We are pleased to announce that we will be renewing our investment in incentives for 2025/26.

Our ambition is for the incentive portfolio to continue to evolve, providing relevant support to posting brands to help optimise their investment in the mail channel, and complement the excellent material published by our colleagues in MarketReach. In addition to the ‘always on’ incentives, such as the Advertising Mail Scheme for Growth, the introduction of timebound incentives has enabled us to quickly introduce targeted offers to specific segments of the market, and we are keen to expand that next year.

In 2024 we approved 216 applications, allocating £4 million in postage credits to brands as they continue to learn how best to find, keep and grow customers through mail as part of an integrated media mix. We want to build on this through 2025 and will engage with our customers and posting brands to ensure that the portfolio of incentives best reflects market needs.

Renewal of Incentives

Customers can continue to apply for our available incentives until 27 March 2026.  Please note that from 31 March 2025 we are updating the postage credit rates for all incentives which can be found on our website at www.royalmailwholesale.com/incentives. t

D+3 service

As you are aware, we recently announced the launch of a new D+3 service into the Access Letters Contract which will take effect, under Contract Change Notice 114, following the date the Access Condition is amended as part of Ofcom’s “Future of the universal postal service” decision.

Where the D+2 service (STD) is currently listed as an Eligible Service for which we award Postage Credits under an incentive, on the date Contract Change Notice 114 takes effect, the new D+3 service (becoming the standard service in Access) will replace the D+2 service.  For the avoidance of doubt, the D+2 service will no longer qualify as an Eligible Service from this date. We will of course honour any incentive applications which we approve before 31 March 2025 as far as Postage Credits paid against D+2 volume.

 Using the TIS incentive to promote the charity sector

On 27 January we announced that, from 3 March 2025, customers will be able to use our existing Testing and Innovation incentive (TIS) to support new incremental direct mail activity to promote the charity sector.

Following feedback from the sector regarding the minimum volume that customers are required to post under the incentive, we have decided to decrease the cap from 100,000 items to 50,000 items. The application window for this incentive runs until 28 March 2025.

Extending the TIS Acquisition Incentive

We are pleased to be extending our Acquisition Incentive to 28 March 2026.  Through this incentive customers can use the TIS to support new direct mail activity for customer acquisition.

To qualify, you must be posting incremental volume using new data for customer acquisition activity, and test mailings must include a minimum of 4,000 advertising mail items and a maximum of 500,000 items over the incentive period.  This use of the TIS incentive provides postage credits at 20% for the first 250,000 incremental items; and 10% for the next 250,000 incremental items, for eligible Advertising Mail Standard and Economy Letters.

Applications must be submitted by 13 March 2026.

To find out more about any of our incentives, the terms and conditions, postage credit rates and useful sales presenters, visit www.royalmailwholesale.com/incentives. 

Lastly, we would like to thank you for the continued support from your business in helping us all to deliver these benefits for you and your customers.