Royal Mail to expand tracked international shipping services

Royal Mail is set to expand its international tracked shipping services to more countries from the end of this month. The move particularly aims to expand the potential for smaller online retailers to sell to customers abroad.

From 30th March, the UK postal service will extend its International Tracked & Signed service for individuals and businesses to 10 new countries — Spain, Turkey, Cyprus, Serbia, Latvia, Moldova, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Malaysia and Cambodia.

It will mean the service delivers to 53 countries in total worldwide, providing shippers with a signature on delivery.

Royal Mail will also be extending its non-signature tracked service, International Tracked, to six more countries — Italy, Turkey, Slovakia, Israel and South Korea — to take the service’s total number of destinations to 39 countries.

At the same time, the company said it will be upgrading to its Despatch Manager Online system to help businesses send items abroad, improving the system’s shipping and labelling processes.

Improvements will include the addition of specific language characters for international labeling, for example Chinese, Japanese and Cyrillic characters/letters. Businesses will also have the ability to produce customs documentation for non-European shipments through the system.

Growth potential

Nick Landon, the Royal Mail Parcels managing director, said the improved services will support online retailers selling overseas.

Landon said: “Our research shows that two thirds — 65% — of UK SME online retailers are aiming to increase international sales in 2015. Royal Mail is continuing to respond to the needs of our customers and help them as they seek to attract sales from international markets.”

Royal Mail’s research two years ago showed that 39% of SME online retailers in the UK were planning on stepping up their international sales, suggesting a significant increase in UK merchants now looking overseas for growth.