The time involved using Australia Post eparcel contract for international destinations.

[padraicpaul91]

International purchases make up about half of my ebay turnover, and so I have been on an international contract for some years.

The discount given varies according to destination, but in general I can offer the published retail postal rate to customers, and still cover packaging costs, ebay and paypal fees on the postage.

As of this month I am required to use eparcel if I am to send parcels internationally at contract rates.Instead of writing the forms and lodging this at the post office,the information is now uploaded directly to AustPost, printed and enclosed in those sticky clear envelopes.

The issue I have is the amount of time this takes.Where  the old manual forms took seconds to write, entering the info now takes much,much longer. Even allowing for the time saved lodging at the post office, the total time remains considerably longer. I know I will be quicker over time but all the same....

Has anyone found any short cuts to the process?

If not, I may introduce a small P&H charge to compensate a little.

[djavusydney]

I found doing online is easier rather than writing. I use this software Ditto to help copy and paste multiple entries. Not sure the online form you use can connect to eBay to import the order so that the entries are done automatically?

[padraicpaul91]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't think it will cut the time down by enough. It will still be a line by line cut and pastes,

The eparcel input site seems to require a specific API.

I have spoken to the eparcel support team who just can't answer this specific query.

Now waiting for a reponse from the AustPost API development team as to what I might do.

I have been going through a list of commercial APIs that may do the job, as AustPost staff do not know. No success thus far.

Is it wrong to think such an API would be up and ready for the many ebay sellers who have AustPost accounts and now being  forced to use eparcels? 

Just got off the phone, speaking to another seller who moves larger volumes through his website. If he cannot integrate with AustPost via an API, his business will be moving to private couriers who do integrate. Like me, his use of manual lodgement with AustPost is much quicker.

[padraicpaul91]

Thanks for your suggestion but no.

The print a label stuff on ebay is a different deal made between the two.

It's good for some ebay sellers providing a small discount but nowhere close to the prices available to contract customers.

And it does not contribute to the minimum turnover required to maintain  the contract.

If I cannot get my time down,however,it may be the best available option in future.

It is very much a time v money issue.

[djavusydney]

I see that you use eParcel now - I personally used eParcel for domestic parcels, and I download those transactions in Awaiting shipment - then I paste the eBay data to spreadsheet then somewhat converted (with formulas) to another cells then I import to eParcel - no API required.

I believe there is eParcel template for International - it should follow the same way as domestic - this way you do all orders at once. 

[padraicpaul91]

So basically you created your own API of sorts.

Well done.That's beyond me.

[djavusydney]

This is not API, it's just using eParcel template. It will take an hour of your time to setup in spreadsheet, linking cells and all, then in the long run you don't do entries.

[padraicpaul91]

Thanks.Yes.

I'll track down someone who can help.

I have not dealt with a spreadsheet in half a life time.