Every Shopify merchant shipping with Australia Post will eventually face a decision that affects delivery success rates, customer satisfaction, and dispute risk in equal measure: whether to enable Australia Post Authority to Leave. It sounds simple: let drivers leave parcels when customers aren’t home, but consider the risks before enabling it at checkout.
This guide explains Australia Post Authority to Leave, when to use it, and how to configure it correctly.
In This Article:
- What Is Australia Post Authority to Leave?
- How Australia Post Handles ATL Deliveries in Shopify
- Where Australia Post Will and Won’t Leave a Parcel
- Ways Shopify Merchants Can Set Up Australia Post Authority to Leave
- When Enabling Australia Post Authority to Leave Makes Sense for Shopify Stores
- What Happens When There’s No Safe Place to Leave a Parcel
- How the PluginHive Australia Post Ship App Helps Manage Delivery Options
- Conclusion
- FAQs
What Is Australia Post Authority to Leave?
Also known as Safe Drop, ATL lets Posties or drivers leave parcels at recipients’ homes when they’re unavailable. The driver will only leave the parcel if there’s a safe place on the property.
eCommerce businesses can offer their customers the option to select ‘authority to leave’ if not home at their online store’s checkout when placing an order. This could save customers the trip to the Post Office to collect the item if nobody is home, if that’s their preference.
How Australia Post Handles ATL Deliveries in Shopify
When a parcel has Australia Post Authority to Leave enabled and the recipient isn’t home, drivers and posties use the following steps when delivering parcels.
- Go to the front door, knock or use the intercom, and call out to check if anyone is home. For signature-required parcels with Authority to Leave (ATL), the driver will still attempt to collect a signature if someone is available. For non-signature parcels, the driver will hand the parcel to the recipient where possible. If the parcel is small enough and can be securely placed in the letterbox, it may be delivered there instead.
- Identify whether there is a suitable safe place to leave the parcel. Australia Post will only leave parcels in locations that are considered secure, protected from the weather, and not easily visible from the street.
- Scan the parcel as delivered and capture a proof-of-delivery photo showing where the parcel was left. Australia Post takes steps to protect customer privacy by ensuring the photo does not include identifiable people or personal information.
- Leave a notification card advising the recipient where the parcel has been left or, if it could not be safely delivered, where it can be collected.
The proof-of-delivery photo is an important safeguard for Shopify merchants; it gives you a record of where the parcel was left should a customer claim non-delivery. For context on how tracking and delivery notifications connect to the post-purchase experience, see the guide on Australia Post tracking in Shopify.
Where Australia Post Will and Won’t Leave a Parcel
The driver uses judgement to determine whether a safe place exists at the delivery address. Safe places can include your front door or porch, your mailbox, under the carport or verandah, or by the side gate.
Locations that are generally not suitable for ATL delivery include:
- Addresses where there is high foot traffic
- Addresses where the property is close to the street
- Apartments that are not accessible for delivery
- Apartment mail rooms where no one is in attendance
- Locations where there is no protection from weather or pets
This is a critical point for Shopify merchants with customers in apartment buildings or high-density areas. Even if Australia Post Authority to Leave is enabled at your end, the driver can only act on it if a genuinely safe location exists.
Ways Shopify Merchants Can Set Up Australia Post Authority to Leave
The sender sets up ATL, and customers can select it as a checkout option. You can either choose automatic “authority to leave” or let your customer choose whether they are happy to authorise ATL while the parcel is en route through their MyPost account.
This gives Shopify merchants two distinct configuration paths:
Option 1 — Automatic ATL: The merchant enables ATL for all shipments, allowing Australia Post to leave every parcel without customer approval. This is the simplest operational approach but removes customer choice entirely.
Option 2 — Customer-selected ATL: The merchant sets up ATL as a checkout option that the customer can opt into when placing their order. Customers who are happy to have a parcel left unattended choose it; those who prefer someone to sign for it don’t. This balances convenience with customer control and is generally the more customer-centric approach for most Shopify stores.
When Enabling Australia Post Authority to Leave Makes Sense for Shopify Stores
Australia Post Authority to Leave is the right choice for many Shopify merchants, but it works best in specific contexts:
- Low-to-moderate value orders: If a parcel goes missing after ATL delivery, your liability exposure is proportional to the order value. For lower-value items, the risk-reward balance typically favours ATL.
- Freestanding suburban deliveries: Customers in houses with front porches, covered letterboxes, or verandahs are ideal candidates for safe drop delivery. The driver has a genuine safe place to leave the parcel, and the risk of theft or weather damage is low.
- Product categories where urgency matters: Shopify stores selling everyday consumables, clothing, or non-fragile homeware benefit from ATL.
- Reducing redelivery friction: Failed deliveries generate support tickets, redelivery costs, and sometimes abandoned orders. Enabling ATL for suitable product types reduces all of these.
- High-volume dispatch: As your Shopify store scales, ATL reduces the proportion of first-attempt delivery failures, keeping your fulfilment workflow cleaner. See how Australia Post shipping cost optimization for Shopify fits alongside delivery efficiency improvements.
What Happens When There’s No Safe Place to Leave a Parcel
Even when Australia Post Authority to Leave is enabled, if there is no safe place to leave the parcel, a notification card will be left at the delivery address advising that the parcel can be collected from a nearby Post Office.
- This means ATL isn’t a guarantee of first-attempt delivery success; it’s a conditional instruction. If the driver cannot identify a safe place that meets Australia Post’s criteria, the outcome is the same as a standard missed delivery.
- A safe place must be considered safe and accessible. For deliveries to apartments, properties directly on the street, or locations exposed to weather or foot traffic, the driver retains the discretion not to leave the parcel even if ATL has been enabled by the sender.
Shopify merchants can offer Parcel Lockers at checkout to reduce failed deliveries for apartment addresses. Australia Post’s network includes 20,000+ drop-off and collection locations available 24/7. See how Australia Post delivery times and holiday deadlines for Shopify interact with collection options during peak periods.
How the PluginHive Australia Post Ship App Helps Manage Delivery Options
Configuring Australia Post Authority to Leave correctly at the shipment level and applying it consistently to the right orders while keeping Signature on Delivery for others is difficult to manage manually at scale. The PluginHive Australia Post Ship app connects your Australia Post account to Shopify and gives you control over delivery settings at the order level.
Here’s how the app supports ATL and delivery option management:
- Live rates at checkout. The app fetches real-time Australia Post rates from your MyPost Business or eParcel account and displays them at Shopify checkout.
- Service-level configuration. The app lets you configure Australia Post shipping services based on your shipping requirements. For services supporting Signature on Delivery, enable or disable signatures to choose which shipments require recipient signatures.
- Label generation with correct delivery instructions. When generating a label, the app sends the correct instructions directly to Australia Post, eliminating manual portal updates.
- Tracking sync. Once delivered, including under ATL, the app syncs tracking updates to Shopify and notifies customers, keeping everyone informed.
For the full picture on what the app covers across the Australia Post shipping workflow, see the guide on Australia Post shipping services for Shopify.
Conclusion
Australia Post Authority to Leave is a straightforward concept with meaningful implications for how your Shopify store handles deliveries. Enabling it reduces redelivery rates, removes friction for customers in suitable properties, and keeps your post-purchase experience efficient. But it’s not a universal setting; high-value orders, apartment-heavy destinations, and age-restricted products all call for Signature on Delivery instead.
The right approach for most Shopify stores is to offer ATL as a customer choice at checkout, apply it automatically only for low-risk product categories and suitable delivery addresses, and maintain Signature on Delivery as the default for anything where proof of receipt genuinely matters. The PluginHive Australia Post Ship app makes this configuration manageable at scale, applying the correct delivery instruction to each Australia Post shipment from within your Shopify admin.
FAQs
Q: What does Australia Post Authority to Leave mean for Shopify merchants?
It means your Shopify store instructs Australia Post to leave the parcel in a safe place if the recipient isn’t home.
Q: What happens to the photo Australia Post takes when they leave a parcel?
Australia Post marks the parcel as delivered, captures a delivery photo, and shares it with registered senders.
Q: Should I enable ATL for all Shopify orders?
Not necessarily. ATL works well for low-to-moderate value orders going to freestanding residential addresses. For high-value items, apartment deliveries, or age-restricted products, Signature on Delivery is the safer choice.
