You don’t need five courier accounts to run a professional shipping operation.
Shipping aggregators like Zappy give you instant access to the best rates from major couriers including NZ Post, PostHaste, Aramex, and DHL — without contracts, minimum volumes, or admin overload.
For many Kiwi businesses, that’s the difference between spending hours switching between courier portals and negotiating with accounts managers, and handling all fulfilment tasks from one dashboard in minutes.
You get one platform to book, track, and manage all your orders — even if your stock lives in a third-party warehouse or your garage.
This guide unpacks when aggregator models make the most sense, what trade-offs to watch for, and how Zappy stacks up against going direct.
👉 Compare shipping options with Zappy or learn how Zappy works with Shopify, WooCommerce, and TradeMe
What is a shipping aggregator?
A shipping aggregator — or courier aggregator — is a platform that gives you access to multiple courier services through a single dashboard.
Instead of managing separate accounts with domestic and international couriers, you can compare live rates, print labels, track orders, and manage returns in one place.
Zappy goes one step further. It’s not just an aggregator — it’s also an enabler. That means:
- You get access to pre-negotiated rates from major domestic and international carriers
- You can use your own courier contracts later if you outgrow the default rates
- You still maintain your branded tracking, labels, and notifications
- And you get real support from people in your timezone who actually care about your business
This setup is especially helpful if you’re working with a third-party logistics provider (3PL), storing your stock in a warehouse but still managing the courier side yourself. Zappy lets you stay in control of your shipping without needing to be on-site.
What if English isn’t your first language? Zappy’s multilingual support team includes staff fluent in Chinese, making it easier for Chinese Kiwi business owners to get fast answers and feel confident handling fulfilment.
How courier aggregators work
At its core, a courier aggregator like Zappy gives you one place to access all the major delivery services your business might need — from local couriers like NZ Post and PostHaste to bigger international companies like Aramex, DHL, FedEx, and TNT.
Zappy pulls live rates from each carrier into a single dashboard, so you can compare delivery times, costs, and service levels at a glance.
Whether you're sending parcels around Auckland or to rural Southland, you choose what works best for each shipment — and book the job directly.
Once confirmed, Zappy generates the shipping label, arranges the pickup (if needed), and sends out branded tracking links to your customers.
You stay in control of the process, even if someone else — like a warehouse or 3PL — is handling the packing.
The result is a delivery experience that looks smooth and professional, without needing high volumes or complicated setup. Your customers get tracking they trust. You get everything sorted from one platform — no need to chase couriers, switch tabs, or guess which service is right.
Benefits of using a shipping aggregator
Skip courier negotiations and account setup
If you’ve ever tried to set up your own account with NZ Post, Aramex, or FedEx, you’ll know it’s not instant.
There are forms, sales reps, and minimum monthly volumes — even if you’re only sending a few parcels a week.
Zappy removes that barrier.
You get immediate access to New Zealand’s top couriers — including PostHaste, NZ Post, Aramex, TNT, DHL, and others — without needing your own contracts.
Perfect for startups, part-time sellers, or anyone scaling into Australia or beyond without the overhead.
Access live courier rates with no surprises
Undercharging for rural delivery? Overestimating South Island rates?
Zappy shows you live pricing across all supported couriers, based on destination, speed, and parcel size — including volumetric charges and rural zone costs.
Reduce shipping admin with a single dashboard
Before Zappy, managing orders meant logging into courier portals, updating spreadsheets, emailing tracking links, and double-handling data from across multiple e-commerce platforms.
Zappy brings everything into one place — across multiple stores, channels, and courier options.
You can manage pickups, print labels, issue return links, and track orders from the same dashboard that syncs with top platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, TradeMe – wherever the orders are coming in from.
Improve customer experience with branded tracking
With a courier aggregator like Zappy, you have the option of going the extra mile for customers by sending branded order tracking updates from your store, including professional-looking emails and tracking pages.
You can customise templates inside Zappy (Settings > Email Templates) to match your brand tone and send updates at every key stage.
It reduces “Where’s my order?” messages and adds polish to your customer experience — especially important as your store scales.
Save money through pre-negotiated rates
Shipping aggregator users get access to courier discounts usually reserved for large-volume retailers. That means you can offer competitive shipping — even if you’re still growing — and mix couriers for different use cases.
For example, you might use NZ Post for rural delivery, PostHaste for fast city delivery, or DHL for Trans-Tasman fulfilment — all without ducking in and out of multiple accounts.
The trade-offs and how Zappy addresses them
Using a shipping aggregator sometimes comes with trade-offs — and it’s important to be upfront about them. Here’s what you should know, and how Zappy fits into that picture.
“Do aggregators just jack-up the rates and hide costs?”
This is a genuine concern with some platforms. You don’t want to provide a shipping rate to your customer, then discover unexpected fees or surcharges that eat your margins later.
With a shipping aggregator like Zappy, the price you see is the price you pay. There are no monthly software charges, no lock-in, and no platform access fees.
You’re only paying for the courier service you book — and you see that cost upfront before you confirm the job.
That kind of transparency is important whether you're sending 5 parcels a week or 500. It gives you the confidence to set accurate shipping rates at checkout without building in “just in case” buffers.
“You can’t negotiate directly with couriers, right?”
That’s true — to a point. Aggregators work by giving you access to pre-negotiated rates, so you don’t have to go through the account setup process yourself. That’s ideal when you're starting out, or shipping inconsistently.
But once you’re hitting consistent volumes (usually hundreds of parcels a week), it might make sense to negotiate your own rates with NZ Post, Aramex, or DHL directly.
Zappy doesn’t get in the way of that. In fact, many of our customers grow into their own courier relationships — and still use Zappy to compare carriers, manage returns, or run fulfilment across multiple sales channels.
It’s not an all-or-nothing decision. You can start with aggregator access and switch to your own contracts when it suits your business — or run both side by side.
“I heard that aggregators don’t offer flexibility?”
This might be true for simpler shipping aggregator platforms, but Zappy is designed for flexibility. You can:
- Use Zappy’s pre-negotiated rates if you don’t have your own accounts
- Bring your own courier contracts into the platform when you're ready
- Manage fulfilment across multiple sales channels and carriers — all from one dashboard
It’s this hybrid model that makes Zappy work well for businesses in that messy middle — where you’re scaling up, testing cross-border shipping, or working with a 3PL and need a tool that adapts with you.
Zappy isn’t trying to lock you in. It's trying to give you options — and the confidence to choose the ones that make sense for your business right now.
When is a shipping aggregator right for your business?
There’s no single best way to do e-commerce fulfilment — but a shipping aggregator like Zappy can be a smart choice for many Kiwi businesses, especially when you’re in the early or messy-middle stages of growth.
Here’s when it makes the most sense:
- You’re just getting started. Maybe you're shipping from your garage, or your stock is at a 3PL. You want to get orders moving without spending hours setting up courier accounts or chasing reps.
- You don’t have enough volume to get good rates. Most couriers won’t offer decent discounts unless you’re sending hundreds of parcels a week. Zappy gives you access to bulk rates from day one — with no minimums.
- You want branded tracking and automation without paying for enterprise software. With Zappy, you can send professional, branded delivery updates and automate label printing, pickups and returns — without locking into expensive fulfilment tools.
- You’re selling across multiple platforms. If you're juggling Shopify, TradeMe, WooCommerce, or manual orders, Zappy brings all those into one shipping dashboard — saving you time and avoiding mistakes.
- You want to test international markets. Zappy lets you ship to Australia and beyond using trusted international carriers — without setting up custom contracts or dealing with international freight accounts.
Eventually, you might grow into direct courier relationships.
That’s great — and Zappy can keep supporting you with label generation, branded tracking, and rate comparison even after that point.
It’s not about choosing one path forever. It’s about using what fits right now, and scaling smoothly from there.
Try Zappy, a free-to-use shipping aggregator that Kiwi entrepreneurs love
Whether you’re just getting started or scaling fast, Zappy helps you take control of shipping without the complexity.
Start using Zappy free today and see how much simpler fulfilment can be.
FAQs
What’s the difference between a courier aggregator and enabler?
An aggregator gives you access to couriers without needing accounts. An enabler connects your existing accounts. Zappy can support both.
Do I need to install courier plugins separately?
No. Zappy supports major e-commerce platforms natively and connects you to all supported couriers from one place.
Can I still negotiate my own courier rates later?
Yes. Many businesses use Zappy until they scale, then bring their own courier contracts into the system.
Does Zappy mark up courier prices?
Zappy shows you the courier price you pay before booking. There’s no monthly fee or hidden markup.
Can I use Zappy if I already have a 3PL?
Yes. Zappy is designed to work alongside your existing 3PL setup. While we’re not a 3PL provider ourselves, you can use Zappy to manage courier bookings, generate shipping labels, and keep your customers updated, even if your stock is stored in someone else’s warehouse.
Here’s how it works:
- You or your 3PL team can use Zappy to book domestic and international couriers at discounted rates.
- You can create and send shipping labels for your 3PL to print and attach to outgoing parcels.
- We integrate with almost all major e-commerce platforms to pull in orders automatically, or you can upload orders manually in bulk.
- If your 3PL uses inventory software like Cin7, we can integrate with that too.
Many of our customers import stock and store it in a local warehouse or 3PL facility. Zappy gives them full control of the shipping side, without needing to rely on the 3PL to choose couriers, track parcels, or respond to customers.