...

Documentation Tutorials UK Postcode Guide

UK Postcode Guide

Shipping to and between Great Britain, Northern Ireland, and the surrounding sovereign islands poses a unique challenge for shipping rate providers. While Shopify does a good job at breaking down UK postcode areas, they do not address more granular and commonly used outward codes. That’s what we’re here for!

The UK Postcode map

In order to tame complex UK Shipping configurations, we’ve provided a mapping tool to visualize exactly where your current price restrictions apply. Any time you have a UK-specific restriction selected a globe icon will appear on the right of the input box. Click the globe icon to open the mapping tool.

A highlighted dropdown that says, "UK Postcode Area is," followed by an empty text input box. On the far right there is a green arrow pointing out a globe button, beneath which a white title on black backdrop states, "Map Tool"

Continue reading to learn more about how this tool helps you view and select rates!

UK Specific Restrictions

To help define UK shipping areas intuitively, we provide two restrictions on Prices:

UK Postcode Area (is/is not)

This restriction will allow you to define (or restrict) a price that applies to a broad geographic area of the UK such as BT for Northern Ireland or DG for Dumfries and Galloway.

An example UK postcode, SW1A 1AA, with the initial letters S and W marked as Area Code

Below is an example restriction that defines this price rule is only for the BT area:

A dropdown that says, "UK Postcode Area is," followed by a text input box with the postcode area BT entered.


Here is the same restriction viewed via our shipping area picker:

A map of various UK postcode areas outlined in blue. One area, Northern Ireland, is selected and highlighted green. In the bottom right there is a gray cancel button and purple button with the words, "Save one area."

You can use this map to view and edit your postcode area list. Simply click the “Save Areas” button in the bottom-right to apply your changes!

UK Postcode Outward code (is/is not)

With this restriction, you have more granular control over where the corresponding price applies by providing the postcode area, district, and subdistrict. This block of information in a UK postcode is more commonly referred to as the outward code - hence the name!

An example UK postcode, SW1A 1AA, with the first four characters SW1A marked as Area Code

Below is an example restriction that includes several sections of the DG area:

A dropdown that says, "UK Postcode Outward Code is," followed by a text input box with many outward codes (Example: DG1, DG2, etc) for the Dumfries and Galloway area.


Here is the same restriction viewed via our Outward Code picker:

A dense map of various UK postcode areas outlined in blue. A collection of areas representing Dumfries and Galloway are highlighted in green. In the bottom right there is a gray cancel button and purple button with the words, "Save 14 outward codes"

You can use this map to view and edit your postcode outer code list. Simply click the “Save Outward Codes” button in the bottom-right to apply your changes!

Where are Northern Ireland Outward codes?
Isle of Man?

You may notice while BT and IM are shown on our map as valid UK Postcode Areas, they do not appear on our outward code picker. Unfortunately, the Open Map data we have does not specify Northern Ireland or Isle of Man with the same granularity it does mainland UK.

However, we assure you that any outward codes you enter into our UK Postcode Outward Code is / is not restriction will filter shipping addresses as expected. Though this is a shortcoming of our map display, the system we built to compare shipping addresses with your destination restrictions works as expected.

How do I define mainland UK?

You may notice when you select postcode areas for Truro or Portsmouth, our map will automatically highlight several islands and additional areas. Though this is technically correct - these islands are part of their corresponding postcode area - we recognize shipping can be drastically different when parcels must travel over water.

The easiest workaround to provide mainland UK shipping is to design each shipping price you want to provide as two. One restricted to the bulk of Mainland UK and the same price again, but restricted to those outward codes that are still on land.

For your convenience, here are completed postcode lists you can copy and paste right into our app:

Price 1:

UK Postcode Area is:

AL, B, BA, BB, BD, BH, BL, BN, BR, BS, CA, CB, CF, CH, CM, CO, CR, CT, CV, CW, DA, DD, DE, DG, DH, DL, DN, DT, DY, E, EC, EH, EN, EX, FK, FY, G, GL, GU, HA, HD, HG, HP, HR, HU, HX, IG, IP, KT, KY, L, LA, LD, LE, LL, LN, LS, LU, M, ME, MK, ML, N, NE, NG, NN, NP, NR, NW, OL, OX, PE, PL, PR, RG, RH, RM, S, SA, SE, SG, SK, SL, SM, SN, SO, SP, SR, SS, ST, SW, SY, TA, TD, TF, TN, TQ, TS, TW, UB, W, WA, WC, WD, WF, WN, WR, WS, WV, YO

Price 2:

UK Postcode Outward Code is:

AB10, AB11, AB12, AB13, AB14, AB15, AB16, AB21, AB22, AB23, AB24, AB25, AB30, AB39, AB99, KA1, KA10, KA11, KA12, KA13, KA15, KA16, KA17, KA18, KA19, KA2, KA20, KA21, KA22, KA23, KA24, KA25, KA26, KA29, KA3, KA30, KA4, KA5, KA6, KA7, KA8, KA9, PA1, PA10, PA11, PA12, PA13, PA14, PA15, PA16, PA17, PA18, PA19, PA2, PA3, PA4, PA5, PA6, PA7, PA8, PA9, PH1, PH2, PH3, PO1, PO10, PO11, PO12, PO13, PO14, PO15, PO16, PO17, PO18, PO19, PO2, PO20, PO21, PO22, PO3, PO4, PO5, PO6, PO7, PO8, PO9, TR1, TR10, TR11, TR12, TR13, TR14, TR15, TR16, TR17, TR18, TR19, TR2, TR20, TR26, TR27, TR3, TR4, TR5, TR6, TR7, TR8, TR9

Additional Areas

We do our best to keep our documentation as relevant and up-to-date as possible. If you see a common UK shipping area not on this list, please let us know at support@parcelify.com!

Offer in-store pickup Set up promotional shipping rates