Royal Mail requires Local Collect services to ship orders to post offices. These services are not yet available in Linnworks, but we plan to add support in the future.


Simply entering a post office address will not work. The shipping label and Pre-Advice file need additional data, which is only provided when the customer selects Royal Mail Local Collect (Click & Collect or Collect from Post Office) at checkout.


If a customer enters a post office address without choosing Click & Collect, the parcel cannot be shipped, even if the correct service is selected. Such orders should be flagged, and the customer should be asked to provide a full residential address.




This article explains:


- What Local Collect orders are


- How to identify them


- What to do with such orders


  • What are Local Collect orders?


Local Collect orders are shipped to a collection point - typically a Post Office - instead of a home address.


A typical Local Collect address might look like this:


Name: John Smith

Address Line 1: c/o Post Office

Address Line 2: 10 High Street

Town: London

PostCode: AB1 2CD

The key indicator is "c/o Post Office" in Address Line 1.


  • How to identify them


To avoid manually checking every order, you can use the Rules Engine to automatically flag Local Collect orders. More details here.


Go to Orders > Rules Engine > Add New Rules > give the rule a name and click Create.

For the Condition, use the following:


  1. Use Address Line 1;

  2. Set the comparison to contains one of;

  3. Add keywords like post office, box office, and similar, and press Enter after each to add multiple:



This rule will trigger whenever any of the specified keywords appear in Address Line 1.


For the Action, you can tag the orders using any available tag:



This makes it easy to spot Local Collect orders in your order list.


  • What to do with such orders


Once identified, email the buyer to request their full residential address.


After the customer provides the correct address, update the order details in Linnworks and ship as normal.


IIf you encounter any issues or have questions, please contact Linnworks Technical Support.