Royal Mail is a UK-based postal service and courier company. Our integration with Royal Mail provides shipping quotes for UK shoppers at checkout. Royal Mail delivers a six-days-a-week, one-price-goes-anywhere postal service to more than 29 million addresses across the UK.
Requirements
Providing shipping quotes with Royal Mail is available only to merchants who ship from the United Kingdom. You must have:
- a valid UK shipping origin address
- at least one shipping zone that can be shipped to using Royal Mail.
Enabling Royal Mail
These steps will guide you through setting up the Royal Mail shipping method within your UK shipping zone.
1. Go to Settings › Shipping.
2. Click Edit or Configure next to a shipping zone.
3. Scroll down to Real time shipping quotes and click Connect next to Royal Mail.
4. Select your Delivery services, then click Save.
4. If you have more than one storefront, the Storefronts tab allows you to toggle your Royal Mail integration on or off for each storefront. This gives you the ability to provide distinct shipping methods tailored to a geographical region or customer segment. See our Multi-Storefront guide for more information.
6. When you are ready, click Save. All eligible customers should be able to see Royal Mail quotes on the storefront.
Royal Mail Resources
Royal Mail Support
Royal Mail’s support site is a good place to start if you have a question specific to your account, or a general inquiry about the services and solutions they offer.
They also have a dedicated service updates page, which reports on localized delivery, quoting, and collection issues.
Royal Mail Size and Weight Formats
Domestic - Shipping Inside the UK
| Format | Examples | Max weight | Max length | Max width | Max depth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Letter | Greeting cards, personal letters, postcards, bills | 100g | 24cm | 16.5cm | 5mm |
| Large Letter | A4 documents, certificates, magazines, CD or DVD in case, some large greeting cards with badges | 750g | 35.3cm | 25cm | 2.5cm |
| Small Parcel | Ladies boots, portable speakers, winter puffa coat, desk lamp | 2kg | 45cm | 35cm | 16cm |
| Medium Parcel | Gifts, shoes, heavy or bulky items | 20kg | 61cm | 46cm | 46cm |
International - Shipping Outside of the UK
| Format | Max weight | Max length | Max width | Max depth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Letter | 100g | 24cm | 16.5cm | 0.5cm |
| Large Letter | 750g | 35.3cm | 25cm | 2.5cm |
| Parcel | 2kg* | Not exceeding: Height + Width + Depth no greater than 90cm with no single side longer than 60cm | ||
| Tube / roll | 2kg* | Not exceeding: Length: 90cm Length + 2 x diameter should not be more than 104cm | ||
*Printed papers allowable up to 5kg.
Tubes
For tube-shaped items, the length of the item plus twice the diameter must not exceed 104cm, with the greatest dimension being no more than 90cm.
For example, using (length + diameter x 2), a tube 45cm long with a diameter of 7.6cm would be 60.2cm, which is under the limit.
Large Parcels
Parcels greater in size than 61cm x 46cm x 46cm or heavier than 20kg must be sent using Parcelforce Worldwide services, which include tracking and are guaranteed. Parcelforce items can measure up to:
- 1.5m in length
- 3m in length and depth combined
- Weight limit: 30kg
Books and Pamphlets
You can send books and pamphlets (meaning any papers ‘bound’ together), up to 5kg. Items between 2kg and 5kg in weight which contain books or pamphlets must be marked as ‘Printed Papers’ in the top left corner on the front of the parcel.
Exceptions:
- Ireland – only books may be sent above 2kg (no pamphlets over 2kg).
- Canada – no items can be above 2kg.
- Cambodia – no items can be above 2kg.
If your international parcel exceeds the limits above, it must be shipped via Parcelforce Worldwide. Each country has its own size and weight restrictions, which are available in the Worldwide Directory on their website.
FAQ
Can I add Royal Mail tracking links to orders in the control panel?
There is not an option for Royal Mail in the Other Tracking Carrier options dropdown when creating a shipment in the control panel. However, you can create a shipment with an API request that includes a Royal Mail tracking link. For more information on shipments in the API, see our Order Shipments API documentation in the Dev Center.
I have multiple storefronts, can I use a different Royal Mail account for each storefront?
No. While you can toggle shipping methods on or off per storefront, the Connection tab is a global setting. You can only connect one Royal Mail account per store.
