Royal Mail is a premium shipping method for WooCommerce that lets you calculate shipping costs using Royal Mail rates. The Royal Mail extension can calculate rates worldwide or UK domestic.

As the Royal Mail postal service and courier company does not provide an API, this extension contains prices and services hardcoded. Our extension reflects the current 2022 Royal Mail rates (PDF).

More information at: Managing WooCommerce.com subscriptions.

Setup and Configuration

1. Go to: WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping.
2. Select the Shipping Zone you wish to add the method to, and select Add shipping method + on the right.
   
3. Select Royal Mail from the dropdown, and Add shipping method.
   
4. Click on the Royal Mail method to configure the settings:
   • Method Title – Name the shipping method. This is visible to customers.
   • Rates and Services – Controls the services and rates you offer customers.
     • Parcel Packing Method – See below.
     • Offer Rates – Choose to return all rates (user gets selection/choice) or return a single rate.
     • Services – Rename and re-order Royal Mail shipping rates.

Once the plugin is set up, customers will be offered a choice of Royal Mail rates based on
• which services & rates you’ve enabled
• the contents of the order
• the origin of the order
• the destination of the order

Debug 

1. Go to: WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping > Royal Mail
2. Debug Mode – Enable debug mode to show debugging information on your cart/checkout.

Parcel Packing Method

There are two packing methods with Royal Mail. Each affects the parcels you send to the plugin for a quote.

Pack items individually (Default)

Each item in your cart (non-virtual) is sent to the plugin individually. Quotes for all items are combined for the final cost.

Pack items in boxes together (Recommended)

Items are packed into pre-defined boxes and sent to the plugin for a quote. We recommend this option. See Box-Packing below for more information.

Box-Packing

The box packer included with this shipping method allows you group items into packages for which you define the height, width, length, and weight. The packing is mainly volume-based but does also consider item sizes.

Setting up box sizes

Most methods of Royal Mail have fixed sizes and do not require custom box sizes. However, International Mail does require custom sizes and their package sizes can vary.

Within settings, look for the “International Parcel Sizes” setting. Click ‘add box’ to set up box dimensions:

• Defined dimensions are used for packing, and items will be fit within these.
• Box weight is the weight of an empty box.

How the calculation works

The packer does the following:

1. Finds boxes that fit items being packed (uses H x W x D).
2. Packs all fitting items into boxes (using volume).
3. Uses the largest box fitting 100% of items *or* uses the highest % packed box, and then passes unpacked items back (and repeats the process)
4. Packs unpackable items alone, using item dimensions.
5. Returns all packed boxes.

Customer Usage