Shopify

Solutions like Shopify can be good for some online stores - Shopify Online pricing starts at $42 AUD per month up to $431 AUD per month. They have a starting transaction fee of 1.75% + 30¢ AUD to 2% AUD for 3rd party payment providers. But eCommerce systems like Shopify have a steep learning curve. The recent partnership with OpenAi would allow purchases via ChatGPT conversations. This will intially launch with US users and only single-item purchases are supported.

Calculating Shipping Rates with Shopify

• Flat shipping rates
• General rates
• Priced-based rates
• Weight-based rates
• Calculated rates

Shopify: Adding multiple package types is available only for stores in the United States and Canada. If you are outside the United States and Canada, then you can add only one preferred package type.

Shopify Orders Page

Click to enlarge - Shopify Orders Page

This is the operational hub: list of every order, fulfillment status, payment status, delivery status and you can drill into an individual order to see tracking info once it's fulfilled. This is arguably core to running your store day-to-day.

Delivery status pops-up with useful information.

How are Shopify's delivery integrations useful from an Australian perspective

One of Shopify's most-cited advantages is how deeply it plugs into established shipping networks - but the specifics look noticeably different depending on which country you're selling from, and Australian merchants have had a bumpier road here than our US counterparts.

1 Native shipping (Shopify Shipping)

In the US, Shopify Shipping is genuinely plug-and-play - discounted USPS, UPS, and DHL Express rates, labels purchased and printed straight from the admin. Australian merchants haven't had quite the same experience. For years, Sendle was effectively the only carrier Shopify natively supported for Australian sellers - until Sendle ceased shipping operations entirely on January 11, 2026, leaving a lot of Australian stores needing to re-plumb their fulfilment overnight. Shopify has since closed some of that gap: merchants can now connect an existing Australia Post MyPost Business account directly to Shopify to purchase labels using their own negotiated rates, without leaving the admin. It's a welcome fix, but it arrived later than the US equivalent, and Australia Post still isn't baked in as deeply as USPS is for American stores.

2 Live, carrier-calculated rates at checkout

This is where the gap is more pronounced. Shopify's native checkout only offers real-time carrier-calculated rates for Sendle out of the box - Australia Post rates at checkout require a third-party app with Carrier Calculated Shipping (CCS) enabled. That's a genuinely different experience from a US store, where live UPS/USPS rates are available natively. In practice, this means most serious Australian Shopify stores end up running through an app anyway - which, as anyone who's had to debug a "shipping unavailable" error at checkout can attest, shifts both the power and the failure points into that app's own configuration (product dimensions, weight, service-tier matching) rather than Shopify's.

What you may see with this complexity is a random situation where a customer at checkout reports they have no shipping options for a specific place.

3 The app ecosystem - where Australia actually catches up

This is the layer that levels the playing field. Australian-focused apps like Starshipit, Interparcel, AMP (Addition), and Joovii connect Shopify stores to Australia Post, StarTrack, Couriers Please, DHL, and Aramex, layering in live rates, bulk label printing, and branded tracking - functionality Shopify doesn't provide natively for local carriers. Since Sendle's exit, a lot of that ecosystem has pivoted hard toward Australia Post as the default backbone. On the international side, the same layer is where US and global merchants reach beyond their own borders too - apps like ShipStation, Shippo, and 3PL platforms like ShipBob serve the equivalent role for stores shipping out of the US or fulfilling globally.

The heavy lifting happens through apps rather than out-of-the-box carrier support, which is both Shopify's flexibility and, if a client's product data isn't clean (whether the individual data fields on each product are accurate and complete - weight, dimensions, SKU, inventory counts, HS codes, variant-level details), its biggest failure point.

Calculating Discounts with Shopify

Discounts and coupons offer incentive for shoppers. They are complex, Shopify has detailed help on applying coupons and discounts.

You can specify the following:

• the dates for which the code is valid
• the number of times that a code can be used
• a minimum order amount before the code can be used
• which products, collections, or variants the discount can be applied to.

Shopify also include customer eligibility, where you can specify Everyone, Specific groups of customers or specific customers.

Specifying the quantity of a product people can order with Shopify

It seems you need an app to specify the number of items for a specifc product or number of items for a group of products.

Various payment options

There are various payment options like PayPal, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay and at least 40 Payment Gateways supported in Australia eg eWAY Rapid 3.1, SecurePay (Australia) and Authorize.net.

Themes and Product Media with Shopify

You can purchase themes with Shopify, and within those themes there will be various media options like Images, 3D models (selected themes) and Videos.

Creating videos is a time consuming task - we analyse this in our article Web Video Marketing.

Shopify Payments

Shopify Data

Shopify allows you to export/import product data in a CSV format. This is designed to work for other platforms and even custom websites-:

• CSV can be edited in spreadsheets or text editors
• CSV can be converted to JSON and used on custom websites
• Using the Shopify backend you can store 1 version of your product information
• There is a comprehensive guide to using CSV wtih Shopify

Shopify Email & Automation

If you're researching Shopify's built-in email tools, note that the platform changed structurally in 2026 - older tutorials referencing "Shopify Email" as a standalone app are now out of date.

In practice this means:

• Welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase and win-back flows are now built and edited inside Shopify Messaging
• Anything triggering a non-Shopify app (Slack alerts, custom webhooks, third-party CRM actions) moved to Shopify Flow
• The free tier still includes 10,000 emails per month regardless of which app you're working in
• Native segmentation remains shallow - stores needing real behavioural segmentation still graduate to Klaviyo or a similar dedicated platform

If a client's Shopify store was set up before March 2026, their automations still work - but if you go looking for where to edit them, the menu you remember has moved.

If you have a Shopify solution we can add value to it with eCommerce SEO. You have the data, this can be enhanced to gain more traction from your website.

Shopify Bloat

Shopify sites accumulate theme code, third-party app JS, and Liquid snippets from three or four different vendors who never talk to each other, and nobody owns the whole stack end to end.

The convenience of an all in one system is slightly offset by the clashes and extra bloat on every page.

Multi-currency presentment, tariff/duty calculation at checkout, and carrier-negotiated international shipping rates are genuinely hard problems that Shopify has spent years and a large engineering org solving - Shopify Markets handles currency conversion, local tax/duty display, and market-specific pricing natively.

Shopify Case Study

Ghost Racks

Ghost Racks is a provider of invisible surfboard racks. This is a niche product. Whilst there are alternatives, the R&D of Ghost Racks makes it the premier product.

Features of the Product Page include-:

• Verified Reviews
• Custom Engraving
• Share Button
• Enhanced Search
• You may also like
• Breadcrumbs

Shopify vs Stripe

Shopify is an ecommerce platform. Stripe is a Payment Gateway that can be connected to various applications. You could setup Stripe and use if for various aspects of your business, not just your online shopping cart. The complexity of Shopify absolutely requires good general web skills. Whether that is the website owner or an employee is a decision to make. Stripe does not require monthly fees, it has 'pay-as-you-go pricing'.

Stripe was developed by 2 Irish brothers - they spotted the difficulty in payments processing using PayPal and developed systems that were simpler based on what developers would prefer to use.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is built on top of WordPress - a recipe for a slow site since WordPress has issues. In some cases you could wait an extra 5 seconds for a page to load. Just check the number of searches on "Fix a Slow WooCommerce Store". A good strategy before engaging any platform is to search on existing problems and check issues existing users have.

An alternative
- a fast custom shopping cart

If the primary source of sales is going to be via a search engine like Google, having your site designed for SEO from the outset is important. There is a difference between a site with tacked on SEO and one designed with SEO in mind.

Some systems connect to multiple APIs. Our system connects to one - the payment gateway. We personally manage and monitor everything daily for less than the price of some eCommerce platform's monthly fee.

W3C validation Errors and Site Speed

We analysed one page from an example in Shopify put it into a W3C validator which revealed error after error in the code. Refer to our SEO Page - Website Migration Guide on validation techniques and other structural issues sites need to overcome.

It is safe to say many Shopify sites would be full of errors. For that matter it is hard to find a WordPress site that validates properly. These may not stop the site from functioning or selling, however it will not function or sell as well as a site with cleaner optimised code and few errors.

Making a shopping cart simpler - less is more

With a custom online shopping cart that uses one payment solution like Stripe.com, your online shopping system can be so much simpler. The site structure is designed around your products not the other way around where your products must fit a set structure. It is less complicated and can really look good because the theme is customised to suit the shopping experience. A shopping experience needs to inspire confidence, removing any obstacles to a person purchasing. Choice paralysis is a well known phenomena, where more choices leads to being less likely to take action. Psychologist Barry Schwartz, calls this choice paralysis. He argues that more choices make us less likely to take action, and to be less satisfied with our eventual decision

When things go wrong - one of the difficulties of developing a shopping cart is tracing the process and being able to make updates when the system is live. When a system is live any change must be tested via a live order. A fraudulent attempt may be made, or a person may abandon the shopping cart screen and return a day later - you need to be able to recover from this gracefully and securely. You can pick up the phone and discuss any issue with the developer of the system - us. We can trace every step of a transaction, with the latest Stripe Payment Intents API you create a traceable path from the outset.

Secure Architecture by platform design is very different to a site with a poor architecture by default (that tries to patch itself up with updates). Bot attacks are co-ordinated with every site on the server. Traditional eCommerce sites waste resources even if the attack is detected. Our system blocks malicious attacks before damage can occur.

Custom Security we can add custom security on top of the considerable security provided by SSL and Stripe. Denial of service attacks can be annoying, custom code can dramatically reduce these. In extreem situations custom code may be required to halt an attack. Stripe is constantly evolving security procedures, and recommends best practise techniques for reducing fraud.

Updates Reduced...

A major benefit of limiting the options on your online shopping cart is that the need for constant updates due to changes in APIs is dramatically reduced.

A major benefit of limiting the options on your online shopping cart is that the need for constant updates due to changes in APIs is dramatically reduced. Stripe is still supporting much of its original legacy code, meaning if you created a shopping experience 5 years ago - the code still works today. Other providers send an email like "Payment System no longer Supported" - you have to rebuild and test the system again.

Updating your site design

Some of our sites have had 4 complete redesigns but still maintain the core structure created over a decade ago. We can update your entire look and feel without wiping out original pages or structures.

Features of a custom shopping cart

Many of the features listed below occur in off the shelf shopping carts like Shopify. However to avoid being overwhelmed with detail, we modify the features to suit your products.
We would create the image uploads at the ideal size for the presentation of your product. Not every product is sold via a shopping cart, take for example the purchase and download of an eBook. In most cases this is a once off purchase for one product only.

Some shopping carts do not automatically refresh total calculations (real-time updates), they require the purchaser to understand the page is not sophisticated enough to make that calculation on the spot and there is an update cart button for that, so that the totals can be calculated correctly.

• Multiple example designs to choose from new 2024
• Varying prices styles and sizes
• Indicate out of stock items
• Vary how payment is received (e.g. login or straight to payment)
• Secure system more difficult for hackers to guess logins
• Varying delivery calculations depending on location and product
• Design to best match how a shopper prefers to browse
• Group products how it suits your shoppers
• Manage Photo uploads to suit your business
• Instant shipping cost calculations and updates to totals
• Coupons discounts and special time limited offers
• Up to date security and SSL setup
• Generate a pdf invoice, update and replace it automatically or download and edit it (Adobe PDF online)
• Generate bulk default photos
• Generate bulk product updates

Some examples of sites with a custom shopping cart-:

• VPMS Soap Cutters
• Adelaide Hills Wines

Latest value add upgrades to our shopping cart

Basket

Add or remove items, adjust quantities and update pricing without needing a refresh button. Have an image of the item for sale. Allow amalgamation of products and stock control.

Shipping

Differentiate between items with shipping and those that do not ship. Allow options for calculation of shipping and different providers. Allow address updates and confirmation at any stage of the process. Provide updates and tracking.

Coupons and Discounts

Provide coupons and discounts that can be applied with immediate results shown to the purchaser. Differentiate between products that have a discount and those that do not.

Payment Options

Provide secure payment options tailored for the location or preferred option of the customer. Produce an invoice and update if necessary. The ability to trace a transaction in its entirety and allocate an order id to the payment system.

Advanced Analytics

We setup advanced Google Analytics for SEO and monitoring of visitors behaviour.

SEO value of Shopping Cart

Design the Shopping Cart to be enhanced for SEO. The Shopping Cart is not an add-on it is integrated into the entire structure of the site from an SEO point of view. Products provide infinite SEO possibilities. The site accounts for suppliers and categories or styles.

Additional fields are added to allow HTML content to be added to the product listing. HTML allows you to add titles, bolding, any content you see on a webpage.

Computers are very good at doing the same thing millions of times - so why should you?

Managing Complexity in Processing Payments

A custom shopping cart liaises directly with the customer and the Payment Gateway. There has been an explosion of new payment methods with options like Afterpay.
Managing the constant changes requires a system that can adapt to changes. Recently Stripe announced to members of its Developer Digest its new Payment Element -:

"The new Payment Element lets you build a custom payment flow that supports 18+ payment methods with a single integration."

Integration of this new system is quite easy if you have been working with Stripe systems because it is based on previous versions and integrates "Webhooks" which are a means of receiving staggered information from the Payment Gateway. So in our case we could quickly upgrade systems to accept multiple payment types and had pre-made test examples to adjust and work with.

Online eCommerce Trends 2024

About the author

Philip Hoile has lectured at Griffith University in e-business, advanced e-business, e-commerce and User Interface Design. A web developer since 1996 specialising in programming website Content Management Systems.
My interest in web marketing stems from a desire to improve client outcomes.

07 55320651

0423 926 852

Disclaimer Information is presented here that may go out of date or expresses an opinion. This does contain information from sources I have an association with (i.e. I use their services)

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