Electronic customs products and solutions
Electronic customs products and solutions
Increasingly, more countries are requiring electronic customs data to accompany imported items. Providing electronic customs data will ensure that existing, emerging and future legislation, security arrangements and customs requirements in overseas destinations are met. This data needs to be completed accurately and in full to meet new requirements and ensure friction-less processing through overseas customs.
We offer solutions and incentives to help you prove data and remain compliant with international regulations.
Please be assured that if you are unable to provide full customs data you will not be prevented from posting with us. However, items are at risk of being negatively affected when they arrive in the destination country if complete electronic customs data is not presented.
Brexit and Customs
On 24 December 2020, the UK and the EU reached an agreement on how to trade (the Trade and Cooperation Agreement). It entered into force on 1 January 2021. As a result of the agreement, the UK is no longer part of the EU’s single market and customs union and new rules apply.
From 1 January 2021, the UK has extended the rules which applied to non-EU postal items before. Similarly, the EU now treats postal items from the UK as it did non-EU items before. This means there may be changes to how you send and receive items from abroad.
For more information on how sending and receiving items to the EU may be impacted from 1 January 2021, please click here.
Electronic Customs Pre-advice Data
It is now mandatory to provide electronic customs pre-advice data and an S10 barcode when you ship abroad.
Use one of our data-compliant shipping platforms – Click & Drop, Pro Shipping or API shipping – to automate this process and take the stress out of electronic customs.
Shipping platforms that automatically provide customs data
Our user-friendly online platforms, Click & Drop and Pro Shipping allow you to enter the required customs information and print the right labels and item identifier (S10 barcode) for your parcels.
Watch our video for a guide on how to complete all the required customs information using Click & Drop.
Royal Mail Click & Drop or Pro Shipping make your life easier
- You enter the data into the system, which will then print out all of the required labels for you to affix to the parcel – ensuring you meet requirements for all destinations
- No need to write labels out manually - saving you time
- If you post a lot of parcels, you can build up a product catalogue, so that you can enter repeat information with a click instead of having to write or type it again for each parcel
- As the data is sent ahead of the parcel, this should allow for a more seamless customs process in the country of destination
Setting default customs information with Royal Mail Click & Drop
If you regularly send the same kind of items overseas, you can save time by setting the same electronic customs information which will apply to all of your orders in Click & Drop. For example, if you regularly sell t-shirts, all of your products will usually have the same Harmonised System code and customs description. Any missing or incomplete customs data will be automatically updated with the values you set – whether your orders are created manually, imported via spreadsheet, downloaded from an eCommerce marketplace or web store.
We have also updated the COSS and SAPI specifications so that you can provide the right data fields. This includes the addition of the S10 barcode that is required for overseas posts to be able to access the data and provide it to their import customs agency for clearance. iShipper follows the same specifications as COSS and has also been updated.
These are bespoke shipping options - please speak to your Account Manager for more information.
We have updated and shared the specifications for providing electronic customs data to providers of third party shipping solutions. They are aware of the requirements and working towards implementing them.
The specifications for providing electronic customs data to providers of other shipping systems have been updated and shared; these companies have been advised that this data must be captured and provided.
Platforms that can already provide electronic customs data and correct S10 barcodes are:
If the third party integrator your organisation works with is not currently listed here, please check again soon, as it is likely that we are finalising the changes with them.