Orders in your online store may require mailing products to customers via the carrier of your choice. That’s where shipping labels come into play.
Shipping labels provide all the necessary information for the carrier to perform delivery, including the sender and recipient addresses and the requested mailing service. You attach a label to the parcel’s packaging so that postal workers can easily access it at each stage of shipment. This way, you ensure the order gets to your customers on time.
You can buy and print labels right from your store admin (available for the US, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands), get shipping labels from your carrier, or use a third-party service.
What's a shipping label?
Shipping labels communicate where the package must be delivered, as well as other shipment-specific details. Each label features data tied to a particular parcel, so shipping labels can’t be reused.
The exact way a label looks depends on your carrier and on your shipment.
Here’s an example of a USPS shipping label for Priority Mail delivery:
As you can see, it contains the recipient's address, the sender’s (or return) address, the weight of the package, the name of the requested service, a tracking number, and a unique barcode generated by the carrier.
All this information is necessary to make sure your parcel is safely delivered on time.
For international shipments, shipping labels also contain a customs declaration, and parcels with items that require special handling (e.g., fragile or HAZMAT) have additional markings.
Buying shipping labels from your store admin
Merchants located in the US, Germany, Belgium, or Netherlands can pay for the postage and get shipping labels directly from the order page in the store admin. Order details will be inserted automatically, and you can send an email with the tracking number to customers upon purchasing the label.
The exact price of the shipping label will depend on the carrier service you choose as well as on your parcel itself and its destination. In general, the fastest delivery offering will be the most expensive.
Merchants based in non-supported countries and those who use other carriers can buy shipping labels via apps from the App Market or get labels from their carrier →
Currently, you can buy shipping labels for the following carriers from your store admin:
- United States: USPS shipping labels for domestic and international shipments. Rates are lower than retail rates at the post office. In some shipments, insurance is already included, and you can buy labels for your HAZMAT shipments.
- Germany: DHL shipping labels for shipments inside Germany. Prices in your store admin differ from the DHL retail prices. Some services are discounted.
- Netherlands: PostNL shipping labels for domestic (across the EU) and international shipments. Prices in your store admin differ from the PostNL retail prices. Some services are discounted.
- Belgium: Bpost shipping labels for domestic (across the EU) and international shipments.
Buying labels through the apps from the App Market
If you are located in a country where buying shipping labels from your store admin is not yet supported or there is no built-in label purchase from the carrier you use (FedEx, UPS, etc.), you can install apps from the App Market to buy and print shipping labels. The order details from your store admin will sync with the app, and you won’t have to enter the details manually.
There are a number of third-party online shipping service apps available that allow you to purchase shipping labels. The apps vary based on the supported countries and carriers.
For example, you can use one of these apps to buy and print shipping labels:
- Easyship
- ShipTime
- Outvio
To find the app to your liking, simply enter “shipping label” in the App Market search bar.
Other ways to buy shipping labels
You can always get shipping labels directly at the post office or your carrier’s website. However, that will take time as you will need to manually enter the addresses, the order’s weight/size, etc.
Here’s how you can get shipping labels online from:
If you have custom needs like creating a label without postage (for example, you pay for shipment using stamps or a postage meter), you can even create and print a shipping label yourself according to your carrier’s template.
Next steps
Now that you have a shipping label for your parcel, all you have to do is ship the order.
- Print the shipping label and securely attach it to the box with the order. Try not to tape above the barcode as it could make it harder to scan at the post office.
- Drop off your package at a carrier location or book a pickup by your carrier’s pickup service.
- Make sure you change the order fulfillment status to Shipped so the customer receives an email notification with a tracking number.