Royal Mail International Tracked

Royal Mail is one of the most reputed postal organisations in the world, employing over 150,000 employees! It offers many national and international mailing services to help businesses and individuals ship their mail at reasonable prices.

Many people don’t know about these services or are confused about which one to choose!

For instance, we recently met with a client who enquired about Royal Mail International Tracked. It is a global mailing service that ships to 230 countries.

They run a retail brand with many franchises in different countries. And they wanted a robust mailing solution to help them communicate with their target audience.

Though they knew Royal Mail International Tracked was an excellent option, they wanted to learn more about it.

We have covered all the details in this blog to help companies like theirs know the available options. Also, we discuss the benefits, delivery time, tracking methods, and more to give you a complete understanding of this mailing service.

Let us get started!

When speaking of Royal Mail Tracking International, you may wonder what a tracking number looks like. So here you go-

It is an alphanumeric string of nine to 27 characters. Some tracking numbers only have numbers. It depends on the shipping option you use and the mailing destination.

You can find the tracking number on your shipping receipts or via your online tracking updates. Enter it on the Royal Mail website to get the status of your shipped items.

Here are some examples of Royal Mail tracking numbers:

• HG620558410GB
• 028791C31F4
• 328712800007B3A6F40
• 0210GAD9675248A8
• 0B0741284000070308793

Ensure you keep your tracking numbers safe to monitor your mail statuses. Otherwise, you may need to visit the Post Office or contact its customer service department to provide your shipment details and retrieve the information.

However, you can only track a few items via Royal Mail International Tracking, making it hectic. You may need to manually enter the tracking numbers one after the other to get the statuses.

Hence, using PostGrid’s direct mail automation solutions is the best! You can get a consolidated view of all sent items via your dashboard, irrespective of your mailing volume.

The delivery aim for Royal Mail International Tracked mailers is between three and four business days. It covers Ireland, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia, Spain, and Sweden.

Deliveries in the remaining European countries take up to five working days. And the worldwide delivery aim is five to seven business days.

So it can take up to a week for Royal Mail to ship your items to the addressed locations. Please wait for this time frame to pass before reporting lost items in case of non-delivery.

You can plan your mail preparation and printing tasks to avoid last-minute delays. PostGrid’s direct mail API offers a 2-business-day SLA, helping you schedule your campaigns now and get your items out of the door without spending days or weeks compiling all the elements.

Also, you can schedule to send your mail via Royal Mail Track International for a specific date. It lets you ship items at the correct time to align your work well!

Shippers benefit significantly by choosing Royal Mail Tracked International to ship their mailers outside the UK. They include

High Transparency

You can only provide your customers with detailed tracking reports when you have them! And the International Tracked option helps you get this information, allowing you to pass it on to your buyers.

For example, our client shipped their customer orders to many global destinations. They offered a ten-day delivery window to all buyers, irrespective of the mailing location.

International Tracked helped them provide real-time tracking updates, improving transparency and strengthening customer relationships.

Better Cost Control

You can manage your shipping budget better when you track Royal Mail International items. But how?

Let us explain it to you via real-life examples. Imagine you send 100 items globally, but only 60 arrive at their destinations. You may take days or weeks to determine which mailers reached and which didn’t if you don’t track your items. Also, you may not learn the reason for the delivery delays or failures.

These situations lead to significant losses because Royal Mail might return some of your mailers. And the others are lost in transit.

There’s no way to account for these losses without the Royal Mail International Tracking service.

You can turn things around and cut expenses by monitoring your items until they reach their intended recipients. It lets you resolve any issues that may arise in transit.

You can instantly spot the issue, contact the Post Office, and have it solve the matter before it is too late!

PostGrid’s direct mail API also allows you to save on shipping costs. Our flexible plans and competitive pricing help all businesses ship affordably and accurately!

Attract More Buyers

Get more sales by shipping your orders via the International Tracked service Royal Mail option. People look for delivery tracking options when shopping online. Hence, sending their ordered products via a trackable service helps you keep them in the loop.

Additionally, you can send promotional postcards and letters with time-limited discount offers to attract more customers. The Royal Mail International Tracked service lets you track your campaign’s progress and check which prospects have received your mailers.

PostGrid offers you timely campaign analytics and insights you can use to improve your upcoming marketing activities and get better results!

These tracking and reporting capabilities enabled our client to get 1,000 more customers in only two weeks after their marketing campaign. They tracked their sent advertising postcards and launched an omnichannel email campaign on the arrival date.

This step reinstated their message and created an excellent impression in front of their audience, making conversions quick and easy.

Though the Post Office provides a delivery aim for all mailing services, delays are possible!

Some factors are uncontrollable or unavoidable! And learning about them can help you prepare for these situations in advance.

Public Holidays

Holidays in the UK or the destination countries can affect the Royal Mail International Tracked delivery times. Most Post Offices stay closed for these days and push your mail deliveries a few days ahead. Hence, your items reach the recipients one to four days after the specified time, depending on how long the holiday lasts.

It is most common during the holiday season, when local and regional Post Offices may have different times than the standard working hours. So please don’t be surprised if your items arrive late. Instead, try shipping your mailers a few days in advance to avoid last-minute problems.

Also, enquire about the updated delivery times at your local postal outlet before shipping urgent items. It can guide you on what to do if a holiday is coming up in a few days and whether you should choose a different service than the Royal Mail International Tracked option.

Customs Clearance

You may need to fill out a customs form before mailing it internationally. It can take time for the clearance process to complete, delaying your deliveries.

The time it takes for all the formalities to complete depends on the destination country’s rules. Hence, your items might arrive late, though Royal Mail promises deliveries within a week.

PostGrid can help you send your mailers anywhere globally without you filling out the customs form. Thus, you can save time and effort and improve efficiency while we handle everything on your behalf.

You can find many more global shipping services similar to Royal Mail International Tracked, like Standard and Signed.

Below is an overview of these services to let you decide which one you want to use:

International Economy

It is best for non-urgent items weighing up to 2 kg. This option is the most affordable global shipping service for businesses and individuals, helping them transport mailers without exhausting their budget.

International Economy has many features, like £20 compensation cover and free mail returns. You can buy the service online and print labels at your home or office, or visit the Post Office.

Printing your labels online lets you drop off your items at any mailbox near you instead of traveling to a postal outlet. But please ensure you do it right!

The prices to send International Economy items start at £2. And the delivery aim is two weeks.

International Standard

Its arrival time is similar to Royal Mail International Tracked- three to five days for European addresses and up to seven working days for other countries.

Its postage starts at £2.20 — a little costlier than International Economy. But there is a massive difference in the delivery times.

Most businesses use the International Economy to send bulk mailers and international standards for on-demand items. It helps them manage their costs better and save money.

International Signed

The International Tracked service Royal Mail costs you £7.20 per shipment. You can pay 20p more to use International Signed instead for added benefits.

Though this service only offers tracking within the UK, it lets you get the recipient’s signature on delivery unless you send items to the Middle East or Africa. Also, it does not work for mailing to Pack Stations and PO boxes because the carrier cannot capture the recipients’ details in these cases.

International Tracked and Signed

International Signed offers the signature on delivery feature, but only tracks items within the UK. And the Royal Mail International Tracked option provides the opposite.

What happens when you want both features? Many companies want to track their mail to the delivery point, but still want the recipient’s signature.

They can use the International Tracked and Signed option! 

This unique mailing service lets you get online delivery confirmation, free mail returns, end-to-end tracking, £50 compensation coverage, and more features.

Hence, you get everything using a single solution.

You can use PostGrid to narrow it down more! Access our direct mailing features to draft, print, ship, and track your items under one roof and save time.

PostGrid’s automated direct mail solutions let you ship marketing, compliance, and transactional mailers using any mailing service you need. You get the lowest rates and the best online shipping features, allowing you to send Royal Mail International Tracked and other items easily.

When sending something via the Post Office, the postal employees scan your mailers at many checkpoints. Hence, you can see the following statuses after you send Royal Mail International Tracked items.

• Advised: It is the first step of the delivery process. You see the ‘advised’ tracking update a few hours after you drop off your items at the mailbox or the Post Office. It means the postal service has all the details it needs to process your mailers. The status changes to ‘in progress’ to signify when your mail enters the delivery network. 
• In transit: This update means your item is out to reach the addressee. Enter your reference number on the Royal Mail website for more details on where your mailers are and how long they could take. 
• Advised to collect from the Post Office: Your addressed recipient may not be home when the courier attempts delivery. So they tried again to drop off the items the following day. They might leave a card at the doorstep if they fail to deliver your mail again. This card says, “advised to collect from the Post Office.” It denotes that the addressee must visit the nearest postal outlet to retrieve their envelopes or parcels. You can see the same message on your Royal Mail International Tracking page. 
• Attempted delivery: Whenever you see the ‘attempted delivery’ message, please note that the recipient has missed the item. They may not have been home when the carrier came to drop off the items. But it does not mean the Post Office will return the mail to you. It might try again a few times before initiating the return process. This message might also appear because of incorrect addresses on your labels. Automated mailing services like PostGrid eliminate this issue by cross-checking your mailing lists before every campaign. 

Our client was confused about—How do I track an international package with Royal Mail?

They wanted to learn how to contact the Post Office when an issue occurs and what to do if their items get lost in transit. 

When planning these things, they encountered our automated mailing solution, which allowed them to complete these tasks online. Hence, they could cut unnecessary expenses and save their staff’s time. 

Pre-Built Templates

The company used our pre-built templates to design its marketing and transactional mailers, like postcards, letters, and invoices. It helped them create artwork based on their preferences without paying a designer. 

Also, they customized the designs with their logo to send branded items via the Royal Mail International Tracked service.

Variable Data Printing

PostGrid’s direct mail API offers variable data printing to let you personalize your mailers and make them unique for every recipient. 

You can personalize everything from the recipient’s name and location to their preferences, needs, buying history, and more. It gives you the upper hand over competitors by replacing generic mailers with something your audience can appreciate. 

The best part is you can add as many variables as you need without paying anything extra. Thus, you can keep your Royal Mail International Track costs low.

List Compilation

Businesses can compile mailing lists from scratch using PostGrid! It helps them reach new people and expand their customer base. 

For example, our client noticed that they have many customers in a specific city. They created a campaign to target prospects with the same buyer personas in the location to attract high sales. And it worked! 

Identifying your buyer profiles and creating mailing lists accordingly, helps you reach the correct audience with the perfect message. It improves your brand awareness and grows your sales network. 

Address Verification

Standardise and validate your customers’ delivery addresses before sending Royal Mail International Tracked items. Global shipping rates are higher than local and domestic mailing prices. Hence, it makes sense to cross-check the addresses, ensuring the Post Office accurately delivers your items to the correct recipients.

You can verify your addresses on-demand or in bulk based on your needs. 

PostGrid can process any number of addresses and print and mail requests under the same campaign. Our scalable solutions can accommodate your ever-changing needs without hassles. 

Complete Print and Mail Fulfillment

Your staff does not need to do anything in-house using PostGrid’s direct mail API. You can integrate our solutions into your CRM within minutes and send your Royal Mail International Tracked and other items to any country.

Our print and delivery network (PDN) ensures you only send high-quality items to your intended recipients at the lowest rates!

Also, you don’t need to pay setup charges or the minimal monthly fees. You can start with our basic plan and upgrade as your needs grow. 

Request a demo for more information on sending Royal Mail International Tracked items online with PostGrid!