.20 + $2.70 = $13.90	$13.90 ÷ 0.9825	$14.15
A, Express Post	$15.40 + $2.70 = $18.10	$18.10 ÷ 0.9825	$18.43
B, Parcel Post	$19.80 + $2.70 = $22.50	$22.50 ÷ 0.9825	$22.91
B, Express Post	$29.60 + $2.70 = $32.30	$32.30 ÷ 0.9825	$32.88

So the Express upgrade has to add at least $4.28 on parcel A ($18.43 − $14.15) and $9.97 on parcel B ($32.88 − $22.91) just to break even. A single "Express +$5" covers A but loses money on B.

What a flat Express price does to parcel B

Now say the store charges a flat $10 for standard shipping and a flat $15 for Express. On parcel B:

Parcel Post: $10.00 − $19.80 postage − $2.70 F − $0.18 fees ($10 × 1.75%) = −$12.68
Express:     $15.00 − $29.60 postage − $2.70 F − $0.26 fees ($15 × 1.75%) = −$17.56

Flat-rate shipping was already losing $12.68 on that box. When the customer picks Express, the store loses another $4.88. The customer paid $5 more and the store is worse off, because the real gap was $9.80.

On parcel A the same flat Express price loses only $3.36 ($15.00 − $15.40 − $2.70 − $0.26), which is why the problem hides: small local orders look fine and the losses sit in the heavy interstate ones.

The fix

Price each service from its own postage. With live rates, each option is quoted for the actual parcel and destination, and you add the same markup to both so that packaging, handling and fees are covered either way. Our guide to setting a shipping markup shows how to turn your per-parcel costs into that markup.

If you do want a flat price, set the Express premium from your heavy, long-distance orders, not your typical one, and check it against a handful of real recent orders.

Free shipping and Express Post

If you offer free shipping over a cart total, make it free Parcel Post, and keep Express Post as a paid upgrade. Making Express free as well can add almost half again to the shipping you give away: on parcel B, free Express costs you $32.30 ($29.60 postage + $2.70) instead of $22.50 for free Parcel Post.

If you'd rather charge only the difference on free-shipping orders, work that difference out from each parcel's actual postage, plus the payment fee on the upgrade. On parcel B that's $9.80 ÷ 0.9825 = $9.97, rounded up to $9.98, not a round $5.

To set the threshold itself, see our guide to setting a free shipping threshold that pays, or try the free free shipping threshold calculator.

Setting this up at Shopify checkout

To show live Parcel Post and Express Post prices for each order, a Shopify store needs third-party carrier-calculated shipping, which isn't on every plan. Our guide to live Australia Post rates without Shopify Advanced covers the options.

TrkShp quotes both services live at checkout for domestic Australia Post parcels, and lets you apply a markup with per-service overrides, so Express Post can carry its own markup. You can preview the services and prices your store will return for a postcode and weight before you go live, which is a quick way to see the Parcel Post to Express Post gap on your own heavy, interstate orders. A preview is an estimate of what checkout will show, not an invoice.

Key takeaways

• Parcel Post is the default; Express Post is a paid upgrade worth offering only if you can lodge orders the same day.
• Express Post is only next business day within Australia Post's Express Post network. Outside it, it's faster but not next day.
• The price gap between the two services grows with weight and distance, so a flat Express add-on loses money on heavy, interstate parcels.
• Work out a break-even charge for each service: (postage + fixed costs) ÷ (1 − payment fee rate).
• Make free shipping cover Parcel Post, and charge for the Express upgrade.

For the bigger picture on what each parcel earns or costs you, read our guide to shipping margins. If you want to see your own Parcel Post and Express Post prices side by side, the setup docs show how to preview them.