Postage Labels via Royal Mail?

[keeptheroof]

All the time I've used eBay I've mostly used the convenience of printing postage labels from eBay but I understand it's possible to connect your eBay sales to Royal Mail's online system and print it there.

The main reason I want to do this is each time I go into print labels on eBay I seem to get a different design format. Sometimes I can just put the weight in as it is - which is fine for me because I write the name & weight on each parcel - Other times I get what I can only describe as a child's format where you click buttons asking things like "padded envelope" and then choose a weight range. Perhaps it's me but I find this design very annoying but also the post office staff must too because they keep telling me things like "You paid for 500 grames here but it only 340 grams" 

Advice please? what is the best way to produce postage labels for someone who only does a few times a week? If I can save money all the better 😉

[the-nutwood-collection]

The 'new, improved' design is most annoying, but it's here to stay. 

All you have to remember is 'Letter' is the RM letter rate, up to 100g.  'Padded Envelope' is a Large Letter, and you have to scroll down and select the weight from a drop down list.  'Shoe Box' is a small parcel and again you have to select the weight from the drop down.  There are a couple of other silly titles and I don't know what the equivalent is - probably Medium and Large Parcel but I never use them because most everything of mine that's not Large Letter goes with a carrier and I buy direct from the carrier's website.

You can integrate your eBay sales with Royal Mail.  Go to your RM account, and select 'Integrate Your Online Sales'.  You should then see the eBay orders listed when you click on the 'New Orders' box.

[the-nutwood-collection]

One other thing.  The backwards integration between RM and the integrated platforms seems rather dodgy, so you will invariably have to enter the tracking number manually on eBay and mark the item as 'Despatched'.

[keeptheroof]

Yea, I know but thanks anyway. I think this is just eBay wanting to remove all evidence that might lead a seller to choose Royal Mail rather than their more lucrative services.

Experience in the integration is what I was looking for, I see it's not great from your 2nd reply, thanks again. 

[pureshoresswimwear]

I dont mind ebays postage system, like someone said, its either small letter, lg letter(padded bag) or parcel etc, the system also automatically adds address so you dont have to type it all out so its always 100% correct, ( as long as buyer has entered it correctly ).

I have used both methods and both are fine in their own ways.

The thing i dont like using Royal Mails website is that it puts the price of the postage on the label. Might not be an issue for some people but personally i like thats its unknown to the buyer using ebays system.

[plummetairlines]

If by RM Website you mean "Click and Drop" then there is an option to not show the postage price on the label.  It can be found under settings, miscellaneous, and is a tick box. 

[rjwilmsi · Accepted solution]

I used to use Royal Mail "Click & Drop" service, as a retail Royal Mail customer. As a retail customer i.e. same prices as available on eBay or send.royalmail.com, for modest volumes (a handful of labels a day at the most) I would say there is no advantage to using Click & Drop and in fact if the synchronization doesn't work (regular experience for me) you end up with new sales not showing, or tracking numbers not getting updated to eBay.

When using eBay to purchase Royal Mail labels there is the single label purchase page and the bulk page - bulk page is https://www.ebay.co.uk/ship/single/bulk and I prefer to use that. The format of single and bulk pages are different. You can still use bulk page for just one label.

You can't get a discount with Royal Mail unless you get a business account with them (minimum about 50 items a week), and even then I'm not sure all services get a discount anyway.