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A shipping label is an adhesive piece of paper containing essential addresses, barcodes and digits that allow the carrier and sorting office to deliver your company’s product to its recipient.
Incorrectly or inadequately labeled packages may go to the wrong address or get held up at customs causing lengthy delays. These blunders can negatively affect your company’s reputation with customers and, ultimately, affect your bottom line.
Consider these takeaways to properly label a package for shipping:
- Carriers will often send incorrectly or inadequately labeled packages to the wrong address.
- If your company ships packages regularly, try to create your shipping labels rather than buying them from your local post office at the retail rate.
- Your shipping label must contain the recipient’s and sender’s names and addresses, as well as the recipient’s postal barcode.
- Carbon neutral policies can save your shipping business a lot of money.
Here is an extensive breakdown of how to label a package for shipping, including tips on how to create your own mailing labels and a run-through of the key pieces of information to include on each label to ensure your packages arrive safely on time, every time.
How Do You Produce Your Own Shipping Label?
If your company ships packages regularly, create your own shipping labels rather than buying them from your local post office at the retail rate. This process is simple and can save your business money and time in the long run.
There are two easy methods you can use to create your own shipping label:
Producing a label using software
You can subscribe to one of the many online shipping software solutions: These innovative companies integrate with your business’s eCommerce platform, company website and warehouse management system. As well as printing labels, they can also send out confirmation emails on your behalf, track your shipments and offer carrier discounts.
Producing a label using your carrier’s online template
Another simple way to create your own label is to go to your carrier’s website: Most major carriers provide a digital template you can fill in and print out to stick on your package. This method is more time-consuming than using third-party software, but it’s also less expensive. If you own a small business that only ships a few packages every week, using your carrier’s online template is a good option.
What Information Should a Shipping Label Include?
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Whether you create your shipping label manually or with the help of a major carrier, you’ll need to include some key pieces of information. Without these crucial codes and addresses, your package is far more likely to be delayed, mishandled or lost during the transportation process.
Before you learn how to label a package for shipping, ensure you’re using secure and sustainable shipping materials when packaging your items. These high-quality materials protect your products from damage when they’re being shipped.
Shipping Materials Ensure Everything Arrives Intact
Recipient name and home address
This is the name and address of the person to whom you’re shipping the package. If you forget to put this piece of information on the shipping label, your carrier won’t know where to deliver the package.
Sender name and home address
You should also write down the address of your shipping company, as the carrier can return the package to you if they’re unable to deliver it.
Package’s unidirectional code
Also known as a MaxiCode, this is a unique collection of dots that looks a bit like a barcode. Carriers can scan this code to find useful information like the package’s purchase order number, invoice number and tracking number.
This is the IMpb (Intelligent Mail Packing Barcode) that utilizes Code 128 linear symbology to denote the recipient’s zip code. The carrier can scan this barcode to get an accurate reading of the package’s destination.
The service type sign shows the method of shipping. For example, if the recipient has paid for priority shipping, you should represent this with a capital P in the label’s top left-hand corner. This helps to ensure carriers make delivering this package their top priority.
When you calculate this value, add together the load of the external packaging as well as the weight of the item being shipped. Including the package’s accurate weight allows carriers to plan out their transit routes more effectively.
Employees at the sorting office use this number to determine where exactly they need to route the package.
Your company’s customers can use this number to monitor their package’s journey and see when it’s due to reach its destination.
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You can choose to include the predicted carbon footprint of the shipment on your label. This might seem odd, but if your company has invested effort and money in committing to carbon neutrality, you’ll want to advertise this fact on your packages. If you’ve ever asked the question, “What is carbon neutral shipping?”, then you might be interested in finding out carbon neutral policies can save your business a lot of money.
Shipping Something Hot or Cold? Use a Temperature-Controlled Box
Any other important information
If there’s something combustible in your package, you’ll need to make the carrier aware of this by indicating “Flammable” on the label. If the item needs to stay at a particular temperature and remain in a controlled environment, you should pack it in a temperature-controlled box. These boxes are necessary for preserving the quality of particularly heat-sensitive products like food, wine or makeup.
The Final Word
Whether you ship a large number of packages every day and need to subscribe to a third-party software provider or send out a couple of boxes a week but want to save money on post office costs, you should learn how to create an accurate and effective shipping label. Ensuring your shipping labels have the correct information, including handling, addresses and barcodes, can help your products reach their destination on time.
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