Sendle Alternative in Australia: Is ShipMarvel the Right Choice?
15 Jan 2026
|by emy@localthreads.com.au

Sendle Alternative in Australia: What to Use After Sendle Shuts Down
Are you one of those people who recently received an email from Sendle about its abrupt shutdown? If you’re one of the many businesses affected by the Sendle shutdown, there’s a good chance you’re looking for the best Sendle alternative.
For years, Sendle positioned itself as an easy, affordable shipping option for Australian businesses. With operations suddenly halted, let’s talk about what happened, what you should do next, and how ShipMarvel can help you get back to shipping with confidence —and prevent this kind of disruption from happening again.
What Happened to Sendle in Australia?
Sendle positioned itself as a small-business-friendly alternative to Australia Post, offering flat-rate, carbon-neutral shipping with no subscription fees.
On January 11, 2026, Sendle officially shut down its Australian operations, stopped accepting new parcel bookings, and effectively exited the local market. This sudden closure shocked many Australian small and mid-sized businesses.
The past week has been particularly difficult for retailers using Sendle, as the shutdown directly affected shipping for small businesses across Australia. When a carrier goes offline overnight, it disrupts every part of a retail operation, including:
- Cancelled pickups and unfulfilled shipments
- Lack of clear transition support
- Limited customer service availability
The Bigger Problem the Sendle Shutdown Exposed
Anyone who relied on Sendle felt the impact of this closure deeply. The shutdown came unexpectedly, occurring just five months after Sendle merged with two US logistics firms, FirstMile and ACI Logistix, under a new California-based parent company called Fast Group.
The shutdown followed mounting financial issues within Fast Group, including alleged financial irregularities tied to ACI Logistix, emergency funding injections, leadership changes, and an urgent but unsuccessful attempt to raise new debt financing. Observers are now watching closely to see whether Fast Group files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States.
Beyond the corporate fallout, the shutdown exposed a broader issue: over-reliance on a single shipping provider creates serious operational risk.
Many businesses built their fulfilment processes around one platform because it was simple and cost-effective. That approach works, until it doesn’t. When that provider fails, businesses are left without a backup.
The lesson is clear: shipping needs to be treated as infrastructure, not just a cost.
What to Do If You Were Affected by the Sendle Shutdown
If you’re a small or medium-sized Australian business that relies on Sendle, you need to act quickly to minimise disruption. Delivery delays, order backlogs, and customer communication issues can escalate rapidly when shipping operations stall.
Take the following immediate steps to stabilise your operations:
- Check the progress of any shipments already in motion by reaching out directly to the courier partners handling those deliveries, such as CouriersPlease, Aramex, Australia Post, etc.
- Proactively update customers with open orders to set expectations around delays caused by the Sendle shutdown. After the holiday season, proactive tracking updates are critical for reducing WISMO enquiries and maintaining customer trust.
- Temporarily hold delivery timelines and guarantees until a replacement shipping setup is fully operational.
- Put alternative courier arrangements in place immediately, ensuring you are not dependent on a single provider.
- Bring shipping workflows into one central system where possible to retain oversight and reduce operational friction during the transition.
Many businesses no longer want another Sendle-style courier. Instead, they want a shipping setup that reduces risk and prevents similar disruptions in the future.
What Most Businesses Are Looking for in a Sendle Alternative
Now Australian businesses are prioritising shipping solutions that offer:
Ability to continue shipping without interruption
Look for a platform that has proven stability and track record because every business needs a solution that allows them to keep orders moving with minimal downtime. Any pause in shipping directly affects revenue, customer trust, and brand reputation.
Access to multiple courier options
Your shipping platform should give you access to multiple carriers, rather relying on one courier increases risk. Every business now wants the flexibility to switch between carriers based on availability, cost, service level, or delivery location without rebuilding their fulfilment process.
Centralised order and label management
Managing orders and shipping labels across multiple platforms creates inefficiencies and errors. A centralised system simplifies fulfilment by keeping everything in one place and reducing manual handling.
Reliable tracking and delivery visibility
Your business deserves a shipping platform that has clear, consistent tracking as it helps businesses respond quickly to delays, answer customer enquiries confidently, and maintain transparency throughout the delivery process.
System that scales as order volumes increase
As businesses grow, shipping volumes fluctuate. Companies need a shipping setup that can handle higher order volumes without increasing operational complexity or requiring constant process changes.
ShipMarvel delivers on all of these requirements so let’s talk about how we can help based on your shipping volume.
How ShipMarvel Supports Your Business
ShipMarvel is designed for small to mid-sized businesses in Australia as a shipping and logistics management platform. It helps businesses manage orders, generate shipping labels, and track deliveries across multiple carriers from a single dashboard.
For businesses shipping less than 500 parcels, ShipMarvel provides the ability to:
- Connect their eCommerce stores
- Integrate multiple courier services
- Automate label creation and fulfilment workflows
- Track shipments across carriers in one place
- Reduce manual administration and fulfilment errors
ShipMarvel acts as the control layer between your business and your chosen courier partners.
How EIZ ShipMarvel Works as a Sendle Alternative
While ShipMarvel does not replace Sendle on a one-to-one basis as a courier, it works as a Sendle alternative in a more strategic sense.
Multi-carrier control
ShipMarvel supports a multi-carrier model that allows businesses to use multiple couriers. If one carrier experiences issues, businesses can switch providers without rebuilding processes, route shipments to alternatives instantly, and reduce reliance on a single provider.
Centralised shipping
Many businesses now juggle Australia Post, CouriersPlease, Aramex, StarTrack, and regional carriers. ShipMarvel centralises these workflows into one platform, removing the need to manage each courier separately.
Greater visibility and operational insight
ShipMarvel focuses on clear tracking, order status visibility, and consistent fulfilment workflows, making shipping easier to manage as volumes increase.
Built to scale
ShipMarvel supports operationally mature teams that treat logistics as business-critical infrastructure. ShipMarvel helps businesses run shipping properly.
Who is ShipMarvel Suited For?
ShipMarvel works best for businesses that need control and scalability. It suits growing eCommerce businesses, brands shipping with multiple couriers, operations teams managing daily fulfilment, and businesses seeking redundancy and visibility across their shipping operations.
How to Get Started?
ShipMarvel for businesses shipping under 1,000 parcels per month
ShipMarvel is ideal for small to mid-sized businesses that need a reliable, easy-to-manage shipping platform. It helps you centralise orders, manage multiple couriers, and regain control of your fulfilment without operational complexity.
Lofko for high-volume businesses shipping 1,000+ parcels per month
For high-volume businesses, Lofko provides a more advanced logistics solution designed to support scale. Lofko helps businesses manage complex shipping requirements, optimise supply chain operations, and maintain visibility and control across higher parcel volumes.
Get Back to Shipping with Confidence
The sudden shutdown of Sendle disrupted thousands of Australian businesses, but it doesn’t have to derail your operations. ShipMarvel replaces the fragile dependency model that made the Sendle shutdown so disruptive by giving businesses greater control, flexibility, and resilience.
Moreover, for Australian businesses that have outgrown entry-level shipping platforms and want stronger visibility, operational control, and long-term stability, ShipMarvel offers a smarter way forward.
Whether you ship 50, 500, 5,000, or 50,000 parcels per month, ShipMarvel and Lofko provide the tools, stability, and flexibility needed to grow with confidence, backed by deep expertise in logistics and eCommerce operations.
By delivering integrated software and logistics solutions, we at EIZ help streamline operations, unlock new growth opportunities, and most importantly improve overall profitability.
Ready to Get Started?
- Online sellers and growing businesses: Sign up for ShipMarvel to streamline order management, shipping, and tracking from one central platform.
- High-volume businesses: Book a demo with Lofko to discuss how you can gain full visibility and control across your supply chain operations.