Royal Mail API's
Integration Help

So, you are looking at integrating your existing in-house dispatch system into Royal Mail? This is an exciting new step, as it enables your business to integrate postage stamps and custom forms into your labels ready to send out, without the fuss of either taking them to the post office, or manually filling out forms online to generate the labels. This saves significant employee time and in some cases money in the form of discounted postage.

If you are a small or mid-sized business, Click and Drop API or Pro Shipping API are likely to be one of the integration routes suitable for your business. Click and Drop has 3 levels of integration, with the basic levels being under 20 mailings per week, and the more advanced options up to 100 items per day. Pro Shopping API on the other is the level up from Click and Drop, with a minimum threshold of 100 items per day.     

For larger businesses dispatching over 1,000 packages every day, the Mailmark system may be more appropriate, enabling you to integrate an in-house sorting office to capitalize on extra discounts.  

Whichever service you are looking to integrate, TheDevTeam can help handle the integration into your existing systems, whether your software is bespoke for your business, or you run an off-the-shelf software. Please fill out your information for a no-obligation chat about your requirements or read on for more information about each service. 

Ideal for small businesses sending under 100 items per day
Ideal for medium businesses sending between 100-1000 items per day
Ideal for large distribution houses sending over 1000 items per day
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Click & Drop

In its basic level, Click & Drop can be used on a personal level by anyone, without even having to sign up to an account. The pay-as-you-go format allows anyone with a computer and printer to print of their own postage labels and pay via a card or PayPal.

Stepping up a level, small businesses can take advantage of this by integrating straight into their online shop. It supports several online market places, including Amazon, eBay, Shopify, Woocommerce, Not on the High street, Etsy, Magento, Big Commerce, OnBuy.com, Bluepark, EKM and Squarespace.

Don’t worry if your store is not listed, or you have a custom built platform, there are two options to link this into your existing distribution system. Either by API (which require a minimum send of 20 packages a week), or by Click & Drop Desktop which is open to anyone.

Click & Drop Desktop, despite the name, is a connector sitting on your distribution machine or server which can accept spreadsheets or csv files that can be generated by your ecommerce software and send automatically to your Click & Drop portal. Your software can be setup to calculate the weights of the packages by knowing its contents, and fill out any customs forms and IOSS numbers if sending to Europe. All you need to do is open the click & drop portal, make any changes if needed before applying and paying for the postage in bulk. Then print out and stick the labels on to your packages and drop your letters, parcels, tracked or international mail straight into any post box or parcel box.

The Click & Drop API is fairly similar to this processes, except it talks directly with Click & Drop, instead of relying on the Desktop. In our opinion, the extra requirements and applications to open an account is not worth the trouble, we would recommend integrating via the Click & Drop Desktop, which is automated, or integrate using Pro Shipping if you meet the requirements.

We have integrated Click & Drop on Fish4Flies. If you would like us to integrate this into your site, get in touch to have a chat.

Pro Shipping

Sending out 100-1000 items per day? Then Pro Shipping is the ideal solution for you. The API lets your distribution software control all aspects of the postage without having to touch a Royal Mail portal (but there is one if you happen to need it).

Postage can be incorporated into your existing labels. You can choose any service, setup EORI and IOSS numbers, your system can calculate the weights, list the contents for customs, and generate and submit the end of day reports to Royal Mail and your admin staff.

Not only this, but there could also be extra efficiencies in both cost and time savings which we can identify and make while we upgrade your distribution system.

TheDevTeam specialised in this type of integration, so please call us for a chat and see how we can help. We would also be happy to put you in touch with others who we have helped.

We have integrated Pro Shipping on Unique Magazines. If you would like us to integrate this into your site, get in touch to have a chat.

Mailmark

If you are in the pleasant situation of sending more than 1,000 packages each day, then you can take advantage of the Mailmark service at Royal Mail. There are significant discounts for performing some of Royal Mail’s work in house. For example a first class large letter weighing under 100g can cost just 97.4p without any volume discounts included. (*price as of 2022)

TheDevTeam have experience in setting up Mailmark for subscription distribution firms. If you would like to have a chat on how we can help you integrate this into your business, please fill out the short form.

We have integrated Mailmark on Newsstand. If you would like us to integrate this into your site, get in touch to have a chat.