Business Mail

Business Mail is the perfect solution for your general business correspondence and transactional mail, such as bills, statements or invoices. You can:

customise your mailing options to meet your business needs
get discounts on quantity, address accuracy and sorting
pay through your Online Business Account (OBA).

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Choose your options

You can tailor Business Mail to meet your needs by choosing from the following options:

Letter or large letter format
2nd Class or Economy delivery speeds*
Range of volumes
Range of options to prepare and present your mail.

* 1st Class is available through 1st Class Business Mail.

Business Mail can be used with the following formats:

Format	Dimensions	Weight limit
Letter	Up to 240mm x 165mm x 5mm	Up to 100g
Large letter	Up to 353mm x 250mm x 25mm	Up to 750g
Large letter if machine-readable	Up to 345mm x 245mm x 25mm	Up to 750g

Delivery speeds

2nd Class and Economy delivery options
Next day delivery is available through 1st Class Business Mail.

Volumes

From one letter to an unlimited number
To meet our machine-readable requirements for unsorted mail and gain a discount, a minimum of 500 letters or 250 large letters is required.
For sorted mail, whether machine-readable or not, a minimum of 4,000 letters or 1,000 large letters is required.

Preparing and presenting your mail

Making your mail machine-readable: Save money by preparing your mail so that addresses can be read by Royal Mail’s machines, you have the option not to sort your mail or to use our Low Sort product. You can either use an approved OCR font or barcodes.

There are three levels of address accuracy for unsorted mail:

If you want to be accredited and be assured a set price:

Machine readable Unsorted option – if you can ensure that 90% of your addresses and postcodes are accurate.
Machine readable Plus option – if you can ensure 95% accuracy.

If you don’t want to be accredited, you can make savings based on the number of accurate addresses read per mailing:

Machine readable Advanced option – Addresses and full postcodes should be printed in an OCR-readable font and must be PAF-compatible.

Want to find out more about these options?

Sorting your mail:
Earn savings by sorting your mail and ensuring your addresses are accurate you can have a barcode on your letters, for Low Sort you do require accreditation. There are two levels of sortation:

Low Sort (up to 88 ways) if your mail is machine-readable with either OCR or Barcode.

High Sort (up to 1,525 ways), which doesn’t require you to make your mail machine-readable.

Or, you can choose not to sort or make your mail machine-readable. Just give it to us and we’ll do the rest.

Type of mail containers to use
Depending on the type of mail you send you could use one of the following containers:

Trays
Bags
ALPS (auto-levelling parcel sleeved York)
Unbagged (shrink wrapped)

Find out more about which container you should use from your User Guide

Prices
How to order

To use Business Mail you'll need to have an account with Royal Mail.

We'll make getting started easy. With machine-readable discounts available on mailings from 500+ letters or 250 large letters or, alternatively, no sorting or address preparation necessary, you can be set up in no time. However, if you can sort your mail, you'll be able to choose from highly competitive discounted options for this, too.

Need to set up an account?

If you don’t already have one, you can contact our Business Centre on 08457 950 950*.

Already have an account?

If you already have an account, contact a member of our business team on 08457 950 950*. They will tell you how to add the Business Mail options you want. It will speed things up if you can have your Royal Mail account number to hand when you ring us.

Once you have decided which Business Mail options meet your requirements and you've read and agreed the terms and conditions, our sales team will then set you up with a unique reference. You can then log in to your Online Business Account (OBA), locate your reference number and get started on your mailing.

*Lines are open 8.00am to 6.00pm Monday to Friday.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get accredited for ensuring my mail is machine-readable?

What type of container should I use?

What are Low Sort and High Sort?

What are the requirements for making my mail machine-readable?

What are the Royal Mail Selection Files?

Do I still need to be accredited to use OCR and Barcode options?

I use Mailsort 3 Deferred at the moment. Will the deferred facility still be available in future?

I see that the new OCR options can be used for sending both letters and large letters. Currently though I can’t send large letters with Mailsort 70 or 120 OCR, so what has changed?

I currently use a CBC (Customer Barcode) product. What do I use in future?

Is there any change to the current specifications for applying an OCR address?

I currently use Mailsort 70, 120, 700 or 1400. Will I have to use something else?

I use Cleanmail at the moment. Will I have to use something else in future?

Search help for more answers...

Search Help and Support

How do I get accredited for ensuring my mail is machine-readable?

You need to go through one or more elements of a quality assurance process. One stage requires you to show your address data meets the required standards for the product option you have chosen, the other stage requires you to prepare sample items which meet our design, address and (where relevant) barcode specifications. The forms are available from your account manager or mailsorttechnical.com under Quality Assurance.

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What type of container should I use?

Trays, bags or unbagged for letters

Trays, bags or unbagged for large letters up to 10mm in thickness

Bags, unbagged or ALPs for large letters greater than 10mm in thickness.

When using trays you must also have an average of at least 100 letters or 25 large letters per selection across the mailing.
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What are Low Sort and High Sort?

You can earn savings by sorting your mail and ensuring your addresses are accurate. If you you’re your mail, you must provide a minimum of 4,000 letters or 1,000 large letters in a single mailing.

Low Sort option

For mail that meets our machine-readable specification, sort your mail to a maximum of 88 ways and ensure your items can be read by our sorting machines to achieve maximum savings.

Sort up to 88 selections as detailed in the Royal Mail Selection Files (the new name for the Mailsort Database)

Ensure that 90% of your mail has postcode and address accuracy using either OCR font or barcode (for letters only).

High Sort option

Sort up to 1,525 Direct Selections or 88 Residue Selections as detailed in the Royal Mail Selection Files

Ensure that 90% of your mail has postcode and address accuracy

You must have a minimum of 50 letters or 10 large letters for a Direct Selection.

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What are the requirements for making my mail machine-readable?

Machine-readable Unsorted Standard option

Addresses printed with an OCR font (90% postcode and address accuracy). Available for letters and large letters

Barcode (90% accuracy). Available for letters only.

Machine-readable Unsorted Plus option

Addresses printed with an OCR font (95% postcode and address accuracy). Available for letters and large letters

Barcode (95% accuracy). Available for letters only.

Machine-readable Unsorted Advanced option

Available for letters only

Recommended use of postcode and address accuracy and addresses printed with OCR font, but this is not required.

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What are the Royal Mail Selection Files?

This is the new name for the Mailsort Database. The Royal Mail Selection Files detail the Selection Codes (SC) that you must sort to when posting Business Mail Sorted options.

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Do I still need to be accredited to use OCR and Barcode options?

Yes, if your company is not already accredited by us to post Cleanmail or Mailsort OCR or CBC products, you will be required to gain accreditation before you can post Business Mail Machine-readable Unsorted OCR or Barcode, or Business Mail Low Sort.

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I use Mailsort 3 Deferred at the moment. Will the deferred facility still be available in future?

Yes, deferred mailings will be available with Business Mail Economy. However, deferred mailings will not be able to be sent in trays.

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I see that the new OCR options can be used for sending both letters and large letters. Currently though I can’t send large letters with Mailsort 70 or 120 OCR, so what has changed?

We are introducing a new OCR Large Letter attribute for Low Sort (sorted up to 88 ways).

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I currently use a CBC (Customer Barcode) product. What do I use in future?

We will no longer use the term CBC and will in future refer to this method of preparing your mail as Barcode. The specification for using a Barcode on letters with the new options will however be the same as before.

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Is there any change to the current specifications for applying an OCR address?

No, when you use one of the new OCR options such as one of the Machine-readable Unsorted options or Low Sort OCR, the actual OCR specification is the same as before.
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I currently use Mailsort 70, 120, 700 or 1400. Will I have to use something else?

Yes, Business Mail replaces the old Mailsort products. If you use Mailsort 70, 120 or 700 currently, the easiest thing for you to do will be to start using Business Mail, selecting one of the Low Sort options. If you use Mailsort 1400, then you should switch to Business Mail, selecting the High Sort option.
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I use Cleanmail at the moment. Will I have to use something else in future?

Yes, Business Mail replaces the Cleanmail products.
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Product documentation
- User guide

Deliver your Direct Mail strategy the sustainable way

Reduce your impact on the environment and save money too

Find out more about Sustainable Advertising Mail

Can't meet the specification for Sustainable Advertising Mail?

Build relationships with your customers using Advertising Mail instead.

Send packets, standard and large letters with Advertising Mail

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Mailing solutions for your business correspondence

Marketing, general correspondence and publishing mail calculator

Online Business Account

Choose your options

Delivery speeds

Volumes

Preparing and presenting your mail

Prices

How to order

Need to set up an account?

Already have an account?

Frequently asked questions

Search help for more answers...

How do I get accredited for ensuring my mail is machine-readable?

What type of container should I use?

What are Low Sort and High Sort?

Low Sort option

High Sort option

What are the requirements for making my mail machine-readable?

What are the Royal Mail Selection Files?

Do I still need to be accredited to use OCR and Barcode options?

I use Mailsort 3 Deferred at the moment. Will the deferred facility still be available in future?

I see that the new OCR options can be used for sending both letters and large letters. Currently though I can’t send large letters with Mailsort 70 or 120 OCR, so what has changed?

I currently use a CBC (Customer Barcode) product. What do I use in future?

Is there any change to the current specifications for applying an OCR address?

I currently use Mailsort 70, 120, 700 or 1400. Will I have to use something else?

I use Cleanmail at the moment. Will I have to use something else in future?

Product documentation

User guide

Deliver your Direct Mail strategy the sustainable way

Can't meet the specification for Sustainable Advertising Mail?

Search our help centre

Top topics

Business Mail

Mailing solutions for your business correspondence

Marketing, general correspondence and publishing mail calculator

Choose your options

Prices

How to order

Frequently asked questions

Product documentation

Deliver your Direct Mail strategy the sustainable way

Can't meet the specification for Sustainable Advertising Mail?

Search our help centre

Top topics

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