Royal Mail is one of the oldest postal services in the world, with a history spanning more than 500 years. It was established in 1516 by the court of King Henry VIII as the official postal service of the English government. It is one of the most iconic brands in the UK, and its famous red letterboxes are a familiar part of everyday life for millions of people there.

Because of its long history and strong reputation, Royal Mail is very popular among UK online shoppers. The company’s own research shows that nearly 3 out of 4 UK shoppers say they are more likely to buy from retailers when they know that Royal Mail will handle the shipping. 

Even more UK shoppers (77%) say they consider Royal Mail a trustworthy courier, placing them well ahead of many other popular couriers in the country in terms of consumer trust.

The company has come a long way since the days of delivering letters by horse and carriage. During the last 10 years, Royal Mail has become completely privatised. However, many UK consumers still view Royal Mail as a public service, which also adds to the brand’s strong reputation for reliability. Its parent company, the Royal Mail Group, operates two major divisions: 

• Royal Mail, which still serves the UK as the nation’s official postal service
• Parcelforce Worldwide, which offers international parcel shipping to and from the UK

Both of these subsidiaries now offer plenty of special shipping options for e-commerce retailers. We’ll look at those in detail below.

Shipped with Royal Mail, your merchandise will reach your customers quickly and at a relatively low price, compared with other couriers. Here are the main shipping services Royal Mail offers for parcels shipped within the UK:

Special delivery guaranteed

If your customer requires next-day delivery, Royal Mail has got you covered with several flexible options under its Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed service. This super speedy delivery service is promoted by Royal Mail as a solution for must-have, last-minute purchases. It guarantees next-day delivery by 9 a.m. or by 1 p.m., depending on the service level you select. 

This service is available five days a week, plus (for an extra fee) on Saturdays. These shipments are guaranteed to arrive on time, or else you are eligible for a refund. They are also insured up to £50 as standard, with an option to insure for up to £2,500.

Shipping with Royal Mail tracked 24 and Royal Mail tracked 48 

These are excellent all-round delivery services for most common e-commerce purposes. They offer tracked shipping with a choice of either next-day delivery (Royal Mail Tracked 24) or delivery within 2 to 3 days (Royal Mail Tracked 48). Best of all, the tracking number enables you and your customer to see the estimated delivery time, which is accurate within a window of two hours. 

Royal Mail shipping tracking takes place through Royal Mail’s online tracking portal. When using Royal Mail Tracked services, both you and your customer will receive the tracking number.

Shipping with Royal Mail 24 and Royal Mail 48

A lower-cost option for next-day and 2–3-day delivery, Royal Mail 24 and Royal Mail 48 give you the same speedy delivery, except without the benefit of detailed tracking information.

Shipping with Royal Mail Tracked Returns 

Developed primarily for e-commerce shipping, Royal Mail Tracked Returns is a tracked return shipping service for when your customers decide to send an item back. We’ll discuss this in more detail below.

Royal Mail Local Collect and Parcel Collect

Royal Mail Local Collect is a lower-cost option that enables your customers to pick up their parcel at one of Royal Mail’s thousands of local pick-up locations.

Royal Mail Parcel Collect

Royal Mail Parcel Collect is an all-new service launched in October 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a doorstep pickup service that your customers can use, for example, to conveniently hand over return parcels to the postal worker when they are making their daily round. This saves your customer from having to hand over a return parcel at the nearest post office or another drop-off point, where queues are currently quite bothersome. Best of all, this service is available to all UK residents, as Royal Mail’s coverage extends to the entire nation.

Shipping with Royal Mail 2nd Class

For a standard, no-frills delivery with a three-day shipping time (on average), it’s hard to beat Royal Mail 2nd Class shipping. The drawback to this low-cost service is that shipping times are not guaranteed, and there is no tracking, so it’s anyone’s guess as to how long it will actually take for the parcel to get delivered. The service does, however, include standard £20 insurance cover, which might make it an appealing option for sending low-cost merchandise to customers who are not overly concerned with delivery speed.

Royal Mail shipping prices for e-commerce retailers vary, depending on the volume of shipping you do. If your business ships over 20 parcels a week, you can sign up for a Royal Mail Business Parcel account. This gives you access to personalised pricing, as well as access to other business-related benefits, including:

• Use of Royal Mail’s Click & Go shipping platform
• Royal Mail integrations for e-retail
• Royal Mail Tracked Returns (with personalised pricing for return shipping)

If you are a high-volume business shipper (with shipping expenses of £15,000 or more each year), you will be eligible for various complimentary services, including free weekday pickup.

In general, Royal Mail is definitely among the UK’s most competitively priced couriers. Suppose you wish to send a small parcel (weighing up to 2 kg). In that case, you (or your customer) can expect to spend anywhere from £4 to £40 depending on the delivery speed, insurance coverage, and other services you require.

To give you an idea of how the price range varies according to service levels:

• On the low end of the price range, you and your customers have the option of using Royal Mail 2nd Class to ship your parcels. Within the UK, it costs under £4 to ship a 2 kg parcel using this service. As mentioned above, their shipments usually take three days to be delivered, but there is no guarantee, and, depending on shipping volume (which is currently extremely high) they may take much, much longer.
• On the higher end, the prices range for Royal Mail Special Delivery services range from £17 to £40, depending on the exact delivery time you select. For the extra price, you get guaranteed delivery times (right down to two-hour delivery windows) and convenient, transparent tracking information.

Royal Mail international shipping prices are set by its international shipping subsidiary, Parcelforce. We’ll look at Parcelforce in more detail below in the section on ‘Royal Mail international shipping’. 

Besides relatively low costs for shipping, Royal Mail also offers its additional services for low rates: 

• The new Royal Mail Parcel Collect service costs just 72 p. for a doorstep pick-up.
• Royal Mail Tracked Returns service costs as little as £2 to £3 for a single return shipment. However, this special service for e-retailers is available only to online sellers who meet certain minimum shipping requirements (see ‘Royal Mail Tracked Returns’ below for more information).

As competition in the UK logistics industry heats up, Royal Mail is trying to claim a more significant share of the market by offering services that cater to e-commerce retailers. This means there are now many benefits that might entice online retailers to do business with Royal Mail. These benefits include:

Royal Mail shop integrations for e-commerce

WooCommerce Royal Mail shipping with tracking can be set up using a convenient plugin. Royal Mail offers its own shipping tool for e-retail called Click & Drop, which has integrations for WooCommerce as well as eBay, Amazon, Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, Etsy and other popular online shopping platforms.

Strong local presence and Royal Mail Local Collect

Customers love the flexibility of being able to pick up their parcels at a local collection point. This frees them up from having to stay at home to wait for a delivery. And since Royal Mail operates 11,500 post offices and 1,200 Royal Mail Customer Service Points throughout the nation, there’s always a nearby pick-up location for your customers. Plus, your customers are probably very well aware of their nearest Royal Mail location (or post office), in contrast to other couriers which have less of a local presence.

Royal Mail tracked returns service

Especially in combination with Royal Mail’s new doorstep pickup service (Royal Mail Parcel Collect), Royal Mail Tracked Returns is a great way to offer your customers a convenient return-shipping experience. See more information below under the ‘Royal Mail Tracked Returns for e-commerce’ section.

Very flexible shipping options with Royal Mail

Royal Mail offers a wide range of delivery options to suit your budget and volume needs. Depending on the speed of delivery your customers expect, you can rely on Royal Mail for anything from next-day to standard 2–3-day delivery, with or without tracking options.

Specialised business services from Royal Mail

As the largest courier in the UK by far, shipping more than four times more than its closest competitor in recent years, Royal Mail has access to extensive customer data which it provides to business customers in the form of its CustomerFinder and AddressNow Data services. CustomerFinder helps e-retailers locate potential customers, while AddressNow makes address fill-in super easy for customers during checkout processes. Royal Mail also offers warehousing services for storing your company’s merchandise.

Free weekday pickup for higher-volume shippers

If your business spends more than £15,000 on shipping with Royal Mail each year, you will be eligible for free weekday pickup from your shipping location. For businesses that spend less than £15,000 a year with Royal Mail, you can still use regular weekday collection, which costs around £800 a year as of 2020.

Sunday deliveries with Parcelforce

Royal Mail’s sister company, Parcelforce, which specialises in international shipping, also offers domestic deliveries in the UK on Sundays. This has become a growing point of competition among UK couriers, now that Hermes and DPD also offer Sunday delivery services.

Connect your Despatch Cloud account to your sales channel, such as Magento, WooCommerce, Shopify, eBay, etc. Then, carry on shipping orders as normal. A Royal Mail label will be created, and the tracking number will be automatically attached to the order and emailed to the customer.