Processing Royal Mail Direct Orders

Overview

This guide explains how to despatch orders using the Royal Mail Direct integration in StoreFeeder, including required fields, validation, and tracking number assignment.

Before you begin

All Royal Mail shipments go through validation in StoreFeeder, even if validation is disabled on your account. Make sure each order has the following information before despatching:

• Order weight — required to validate the packaging size and service, and to send the correct data to Royal Mail.
• Shipping Address Line 1 — required to ensure the parcel reaches the recipient.
• Shipping postcode — required for the same reason as the address.
• Packaging size — required to validate the service and produce the label.

Processing Royal Mail Direct orders

1. Select the orders you want to despatch and trigger the despatch process.
2. Resolve any missing information. If an order is missing one or more required fields, you are prompted to enter the missing data before retrying. Do not skip the validation step — bypassing it or manually changing the order results in a blank label showing the field that still needs to be resolved.
3. Wait for tracking number assignment. Once all required data is present, StoreFeeder marks the order as despatched and assigns a tracking number for tracked services.

Troubleshooting

Order fails to despatch after passing the first validation stage

This typically means the weight, destination country, or packaging size falls outside the accepted limits for the selected Royal Mail service. Fix the affected value on the Edit Orders page, or switch the order to a service that supports the order's specifications.

"Unable to auto-assign a range" error

StoreFeeder automatically assigns tracking ranges for most services and requests new ranges when the current one runs out. If you are using an LBT (Letter Box Tracked) service, tracking ranges must be added manually — contact your Royal Mail account manager for the process. This error indicates your tracking range has been exhausted.

Once an order is successfully despatched, you receive an invoice and label ready to attach to the parcel.