Shipping cost from various suppliers for dropshipping Australia

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

Main issue: High-ticket Australian dropshipping with bulky items; suppliers ship themselves and choose cheapest carrier. Needs postcode-level pricing, quote-only regions, and on-page shipping calculators without linking to specific carriers (images show examples of such calculators).

Shopify limits: No native postcode-based zones. Shipping Profiles can segment products/suppliers but remain state-based; alternatives include approximate weight/price rates or adding shipping into product price with “free shipping.”

Real-time rates: Use carrier-calculated rates (e.g., Australia Post) with price adjustments via apps. Apps cited: Australia Rates & Labels, PH Multi-Carrier Shipping Label.

Rules/advanced rating: Starshipit offers a rules engine to target postcodes. Calcurates provides Table Rates combining conditions (supplier, weight, AU postcode) and an Estimated Shipping widget on product pages.

OP constraints and open questions: Cannot obtain suppliers’ carrier accounts or manage pickups; prefers not to link carriers. Asked how to mark certain areas as “quote required” and whether real-time rates can be shown/charged without purchasing labels—no clear answer provided.

Status: Unresolved. OP may proceed with state-based profiles per supplier while exploring price adjustments and table-rate/rules apps.

Summarized with AI on December 19. AI used: gpt-5.
6

Thank you for your suggestions!

I was thinking that might be my only solution will be to create states profiles for each supplier and product which will be a huge project but at least something.

Is the a way to set certain regions as a quote based? So whenever someone inputs an address from the area that requires extra fees this automatically shows message or triggers request for a quote?

All suppliers insist that I send them address and they will provide quote but I don’t know how this can be set up on Shopify for when customers places an order only product price is shown at checkout and shipping sent for a quote and then adjusted invoice shared with the customer. Also, this will be not a good user experience as customers are expecting to know total cost from the start and not wait for a quote to come through.

For the real-time carrier rates. Is it always resulted in shipping label which is printed and used for shipping (in this case I will have to organise carrier to pick up from my suppliers)? Can this be used for estimates shown to customers? Can this estimate be charger without a label?

Thanks for mentioning Price Adjustment feature I will need to google it maybe something for me in there.