Source: GizmodoAusPost’s ShopMate service is in a similar vein to Shipito, MyUS and ShipToMe, but rather than relying on international courier services like UPS and FedEx, ShopMate uses the United States Postal Service to get parcels to Aussie shores and then its own network of delivery centres and postal deliverers — including the excellent postal locker setup that lets you pick up your deliveries from a petrol station, convenience store or after-hours post office without waiting around at home all day.
Once you’ve created an account at ShopMate, you’re assigned a unique US postal address, to which you send the purchases that you make when shopping online at a US retailer — plenty of which offer free shipping on purchases over a certain value to their continental US customers. Once parcels arrive at your US address — actually an Australia Post-associated logistics warehouse — it’s catalogued, and then forwarded onto you in Australia within 5-8 days once you make a Customs declaration and pay the associated fees....
On the face of it, though, ShopMate doesn’t look like it offers especially good value. A flat rate of $24.95 is charged per parcel delivery, and a weight rate of $5.95 is added per 500g of parcel — that means a 3kg box for a pair of sneakers will cost you a full $60.65 to transport to Australia, likely destroying the cost advantage of buying overseas in the first place. While competitors like Shipito are likely better value overall, the AusPost name might be a draw for some buyers. [Australia Post ShopMate]
Andrew