Pricing & Postage
Everything you need to know about TouchDrop direct mail pricing, postage balance, top-ups, and spend controls. All prices in AUD including GST.
Per-Piece Plan Pricing
TouchDrop's per-piece rate is set by your plan. Higher plans include a larger monthly postcard allowance at a lower per-piece rate. Every piece includes print, postage, and delivery — there are no hidden fees.
Plan Tiers
| Plan (monthly cap) | Per Piece |
|---|---|
| Starter — up to 500/mo | $2.99 |
| Growth — up to 4,000/mo | From $2.69 |
| Scale — unlimited | From $2.49 |
All prices in AUD and include GST. Pricing is per postcard piece including print, postage, and delivery to Australian addresses. Platform plans start at $79/month.
How billing works. Merchants who install TouchDrop from the Shopify App Store pay the platform subscription through Shopify Managed Pricing, shown in their local currency, and can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel that plan at any time from their Shopify admin. Printing and Australia Post postage are billed separately via Stripe, a PCI-compliant payment gateway. This is not a software fee: it is the pass-through cost of goods for a physical product we print and lodge with Australia Post on the merchant's behalf, charged only as postcards are actually printed and mailed. No app feature is unlocked or gated by this charge, which is why it is handled as cost of goods (the same basis on which print-on-demand and shipping-label apps bill fulfilment) rather than through the Shopify Billing API.
ROI Example
A worked example showing the typical economics of a TouchDrop direct mail campaign. Adjust the inputs against your own conversion rate and average order value to estimate ROAS.
Sample 5,000-piece send at the Scale tier
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Recipients mailed | 5,000 |
| Per-piece cost (Scale plan, 4,000+ pooled) | $1.89 |
| Total postage cost | $9,450 |
| Conversion rate (typical 3–6%) | 4% |
| Attributed orders | 200 |
| Average order value | $150 |
| Attributed revenue | $30,000 |
| ROAS | 3.17x |
How to read this
- Conversion rate is the share of mailed recipients who place an attributed order within the campaign window. Winback campaigns to lapsed customers typically convert at 3–6%.
- ROAS = attributed revenue / postage cost. ROAS above 2x is generally profitable depending on your gross margin.
- Use the holdout testing feature (see Tracking guide) to measure incremental ROAS — revenue you would not have earned without the campaign.
How Postage Balance Works
TouchDrop uses a prepaid postage balance model. You add funds to your account, and the cost of each postcard is deducted from your balance before it goes to print.
- Your postage balance is displayed on the Settings page and in the sidebar.
- Each postcard costs one unit at your plan's per-piece rate.
- The per-piece cost is deducted from your balance when a postcard is sent to print.
- If your balance is too low to cover the next round of postcards, the campaign will be paused automatically.
- Your balance is shared across all campaigns — there are no per-campaign wallets.
Adding Funds
You can add funds to your postage balance at any time through the Settings page. Payments are processed securely via Stripe.
Manual Top-Up
Go to Settings, enter the amount, and complete payment via Stripe checkout. Funds are credited instantly.
Payment Methods
Stripe accepts all major credit and debit cards. Your payment details never touch TouchDrop servers.
Auto Top-Up
Never run out of postage mid-campaign. Auto top-up automatically adds funds when your balance drops below a threshold.
How auto top-up works
- Threshold: When your balance drops below $100 (default), a top-up is triggered.
- Top-up amount: By default, $500 is added to your balance each time.
- Payment: Charged to your saved payment method via Stripe automatically.
- Configuration: Adjust the threshold and amount in Settings, or disable entirely.
Default settings
Threshold: $100 · Top-up amount: $500. Both values are configurable in your account Settings page.
When Balance Runs Out
If your postage balance is insufficient to cover postcards, TouchDrop takes protective action to prevent unexpected charges.
Campaign auto-pause
When your balance is too low to cover the next round of postcards, the campaign is automatically paused with a “low balance” warning. No postcards will be printed or charged until you add funds.
- You will see a warning in the campaign detail page explaining why it was paused.
- Any postcards already being processed before the pause will still be printed.
- Once you add more funds, you can resume the campaign from the campaign page.
- Enable auto top-up to avoid interruptions — it will refill your balance before it reaches zero.
Spend Caps
Spend caps give you control over how much you spend on direct mail. Set daily and monthly limits to stay within your budget.
Daily Spend Cap
Limits how much can be spent in a single day across all campaigns. Once the cap is reached, remaining postcards are held until the next day.
Monthly Spend Cap
Limits your total monthly postage spend. When reached, campaigns are paused for the remainder of the month and resume automatically on the 1st.
Common questions
Is direct mail too expensive compared with email?
Per touch, yes, and it is worth being straight about that: email costs cents to send and a postcard costs dollars. That is exactly why mail is a segment tool rather than a list tool. You mail the customers where the economics work, usually lapsed buyers and high-value abandoned carts, and leave the rest to email. Judge it on return per dollar against a holdout rather than on cost per touch, and plan on roughly 2.5x incremental for well-targeted retention mail rather than assuming a headline figure.
What does the per-card rate actually include?
One per-card rate covers print production, postage, the QR code and the unique discount code. There is no separate Australia Post line item and no print quote to chase, because postage is bundled into that rate. Your platform subscription is billed separately. Current per-card rates and plan prices are on the pricing page, in AUD with GST included.
Is there a minimum order size or a contract?
No minimum order and no lock-in contract. You can trigger a single postcard. Your batch is lodged as part of a much larger run by a licensed Australian mail house, so your own volume does not have to clear a postal minimum for the rate to apply. There is a 30-day free trial and no minimum commitment period.
What happens to my rate when Australia Post raises postage?
Australia Post rates do move: the basic retail letter rate is $1.70 and a rise to $1.85 has been flagged, and commercial rates move over time too. Your per-card rate is therefore current rather than locked, and the live figure is always the one on the pricing page. We do not publish a price guarantee we cannot keep, so if a rate change is coming you should expect the per-card figure to be restated rather than absorbed indefinitely.
Can I cancel by myself, or do I have to book a call?
You can cancel from inside the app. There is no retention call to sit through and no form to request. This is a common complaint about direct mail vendors generally, so it is a fair thing to check before you sign up with anyone.
Do you charge for undeliverable addresses?
Addresses that fail validation are excluded before printing rather than being mailed and wasted. Parcel lockers and parcel collect points are filtered out too, because they do not accept addressed marketing mail. You are not paying postage on a card that was never going to arrive.
Is GST included, and will I get a proper tax invoice?
Yes. Billing is in AUD with GST included, and tax invoices showing the ABN and GST line are issued for both your per-card postage and your platform plan, so you can claim the input tax credits.
How much should I budget for a first test?
Size the test from the segment rather than a round number. Pick one flow with clear economics, usually win-back, take the lapsed customers who cross your churn threshold, and hold back a random slice as a control. The holdout is what tells you whether to spend more, and it costs nothing except the revenue you were never going to attribute correctly anyway.