The beloved postal service Royal Mail has been going for over 500 years now. You’ll have your own personal experiences with the service, whether it’s sending a card using one of their stamps, receiving a parcel from their little red vans, or having a friendly chat on the doorstep with your local postie. This delivery service has served the nation well, but maybe it’s time for some upgrades…

With the intention of providing customers with convenient and modern servicing, Royal Mail are now trialling the use of barcodes on stamps. Queen Elizabeth’s face has been the icon of the stamp for as long as we can remember, with a peel and a stick then your post is usually ready to go. But how would you feel about a unique barcode number being added alongside your 2nd class stamp?

Retailer Viking Direct will be behind the pilot scheme of around 20 million stamps which are now available to buy both through the retailer and via Royal Mail itself. The idea behind this scheme is to create more transparency for the customer of the process behind the mail delivery; they pride themselves on doing whatever they can to meet customers’ ever-changing needs. However, all we know is that this barcode will be sitting next to the perforated line, but we aren’t aware of the exact function behind it which we’re guessing will be released depending on how the trials go.

Most likely, the barcode will make it more efficient for when customers have a missing parcel, act as an easier delivery location tracker or just be a form of confirmation. Either way, we’re intrigued by these new stamps and are excited to hear feedback of whether they’re here to stay.