Processing Royal Mail Direct Orders

This guide explains what StoreFeeder checks when you despatch an order on a Royal Mail Direct shipping method, and how to fix an order that won't despatch, in the current StoreFeeder view. If you use the legacy view, see Processing Royal Mail Direct Orders (legacy).

What Royal Mail needs on every order

Despatching a Royal Mail Direct order works much like any other despatch in StoreFeeder, with one difference: every Royal Mail shipment goes through validation, even if you have validation turned off on your account. StoreFeeder can't despatch a Royal Mail order without the following information:

Order weight: used to validate the packaging size and service, and to send the correct information to Royal Mail.
Shipping address 1: makes sure the parcel reaches its intended recipient.
Shipping postcode: needed for the same reason.
Package size: used to validate the service. Royal Mail needs it to produce the label.

You can check or add the weight and package size on the order before you despatch:

Go to Orders and click the order number.
In the Shipping details section, check Order weight and Package size.
Click Save at the top right.

The Shipping details section of an order in the current view, with the Order weight and Package size fields highlighted

How the despatch works

Stage 1: Validation

StoreFeeder checks the order has all four pieces of information. If anything is missing, you'll be asked to enter the missing information and then retry the despatch.

Warning: You must go through validation to print a Royal Mail label. If validation is skipped, or the order is changed manually, you'll only receive a blank label showing the issue you need to fix.

Stage 2: Tracking numbers and despatch

Once the information is saved against the order, StoreFeeder gets any tracking numbers the service needs and marks the order as despatched. An order can still fail at this stage if its weight, country or package size isn't within the accepted limits for the service on the order. See Troubleshooting below.

After despatch

When the order has passed both stages, StoreFeeder marks it as despatched and assigns a tracking number if the service is tracked. You'll receive an invoice and a label so you can send the parcel.

Tracking ranges

StoreFeeder assigns tracking ranges automatically for most Royal Mail services, and assigns more as soon as you run out. If you use an LBT service, you'll need to add tracking ranges manually: your account manager can help you with this.

Note: If you run out of tracking ranges, you'll see an error saying StoreFeeder was unable to auto assign a range.

Troubleshooting

The order fails at the second stage of despatch
The weight, country or package size on the order is outside the accepted limits for its service. If the weight is wrong, correct Order weight in the order's Shipping details section and save. If the country, weight and package size are all correct, change the order's Shipping method (also in Shipping details) to one using a service that accepts them.

The label is blank apart from a message
The order skipped validation or was changed manually. The message on the label tells you what to fix. Fix it, then despatch the order again so it goes through validation.

Error saying StoreFeeder was unable to auto assign a range
You've run out of tracking ranges. For LBT services, add more ranges manually; contact your account manager if you need help.

Still stuck? Contact StoreFeeder support with your account name, the order number, the shipping method and Royal Mail service on the order, and the exact message shown when the despatch failed (or a copy of the blank label).