Details about ShipStation's Royal Mail integration. Includes requirements, connection process, features, submitting a sales order summary, and notes.
ShipStation’s integration with Royal Mail allows UK-based, ecommerce sellers to create domestic and international shipping labels for your small parcels to be delivered anywhere within Royal Mail 's extensive delivery network.
Royal Mail COVID-Related Service Updates
As of 22 December 2020, Royal Mail has temporarily suspended service to the EU, with the exception of the Republic of Ireland. For more details, check the Royal Mail International Incident page.
Effective 9 May 2020, Royal Mail will suspend Saturday delivery of untracked letters and small packets. They will deliver these items Monday to Friday as normal.
Due to Covid-19, as of 13 March 2020, items requiring a signature on delivery do not need to be signed for by the recipient. Instead, in these exceptional and difficult circumstances a code (XP1) will be entered into the handheld device upon delivery and this will constitute evidence of receipt.
For up to date information, check Coronavirus: changes to service regularly while the COVID-19 situation continues.
Connection Requirements:
Your Royal Mail account number
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Your Royal Mail Online Business Account username
This is your Royal Mail OBA email address used on the OBA login page.
To qualify, you must dispatch over 20 parcels a week though an active Online Business Account (OBA) with Royal Mail. Learn more about parcel delivery accounts, then visit Royal Mail's OBA enquire and register page to sign up for an account!
Note
Non-OBA accounts are not currently eligible to connect to ShipStation.
Nickname for the account in ShipStation
Email address (used by ShipStation to notify you when Royal Mail is fully configured in your ShipStation account - it can be the same as the OBA email address, or can be a different one).
International Requirements:
VAT and EORI numbers required.
Royal Mail provides the CN23 form when required.
Royal Mail generates a commercial invoice when required. Include this invoice with your shipment.
DDP supported.
We recommend reaching out to ShipStation support to update your Royal Mail account-level EORI and VAT numbers inside our systems.
Label Requirements:
Ship From Address with Name and Company Name included
Close Shipments Daily
Royal Mail requires you to create and print a Sales Order Summary, which you must then hand to the driver who picks up the parcels. You cannot close shipments with dispatch dates in the future, only past or current date shipments. See the Create a Sales Order Summary section for instructions.
To connect your Royal Mail account to ShipStation:
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Select the Royal Mail tile and click Connect.
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Fill out the registration form with your Royal Mail account information, and choose an Account Nickname you'll use to identify the carrier account in ShipStation.
Email Address vs OBA Email
The email address for your Online Business Account must be entered into the OBA Email field.
The contact email address in the Email Address field is just your preferred point of contact. It can be the same email address or it can be a different one.
Click Connect.
Royal Mail can take up to 5 to 7 business days to approve connecting your account to ShipStation. Once approved, you will an email receive a notification to let you know you can start shipping!
Should any error(s) on the registration form cause Royal Mail to reject the registration request, ShipStation will email you to let you know you need to make corrections.
These areas could include:
Shipping Address
OBA Email
Royal Mail Account Number
Once we email you, return to the Carrier Settings (Settings > Shipping > Carriers & Fulfillment) and click the Resubmit Registration link next to the Royal Mail account.
The registration pop-up will appear again so you can re-enter your account information, then click Connect. Once approved, we'll contact you!
To locate your OBA account number:
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Click the Online Business Account Log in button.
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Click the Access Online Business Account button.
This will take you to your OBA account Welcome page.
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Click the Access Online Business Account button provided on this screen.
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Go to Invoices.
Your Royal Mail OBA Account Number and OBA Company Name will appear above the list of invoices for your account.
ShipStation's integration with Royal Mail supports the following standard features:
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Common ShipStation Features
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Additional Features
ShipStation's integration with Royal Mail allows for the following additional features:
Feature |
Description |
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Sales order summaries are required for each of your day's shipments. |
Royal Mail requires you to print a Sales Order Summary for your day's shipments. This is how Royal Mail invoices your label fees to your account. Failure to do this can result in extra charges on your bill. In ShipStation, generate your Sales Order Summary in |
ShipStation syncs with your active Royal Mail services |
Royal Mail offers a wide range of different services to dispatch your parcels. ShipStation will sync with your Royal Mail account daily so that only the active services for your Royal Mail account appear in ShipStation. NoteShipStation will only enable services if the services have been approved for your OBA account. If you need to enable or disable Royal Mail services, you must do so through your Royal Mail OBA account page. Contact your Royal Mail account representative if you have any questions about which services are available for your account. |
SMS and email notification options |
You can indicate in ShipStation if RoyalMail should send an SMS or email shipment notification to yourself or your customer.  You must enter the phone or email address into the provided fields. This will send the details to RoyalMail when you create the label. RoyalMail will use the information to send the notifications. Notifications are not sent by ShipStation. |
Saturday Guarantee |
When you create Royal Mail shipments on a Friday, select this option to ensure your parcels get delivered on Saturday. You must use a Special Delivery Guaranteed service type with Saturday Guarantee. See the Royal Mail page on Special Delivery for more information and restrictions. |
Local Collect |
Designate that the recipient will pick up their parcel at a local postal facility. With this option, the Recipient address used for the parcel should match the local postal facility. See the Royal Mail page on Local Collect for more information and restrictions. |
Safeplace |
A shipping option available to add to Royal Mail tracked services. It designates that the parcel can be left in a safe location, and provide instructions for the delivery driver on where to leave the package. See the Royal Mail page on Safeplace for more information and restrictions. Safe Place is only available on Royal Mail tracked services and cannot be used in conjunction with services that require a signature. ShipStation can send a Safeplace message if specified in the Shipping Options. This field is limited to 30 characters. |
Consequential Loss |
Purchase Consequential Loss coverage to protect against loss, damage, or delay of the parcel. Compensation claims must be made through Royal Mail's Customer Service team within 14 days of posting. For more information on coverage for Consequential Loss, see the leaflet available at Post Office ® branches, or ask at the counter for Terms and Conditions applicable to Consequential Loss. |
Customs Forms |
Customs forms will print with labels so you do not need to print them separately. Labels print with the CN23 form, which will work for both low and high value shipments. |
Below is a list of domestic, return, and international Royal Mail services that can be used within ShipStation if approved for your Royal Mail OBA account.
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Royal Mail requires you to create and print a Sales Order Summary, which you must then hand to the driver who picks up the parcels.
Important
Once you generate a Sales Order Summary, the labels included in it cannot be voided through ShipStation.
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View the Open End of Day section.
You should now see your shipment count for the current date.
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Click Close Shipments for the Royal Mail line item.
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Click Close All, or select the desired shipments and click Close Selected.
Shipment Closing Limitations
You can close up to 500 shipments at once.
You can only close out past or current day shipments using the End of Day process. You cannot close shipments with dispatch dates in the future.
Repeat steps 4 - 5 if you need to close additional shipments.
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Click the Print Selected button to print out the Sales Order Summary.
This will transmit your shipment information to Royal Mail electronically so you can be properly invoiced. Be sure to hand over the printed form to the driver or when you drop off your day's shipments.
Custom forms will print with the label for your international shipments.
ShipStation does not provide CN22 forms, only CN23. However, CN23 forms are sufficient for both low and high value shipments.
If there are too many different content types to fit on one page, the CN23 automatically extends to an additional page.
RoyalMail requires customs declarations for Channel Islands shipments. However, RoyalMail will not produce these forms if the country code is GB. Change the country code to IM, GE, or JE and then the proper forms will be included with the label.
Remember these points about ShipStation's integration with Royal Mail:
ShipStation cannot display estimated rates for Royal Mail services, as Royal Mail does not currently allow third-party apps, like ShipStation, to connect to their Rates API.
Address line has a character limit of 35.
Only Label Message 1 is supported. It has a character limit of 20.
You must set pickups (daily and other schedules) within Royal Mail, not in ShipStation.
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While ShipStation does display a tracking number for shipments that include tracking, Royal Mail tracking events do not update in ShipStation. All tracking must be done on the Royal Mail tracking page. This also means the following ShipStation features cannot be used with Royal Mail services:
Delayed marketplace notifications
Delayed customer email notifications
Delivery email notifications
Branded Tracking Page
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To create return labels, Royal Mail must approve you for at least one of the following services:
Tracked Returns 24 - TSN
Tracked Returns 48 - TSS
Royal Mail's connection pop-up does not validate your input. If you enter incorrect details into the fields, Royal Mail will contact ShipStation during the “pending” phase. If this occurs, ShipStation will then contact you so you can re-enter and resubmit it to Royal Mail.
Here are some common issues, potential causes, and troubleshooting tips.
Issue |
How to troubleshoot or resolve |
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Error submitting End of Day: "Error transmitting to OBA. Details: Access Denied (not authenticated)" |
If you receive this error message, it may indicate that you have a 'Pre-paid' Royal Mail account. This type of account cannot be accessed via a third-party shipping platform and thus is not supported. Direct any questions to Royal Mail. |
Error submitting End of Day: "Attempting to divide by zero" |
This means you are missing customs declarations information for one of your orders. Check the customs declarations for the orders contained in the End of Day to ensure they include all the required information: Description, Quantity, Value, Content Type, Country of Origin. |
Error on getrate/createlabel: "Royal Mail: The given key was not present in the dictionary" |
This error typically means that when you attempted to get a rate or create a label you selected Small Parcel for an international shipment. The package type Small Parcel is only available for domestic UK shipments. To correct this error, select the Parcel package type. If this option isn’t available in the drop-down menu, you likely have disabled the Parcel package type in your ShipStation account. Re-enable Parcel as a package type by going to |