Magento gives you a lot of control over your store and almost none over your dispatch. There's no native Royal Mail connection, so orders sit in one system and shipments get created in another.
Most businesses bridge that gap manually. Addresses get keyed into Royal Mail, labels get produced one at a time, tracking numbers get pasted back into Magento so the customer notification fires. Every step is a chance to ship the wrong service or miss an order entirely, and the cost of that grows with volume.
Zenstores sits between the two and removes the copying. Magento orders import automatically, rules assign the right Royal Mail service as they arrive, and tracking returns to Magento once the label prints. Over 200 million orders have shipped through Zenstores this way.
Your Royal Mail account doesn't change. You keep your OBA, your negotiated rates and your existing billing arrangement, and Royal Mail invoices you exactly as before.
- Connect your Magento store to Zenstores
In Zenstores, go to your store settings and connect a new Magento store. You'll paste in an API key and endpoint generated from your Magento admin, which takes a few minutes. Magento 1 and Magento 2 are both supported, and if you're running M2E Pro your eBay, Amazon and Walmart orders come through the same connection.
- Connect your Royal Mail Online Business Account
Zenstores connects to Royal Mail through your OBA, so you need one in place. You'll supply your OBA account number, the company name on the account, the email you use to log in, and your posting location number and collection postcode. If you're on Click and Drop without an OBA, the Zenstores team can advise whether moving to one makes sense for your volumes.
- Check which Royal Mail services are available on your account
Zenstores shows every Royal Mail service enabled on your OBA, domestic and international. If a service you want isn't showing, it usually means Royal Mail hasn't set it up on your account rather than anything to do with the integration, so your Royal Mail account manager is the person to ask. Customs documentation generates automatically from your product data for international services.
- Set rules so services assign themselves
Build rules in Zenstores Automations using conditions like weight, destination, order value or product. Royal Mail Tracked 24 and Tracked 48 are different products with different costs, so a rule that splits them by what the customer actually paid for stops the wrong one being picked at the bench. Every Magento order arrives with a service already assigned.
- Print labels, manifest, and tracking syncs back automatically
Select your batch and print. Labels come out in picking order, and integrated label templates put the shipping label and dispatch note on one A4 sheet if you don't run thermal printers. Creating your manifest updates your OBA and produces the end of day summary for your driver, and tracking numbers push back to Magento automatically, triggering whatever notification emails or SMS you've set up there.
Would give 10 stars if I could. Alex and the team at Zenstores have pulled out the stops to help our warehouse team be more efficient. Zenstores added additional functionality to add stock locations to our picking sheets. It's a great app that ties in Royal Mail and DPD into one system that integrates with Shopify in one click. Love it! Keep up the good work
VELCRO Brand
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need my own Royal Mail account?
Yes, a Royal Mail Online Business Account. Zenstores connects to your OBA rather than reselling Royal Mail postage, so you ship on your own negotiated rates and Royal Mail continues to invoice you directly. There's no integration fee for Zenstores customers.
Do my Royal Mail rates change?
No. Your billing agreement and postage rates stay exactly as they are, and you're invoiced by Royal Mail weekly or monthly as normal. Connecting through Zenstores changes how labels are produced, not what they cost.
I'm using Click and Drop. Is this different?
Zenstores connects to the same Royal Mail OBA that Click and Drop uses, adding automated shipping rules, pick and pack workflow, and other carriers alongside Royal Mail. If you're on Click and Drop without an OBA, the Zenstores team can advise on your options.
Does this work with Magento Open Source as well as Adobe Commerce?
Yes, both. They run on the same Magento 2 core, with Adobe Commerce as the paid, licensed edition and Magento Open Source as the free, self-hosted one. Zenstores connects to either, and to older Magento 1 stores too.
Can I ship international orders from Magento this way?
Yes. Every international Royal Mail service on your account is available, and customs documentation generates automatically from your product data rather than being filled in per shipment.
What happens if Royal Mail's OBA is down?
Zenstores generates an emergency manifest you can hand to your driver, so dispatch keeps moving rather than stopping until OBA comes back.
Can I use Royal Mail alongside other carriers?
Yes. Zenstores integrates with 15 or more carriers including DPD, Evri, Parcelforce and DHL, and rules can send different Magento orders to different carriers. Royal Mail for lighter parcels, a next day carrier for anything urgent.
