UK Shipping Label
Royal Mail, Evri & More — Free

Royal Mail's Size-First Pricing Model (and Why It Matters)

Unlike most couriers, Royal Mail charges on a mix of size AND weight rather than weight alone. The three main parcel categories are Small Parcel (up to 45 x 35 x 16 cm), Medium Parcel (up to 61 x 46 x 46 cm), and Large Parcel (anything bigger, with each dimension capped at 1.5 m and overall girth limits). On top of that, smaller items can ship as Letter or Large Letter at significantly lower rates if they fit specific physical thresholds.

What this means in practice: a 100g item shipped in a 6 cm thick box costs noticeably more than the same item flattened into a Large Letter envelope (up to 2.5 cm thick). Online sellers consistently lose margin by under-using the Large Letter category. A Large Letter is up to 35.3 cm long, up to 25 cm wide, up to 2.5 cm thick, and up to 750g — fits a paperback, a folded T-shirt, a small pouch, a thin gadget.

1st Class, 2nd Class, Tracked — Which to Pick

Royal Mail's service tiers genuinely differ on delivery speed, tracking visibility, and protection. The differences are easier to remember as a hierarchy:

• 2nd Class: 2-3 working days, no tracking by default, basic loss/damage cover up to about £20. The cheapest mainland option. Fine for non-urgent items under £20.
• 1st Class: 1-2 working days, no real-time tracking, cover up to about £20. Faster delivery for a modest upgrade. Default for most ecommerce sellers shipping under £50 items.
• Tracked 48: 2-3 working days WITH full tracking and SMS/email updates to the buyer, £100 cover included. Ideal sweet spot for ecommerce items £20-£100.
• Tracked 24: 1-2 working days, full tracking, £100 cover. Use when the item value or buyer expectation justifies the upgrade.
• Signed For (1st or 2nd Class add-on): adds a delivery signature. Useful for moderate-value items where you want proof of delivery without paying for full tracking.
• Special Delivery Guaranteed: next-day by 1pm, full tracking, signature required, cover up to £750-£2,500 depending on the option. Use for items above £100 where deliverability and insurance matter.

How Click & Drop Compares to Buying Postage at the Post Office

Royal Mail Click & Drop is the online postage purchase system most ecommerce sellers eventually move to. The trade-off vs counter postage at a Post Office is real:

Counter pricing at a Post Office branch is the retail rate — same prices anyone walking in would pay. Click & Drop offers "OBA discount" rates that drop 5-15% for higher-volume senders. For 10+ parcels a week, the savings compound quickly. Click & Drop also generates a customs declaration automatically for international shipments and lets you print labels from your own printer, which is a workflow win even before the savings.

Note that Click & Drop with OBA pricing requires either a registered Royal Mail business account or use of the standard "casual user" account at retail rates. The "Pro" tier and OBA contracts unlock the bigger discounts but require some volume commitment. For a brand-new ecommerce seller shipping a handful per week, casual Click & Drop is the right starting point — same prices as Post Office counter but with home printing.

Where to Drop Off Your Parcels

Royal Mail has more drop-off points than any other UK carrier, with a few distinct options depending on parcel size and what postage you've already bought:

• Standard postbox: stamped or franked items only. Small Parcels won't fit; only Letters and Large Letters that physically fit through the slot.
• Parcel Postbox: a larger postbox variant that fits Small Parcels. About 20,000 of these are deployed across the UK. Look for the orange Royal Mail parcel symbol; check the Royal Mail parcel postbox finder before relying on one.
• Post Office branch: takes any size including Medium and Large Parcels. Can also buy postage at the counter if you haven't pre-paid via Click & Drop. ~11,500 branches nationally; some are sub-post offices in shops with limited hours.
• Royal Mail Customer Service Point: usually attached to a sorting office. Open weekday daytimes; some open Saturday mornings. Drop-off only — no counter postage purchases.
• Collection from your address: included with OBA business accounts. Casual Click & Drop users can book a paid collection (usually £0.72-£3 per item depending on volume).

Tracking: What the Reference Numbers Actually Tell You

Royal Mail tracking references follow a few patterns that hint at the underlying service. Knowing them helps when a buyer messages you about a delivery:

• References starting with two letters and ending with "GB" (e.g. AA123456789GB): International Tracked or Signed For. Trackable end-to-end including in the destination country.
• Numbers starting with "RM" (e.g. RM1234567890GB): Tracked 24, Tracked 48, or domestic Signed For. Full UK-side tracking.
• Numbers starting with a digit and "M" or "K" (e.g. 1M12345678901K): Special Delivery Guaranteed. Tracked to delivery with signature.
• Plain receipt numbers without a tracking prefix (e.g. 9300 prefix): proof of posting only, no tracking. Often what you get with 1st or 2nd Class without an add-on.
• The Royal Mail tracking website pulls all of these, but only the first three patterns return real scan events. The fourth just confirms postage was bought.

Common Royal Mail Seller Mistakes

A short list of the issues that come up most often for new ecommerce sellers using Royal Mail:

• Pricing as Small Parcel when the item would fit Large Letter — typical overcharge of £2-£3 per shipment. Use a flat envelope or thin mailer when item profile allows.
• Forgetting that Large Letter has a strict 2.5 cm thickness gauge — Post Office staff will reject items that don't pass the size guide and you'll have to upgrade on the spot.
• Using untracked 1st or 2nd Class for items above £20 without buying Signed For — if it's lost, your liability claim caps out and the marketplace dispute will likely cost you the item.
• Misjudging Tracked 24 vs 1st Class — they're often within a few pence of each other but Tracked 24 includes the £100 insurance, which is meaningful for items £20-£100.
• Forgetting that bank holidays disrupt working-day estimates. "1-2 working days" from a Sunday post means Tuesday-Wednesday, and a Monday bank holiday pushes that to Wednesday-Thursday.

International Shipping via Royal Mail

Royal Mail handles inbound and outbound international shipping for UK sellers. The three main service tiers are International Standard (untracked, cheapest, 3-5 days to Europe / 6-7 to US / 6-9 worldwide), International Tracked (fully tracked, similar timing), and International Tracked & Signed (tracked with signature on delivery, slightly slower).

Customs paperwork is generated automatically when you book via Click & Drop — the CN22 (under £270 value) or CN23 (above £270) declaration gets printed alongside the label. For Post Office counter postage, you complete the customs form by hand, which works but is slower at busy branches.

Brexit added VAT and customs duty implications for UK-to-EU shipping that buyers see at the destination. Be explicit in listings that EU buyers may pay VAT and a small handling fee in their country before delivery — surprised buyers leave negative feedback.

Evri's ParcelShop Network: 10,000+ UK Drop-Off Points

The ParcelShop network is Evri's biggest practical advantage. With ~10,000+ locations across the UK as of 2026, ParcelShops are denser than any other courier's drop-off network — including DPD Pickup (~6,500) and Yodel Store (~7,000). The locations are typically newsagents, convenience stores, supermarkets, and dry cleaners, with the highest concentration in residential areas where buyers actually live.

For sellers, ParcelShop drop-off is the standard workflow: print the label at home, walk to your nearest ParcelShop, hand it over the counter. The shop scans the label, prints a receipt, and the parcel enters Evri's network within hours. No appointment, no minimum volume, no account — works for anyone shipping a single parcel.

Evri's Service Tiers (And Where the Real Savings Are)

Evri's published services are simpler than DPD's tier system but the pricing structure has more nuance:

• Postable: Letterbox-friendly small items up to 1 kg with thickness under 2 cm. Cheapest service Evri offers — competitive with Royal Mail Large Letter for thin items but with ParcelShop drop-off instead of postbox.
• Standard (2-3 working days): the default for most ecommerce. Tracked, with email/SMS updates, up to 15 kg. Where the bulk of Evri's volume sits.
• Next Day: delivery the next working day. Roughly £1.50-3 more than Standard. Worth it only for genuinely time-sensitive items where the buyer is paying for speed.
• International: Evri Tracked International covers the EU and select global destinations with end-to-end tracking. Customs paperwork generated automatically when you book through evri.com.
• ReturnMe: a returns-specific service (separate pricing). Buyer pays at the ParcelShop counter, or seller pre-pays in a returns portal. Most ecommerce returns through Evri go through this.

Why Evri Often Wins on Price for Sub-5-kg Ecommerce Parcels

Evri is structurally the cheaper UK courier for typical ecommerce-sized parcels (under 5 kg, under £50 item value). The reasons compound:

First, Evri's couriers are self-employed and paid per delivery, with a fleet structure that keeps fixed costs lower than DPD's salaried-driver model. Second, the ParcelShop network reduces the cost-per-delivery for first/last mile because consolidated drop-offs are cheaper than door-to-door. Third, Evri historically prices aggressively for casual / individual sellers (the eBay/Vinted/Depop crowd) because that's where their volume came from during the Hermes era.

• 0-1 kg ecommerce parcel: Evri Standard typically £2.79-£3.29. Compare to DPD Classic at £5-7, Royal Mail Tracked 48 at £2.85-£3.45.
• 1-2 kg: Evri Standard typically £3.49-£4.20. Still cheaper than DPD and competitive with Royal Mail Tracked.
• 5-15 kg: Evri Standard moves into £6-10 territory; DPD Classic catches up here and surpasses Evri on tracking quality.
• International EU: Evri Tracked International often beats Royal Mail International Tracked by £1-3 per parcel for under-2-kg shipments.

Hermes to Evri: The Rebrand and What Actually Changed

Evri is the rebrand of Hermes UK, which happened in March 2022. Until then, the company traded as Hermes and had accumulated significant negative customer perception — particularly around parcel damage rates and the difficulty of customer service contact. The rebrand was deliberately positioned as a fresh start with a substantial investment in: new tracking technology, an updated ParcelShop network, and a customer service overhaul.

From a seller's perspective, the operational mechanics are mostly the same as the Hermes era — same network, same couriers, similar pricing structure. What did change: tracking is now more granular (real-time updates, photo proof of delivery on most routes), the app is meaningfully better, and missed-delivery routing to ParcelShops is faster. Buyer perception has improved in industry surveys since 2022, though Evri still ranks below DPD and Royal Mail on most experience metrics.

Practical implication for sellers: if a buyer messages you complaining about Hermes (using the old name), they're remembering pre-2022 issues. The actual current service is improved — though if a buyer has had a genuinely bad Evri experience recently, that's a separate signal worth taking seriously.

Tracking Behaviour and What Buyers See

Evri tracking numbers are 16 digits, often starting with "H" (legacy Hermes format that still works) or with a different prefix on newer labels. The Evri tracking page and app show:

• "Parcel data received": label has been generated; physical parcel hasn't reached the network yet. Sellers see this immediately after creating a label.
• "Received at ParcelShop" or "Collected from sender": parcel is physically with Evri. Tracking gets meaningful after this.
• "At your local depot": parcel routed to the depot serving the destination postcode. Delivery typically within 24-48 hours of this scan.
• "Out for delivery": driver has the parcel on the route. Buyers usually get an estimated 2-4 hour delivery window on this scan (not the 1-hour precision of DPD).
• "Delivered (with photo)" or "Delivered to neighbour" or "Delivered to ParcelShop": completion with location detail.
• "Returning to sender": if delivery failed twice and no one collected from the ParcelShop within 7 days. Costs you a return-leg fee.

Vinted, Depop and Marketplace Integration

Evri is the default carrier for many UK marketplace pre-paid labels — particularly Vinted, where sellers don't choose the carrier (the marketplace generates an Evri ParcelShop label automatically). The same applies to a meaningful portion of Depop sellers using Depop Shipping for UK-to-UK deliveries.

For sellers who cross-list on both their own webshop and marketplaces like Vinted, this means Evri shows up as your label whether you wanted it or not. Knowing the network — especially the ParcelShop drop-off flow — pays off because you'll be using it regardless. The Evri label format is consistent across marketplace-generated and self-generated, so the same shipping workflow handles all of it.

Common Mistakes Sellers Make With Evri

A short list of friction points that come up most for sellers new to Evri:

• Skipping Postable for thin items under 1 kg — pays £3.20 Standard when £2.10 Postable would deliver the same item. Letterbox-friendly items should always check Postable first.
• Picking Next Day when the parcel doesn't actually need to arrive tomorrow — pays £4.50 for Next Day when £3.20 Standard arrives in 2-3 working days. Standard is the right default unless the item is genuinely time-sensitive.
• Forgetting that ParcelShop opening hours vary widely — some shops close at 5pm Monday-Friday. Plan drop-offs based on the shop's actual hours (visible on evri.com), not your own schedule.
• Using Evri for items over 15 kg — Evri caps Standard at 15 kg, Next Day at 15 kg, and most ParcelShops can't handle bulky items above ~25 cm in any dimension. Parcelforce or DPD handle bulky/heavy better.
• Not enabling SMS/email notifications when creating the label — buyers expect proactive tracking updates. Your customer-service load goes up when buyers can't see status.

When to Pick Evri vs Royal Mail vs DPD

A quick framing for the three-way choice:

• Item under 1 kg, value under £30: Evri Standard. Cheapest, tracking is good enough at this price point.
• Item under 1 kg, value over £30: Royal Mail Tracked 48 with £100 cover. Cheaper than Evri at this weight when factoring in the included insurance.
• Item 1-5 kg, value under £50: Evri Standard. The price advantage compounds at this weight.
• Item 1-5 kg, value over £50: DPD Classic. Slight upcharge over Evri buys notably better tracking quality and reduces support tickets.
• Item over 5 kg or large dimensions: DPD or Parcelforce. Evri's strength is sub-5-kg ecommerce; heavier or bulkier goes elsewhere.
• Time-critical / next-day required: DPD Next Day (best tracking) or Evri Next Day (cheaper). Royal Mail Special Delivery if you also need £750+ insurance.