Parcel Force Integration With Shipping Software

Customise the way you integrate with Parcelforce with a custom shipping integration

shipster parcelforce integration diagram

Why choose to integrate with Parcelforce?

Parcelforce is part of the Royal Mail family but has been a separate company since 1986, and now operates through its own API. Based in the UK, Parcelforce is especially efficient when it comes to domestic shipping and is able to deliver to every single UK address. Their internal UK delivery is a huge operation. Their main domestic distribution center is able to process over 58,000 parcels per hour and spans over 5.9 acres making it one of the country’s largest buildings.

Parcelforce are also a reliable courier when it comes to internationally shipping. Through their own infrastructure and partnerships with other couriers, they can ship to around 99% of locations across the world.

On their website, Parcelforce describe how they like to be ahead of the curve and always ensure they are making use of industry leading technology. An example of this is their introduction of online tracking as early as 1990. They believe this approach is especially important now in order to keep up with the rapid increase in demand for express delivery parcels.

Many Shipster clients favour Parcelforce for their wide range of flexible and convenient delivery options. This includes delivering parcels to one of the 11,000 local Post Offices if the customer is not able to receive the shipment at home.

How does a Parcelforce integration work?

After an integration is agreed by the courier, we can write ‘shipping rules’ which map certain data points in your orders to trigger whichever Parcelforce delivery service you desire. Shipster then generates and prints a shipping label for this service and sends all the parcel information to Parcelforce.

Here are some of the ways you can customise your shipping rules

Create rules from dozens of conditions and commands

Example Shipping Rules

Locations

Shipster can use location data to allocate shipments going anywhere in the world to the appropriate delivery service. This data can also be used to print additional documents such as CN22s that could be translated into the recipient’s language.

Pop-ups

Create custom pop-ups that are triggered for every order, or when certain conditions in an order are present. This is often used to ask packers how many parcels there are if an order is over a certain weight. The subsequent selection then affects how many labels Shipster prints.

Courier Service Selection

Map Shipster to automatically choose a courier and delivery service based on certain information points in an order. This list is endless, from destination country, to day of the week that the order was placed.

Notifications

Choose to map in Shipster whether the customer receives tracking notifications from the courier for orders going on a certain service. Select whether this notification is in the form of an email or text. This function is only available for certain couriers.

Postcode Correction

Shipster has the ability to instantly fix common postcode mistakes given by customers, ensuring that post codes will be sent to couriers in the correct format. This includes adding or removing spaces, or trimming unnecessary area codes.

Failed Shipments

Efficiently deal with failed shipments in multiple ways: automatically move them into a "skipped" queue to be dealt with later; print a document alerting and instructing warehouse packers; or archive them to a designated folder.

How does Shipster communicate with Parcelforce?

If a customer has selected Parcelforce shipping on your sales platform, or if a Parcelforce shipping rule is triggered in Shipster by a certain attribute of an order, Shipster will create and print the appropriate shipping label to be affixed to the parcel. Shipster also books the shipment directly with Parcelforce and obtains the tracking information which is automatically sent back to your warehouse management software.

What's the difference between Parcelforce and Royal Mail?

Parcelforce started off as the division of Royal Mail responsible for shipping parcels, but since 1986 it has been its own company, offering their own range of domestic and international services. Today, Parcelforce tends to specialise in more express delivery options.

What makes Shipster special?

Shipster is a competitively priced delivery management software. It is highly customisable and designed to be tailored to individual companies’ needs. We offer a level of flexibility you won't find elsewhere without extra charge.

Can I customise my Shipster after setup?

Yes! You can choose to completely change your shipping rules as your business changes and evolves, including which couriers you’d like to ship with. Additional rule changes after set up are absolutely free as this service is included in your monthly support charge. Shipster is designed to adapt your business grows and changes and be flexible to each client’s fluctuating shipping needs.

Can you process orders in advance?

Yes, in Shipster you can turn despatch days on and off and change collection cut off times for each courier.

How much does Shipster cost?

After the initial set up fee of either £1500 or £2500 depending on which contract length you sign, the only monthly cost is the support fee. This costs £50 per licence and allows you to access our responsive support team and customise your setup as much as you want, whenever you want.

Who else is using the Shipster-Parcelforce Mail Integration?

Popular in these sectors

As you can see from this pie chart, Parcelforce is a popular courier amongst a range of industries.

> This is due to the variety of services Parcelforce offers, catering to many different shipping needs.

> Due to Parcelforce’s huge connections across the UK, it is mainly utilised by retailers who are more likely to be shipping heavy items domestically such as sporting equipment and outdoor products.

> Unlike with other couriers, the fashion industry does not dominate these statistics. This is probably because of Parcelforce's versatility of services for other product types, whereas the fashion industry tends to focus on next-day and return services.

Feedback

Customers that use our courier integrations

Electric Tobacconist

Ollie Frostick, Head of Digital Operations

"The service offered by Shipster has been nothing short of fantastic. We switched to a new WMS and Shipster allowed us to integrate seamlessly with multiple couriers, while their Inventory Planner connector enabled us to utilise two powerful systems that previously refused to talk to one another. Overall it’s been a great experience so far!"

DLSB

Daniel Mitchell, Operations Manager

"Shipster for us was like a breath of fresh air with regards to our old system. From the first initial onboarding meeting with Shipster, we could tell they were going to be a company that we could rely on to support our business growth. I have found that no request is too big or small, I have found the team at Shipster are always available which in comparison to our old system is a blessing."