Royal Mail

Royal Mail is a postal service and courier company in the United Kingdom. Your Ecwid online store can automatically show your customers rates for multiple Royal Mail delivery options. At checkout buyers will see what delivery options are suitable for their shipping address and products’ weight and can choose one for their order.

To use the automatic shipping rates from Royal Mail, your store’s country must be the United Kingdom, and your store's currency must be Pound sterling.

Enabling Royal Mail shipping rates

To calculate precise shipping rates at checkout, you will need to set up a Royal Mail shipping method in your store. After that, you can select which Royal Mail shipping services (1st class, Tracked 24, Tracked 48, etc.) you want to use, add a shipping markup if needed, etc.

To enable Royal Mail rates in your store:

Once you complete these steps, customers will see the Royal Mail options and automatically calculated rates for their order at checkout, and they will be able to choose how they want their order to be shipped.

Changing Royal Mail settings

You can start offering Royal Mail options in your store immediately after adding the Royal Mail method. Default settings will be applied, and Royal Mail rates will start showing at checkout. However, you may want to adjust those settings to fit your business needs.

To edit the Royal Mail settings in your Ecwid store:

1. From your Ecwid admin, go to Shipping & Pickup → Royal Mail.
2. Click on the Actions menu in the Royal Mail box and choose Edit.

You will see different settings where you can change the following:

• Choose shipping options
  Enable which Royal Mail services you will use to ship orders. Customers will see these options at checkout. Learn more about Royal Mail shipping services to choose the shipping methods that will work best for you.
  

  

• Show approximate delivery date at checkout
  Turn this on to display the approximate delivery date next to delivery options at checkout. A clearly stated delivery date lets customers understand when they can expect to receive their order, resulting in a higher number of successful sales.
  In the Order preparation time, specify how many days it usually takes for you to prepare an order. That time will be taken into account when calculating the delivery date for customers.
  In the Days when you pack orders, specify when you pack orders for shipment.
  Set the final time to pack orders in the I pack orders received past this time on the next day box. Your schedule will be taken into account when calculating the delivery date for customers.
• Specify shipping region
  You can select which destination zone the Royal Mail rates will be available for in your store. You can choose to ship all over the world, specify region, country, or city, or choose a specific zone on a map.
  Customers whose address doesn’t fall into the set zone won’t see Royal Mail options at checkout.
• Add shipping markup
  The shipping markup is a hidden fixed fee that will be added to the Royal Mail rates. Use this setting if you want to increase the shipping rates to cover your shipping expenses.
• Set default package size (cm)
  The default package size is used for the shipping rates calculation if no product dimensions are specified in your catalog. If all your products are approximately of the same size, you can set the default package size in the shipping settings once and use it for all products.
• Set minimum order subtotal
  Limit the availability of this shipping method by order subtotal. If the order is below the set amount, this shipping method will be inactive at checkout.
• Royal Mail online prices
  If you pay for parcel delivery online using the Royal Mail Click & Drop service, you can show more accurate rates at checkout by enabling the Royal Mail online prices toggle. In this case, your store will use the discounted online prices from Royal Mail when calculating shipping costs. If this setting is disabled, the store shows the standard Royal Mail rates at checkout.
  Once you’ve changed the settings, we recommend that you check the results in your storefront: add some products to the cart, go to checkout, and enter different shipping addresses. Make sure that you see the Royal Mail options and rates you want to use. If needed, go back to your Ecwid admin and adjust the settings.

Related articles:

Choosing the right shipping strategy for your store
Sorting delivery options at checkout
Shipping labels
Tracking numbers