You have made your first sales. Now the parcel has to actually get there, on time, in one piece, with tracking the customer can see. This guide walks through how to ship products to customers in the UK from your first order to the point where it makes sense to stop doing it yourself.
Step 1: Pick the right courier for the parcel
There is no single best UK courier. The right choice depends on size, weight, value and how fast the buyer expects it:
- Royal Mail: best for letters, large letters and small parcels under about 2kg; Tracked 24 and Tracked 48 are the workhorses for most small sellers
- Evri: cheap for small-to-medium parcels and collects from home, with tracking as standard
- DPD and DHL: pricier, but next-day with timed slots, good for higher-value or fragile goods
- Parcelforce or UPS: larger and heavier parcels, and anything going on a pallet
Step 2: Buy labels through your marketplace, not at the counter
eBay, Etsy, Shopify, TikTok Shop and Vinted all let you buy labels in their own dashboards at discounted rates, and the tracking number is attached to the order automatically. Buying over the counter at a Post Office costs more and you have to type tracking in by hand. If you sell on your own website, a label tool such as Royal Mail Click & Drop or a multi-carrier app does the same job.
Step 3: Package for the journey, not the photo
Parcels get dropped, stacked and left in rain. Use a box or padded mailer sized to the item, fill empty space so nothing moves, and wrap anything breakable individually. Put a packing slip inside with the order number in case the label is damaged. Then add your brand touches on top: tissue, a thank-you card, a sticker.
Step 4: Dispatch every working day, before the cut-off
Every marketplace measures your handling time. Set a daily cut-off (for example 1pm), pack everything received before it, and get the parcels scanned by the courier the same day. Missing the scan is what turns "dispatched" into "where is my order" messages. If you cannot do this every working day, that is the first sign you need help.
Step 5: Keep stock counts honest
Overselling is the most common shipping disaster for small sellers: two channels sell the last unit at the same time. Keep one count of stock, reduce it the moment an order is packed, and update every channel. A spreadsheet works for a while; past a few hundred units it does not.
Step 6: Plan for returns before the first one arrives
Decide now how returns come back, who inspects them and when they go back into sellable stock. A return that sits in a bag for a month is money you cannot sell. Write the policy down and put it on your listings so buyers know what to expect.
When to stop shipping it yourself
The honest tipping point is not a number of orders. It is the day packing stops you doing the things that actually grow the business: making, listing, marketing, replying to customers. For most sellers that lands somewhere between 100 and 300 orders a month.
A fulfilment company (a 3PL) takes the whole chain above off your hands: stock arrives at their warehouse, they pick and pack to your spec, dispatch same day on tracked couriers, record the tracking and handle returns. Shiplo does exactly this for small UK sellers with no monthly fee, free storage for small inventories, and an online login where you see what has shipped and what is left.
Tired of the daily courier run? Tell us what you sell and we will quote fulfilment within one working day.
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