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As the leader for a growing multi-channel ecommerce business, you’re responsible for controlling costs and ensuring on-time, accurate delivery for your customers’ orders. Fulfilling orders and creating shipping labels for multiple sales channels can be painfully slow and frustrating if you’re logging into multiple programs and re-entering data.
The good news is that you can greatly simplify the entire process and create shipping labels for multi-channel orders automatically, all in one place, with the cheapest shipping rates for each shipment, while reducing processing time. If that sounds like exactly what you want, then it’s time to take a closer look at multi-carrier shipping software and how to create shipping labels online.
What is a shipping label?
This may seem obvious, but we have to talk about what a shipping label is before we can show you how to create one for multiple carriers and sales channels. A shipping label is simply an instructional form you create, print, and attach to a parcel to convey the necessary information for your package to be tracked and delivered by a shipping carrier.
What information goes on a parcel shipping label?
Most shipping labels include:
- The recipient’s address
- The sender’s address
- Basic info about the product
- Package size and weight
- Delivery instructions
- Type of services needed to complete the delivery
- Identifier or unique package tracking number
Certain carriers and services may require additional information on the shipping label, especially for international shipments. Usually, multi-carrier shipping software offers pre-built templates to create shipping labels correctly and meet each carrier’s specific requirements.
Each shipping label contains a unique tracking number to identify your shipment via human-readable and 1D or 2D barcodes. You also have the option to include your company logo and other branded materials to customize the shipping experience.
Here’s an example of a customized shipping label you could create with shipping software:
Fastest way to create shipping labels for multi-channel orders
When selling on multiple channels, integrating all your sales channels with shipping software is the fastest way to create shipping labels. This is true for seven reasons:
- You don’t have to log into multiple platforms to collect order information.
- No manual or duplicate entry of order information is needed.
- You can see all orders in one place to easily prioritize which to ship first.
- Shipping software has business rules to automate shipping label creation.
- The software can conduct multi-carrier rate shopping to find the best rates.
- It integrates with barcode-based WMS software for seamless pick-pack-ship.
- Software integrations and barcode scanning prevent mis-ships and errors.
Here is an example of what it looks like when multiple sales channels feed orders into the shipping software platform for shipping label creation:
How eCard Systems printed shipping labels faster
When you use multi-carrier shipping software to create labels for multi-channel orders, it greatly reduces processing time so you can ship faster. eCard Systems is a great example of an ecommerce business that achieved significant time savings using shipping software. According to the case study,
“Recently, an unexpected set of shipping problems was seriously slowing down fulfillment and getting in the way of business growth for eCard Systems. The company had already grown to manufacture and ship premium gift cards for 100,000+ businesses in the U.S. and Canada. They were shipping more than 200 orders per day from the warehouse, and workers were stuck in a frustrating cycle of constantly trying to catch up.
The hands-on steps to print shipping labels for FedEx One Rate caused a serious bottleneck in the shipping process. As a result, eCard Systems sought Descartes’ help to reduce manual labor and ship faster. Here’s how the company radically transformed the shipping process. With shipping automation rules, they eliminated a huge headache in the daily workflow and cut processing time from 30 seconds to under 10 seconds per order.”
Faster way to find the cheapest shipping labels for UPS, USPS, and FedEx
As an ecommerce operations leader, you want the cheapest shipping labels possible to control costs while still giving your customers the desired shipping service and delivery deadline. The problem is that researching rates and manually comparing services from multiple carriers is time-consuming. As a result, many operations managers skip this step and miss out on the cheapest shipping labels, instead opting for a one-size-fits-all approach rather than a true shipping strategy. This hurts your bottom line and looks bad on your performance review.
Thankfully, there is a quick way to identify the cheapest shipping labels for UPS, USPS, and FedEx. Multi-carrier shipping software includes deeply discounted shipping rates, and it offers rate shopping capabilities with a side-by-side comparison of shipping label prices for each carrier’s services.
This is what multi-carrier rate shopping looks like in shipping software:
Even better, you can use shipping automation rules to automatically conduct rate shopping for each order, identify the cheapest shipping service to meet the delivery deadline, and automatically apply the service to each shipment. This ensures that you always use the cheapest shipping labels for on-time delivery and effectively control operational costs without wasting time.
4 steps to create multi-channel shipping labels faster
You can quickly create and print discounted shipping labels for multi-channel orders online using a multi-carrier shipping solution. For this example, we will use Descartes ShipRush shipping software.
Step 1: Log into shipping software and import your orders
Create a free Descartes ShipRush account and follow the setup wizard steps to connect all your sales channels and carrier accounts via the pre-built integrations. Your orders from all sales channels will automatically flow into Descartes ShipRush, and you can view them all in one place.
This saves time and prevents errors because it allows all the order information from your sales channels to populate the correct fields needed to create the shipping labels. Plus, the shipping software will automatically validate addresses and correct errors to prevent mis-ships.
Any questions during the setup process? Descartes provides free onboarding and ongoing live customer support. Simply use our chat feature or contact us to ask questions.
Step 2: Review your order details
Once your orders are imported, go into the “Ready to Ship” tab, click the first order, and do a quick inspection to see how Descartes ShipRush pulled in your order information and ensure that no additional information or requirements are needed. For example, sometimes packages require a signature or shipping insurance. Enter any specific information that wasn’t imported from your web store.
As you start working with the software, you will identify opportunities to automate this process. For instance, if certain SKUs always need shipping insurance, you can build a business rule to automatically apply shipping insurance to every order containing that SKU. Similarly, if shipments to certain geographies always require a specific carrier and service, you can automate service level selection and always apply the correct service to each shipment when it comes in.
Step 3: Select a shipping service
As you review the order details, you will notice that a default carrier account appears in the “From” field, and a default service appears in the “Service” field.
Click the magnifying glass icon next to the “Service” field, and Descartes ShipRush will automatically show you all the carrier services that can deliver to the destination address.
You will also see prices and estimated delivery time frames for the services. All services are stacked in order of price, and the cheapest and fastest services are tagged.
Choose the best service that will allow you to keep your delivery promise to your customer, such as the cheapest one to two-day shipping service. Now that you understand the process, you can automate these steps for future shipments to reduce processing time.
Step 4: Click the “Ship” button and print your shipping label
When all the shipment information looks correct and your preferred service is selected, click the “Ship” button. The information is electronically sent to the carrier, i.e., USPS, which generates the correct shipping label and returns it to Descartes ShipRush. All of this takes under a second.
Then, the shipping label pops up, ready to print. You can either use your office printer to print the label, or you can connect a thermal label printer for even faster bulk label printing. Attach your shipping label to the box, and your order is ready to ship!
Fastest way to print shipping labels
The fastest way to print shipping labels is a thermal printer connected to multi-carrier shipping software. With this setup, you can process orders from all sales channels and create shipping labels in bulk, then rapidly print them via thermal printer.
For even faster shipping label printing, some shipping software, such as Descartes ShipRush, also integrates with mobile warehouse management system software. This allows warehouse workers to print shipping labels from mobile devices on the warehouse floor as they pick orders, placing the label and packing slip with the correct items in trolley bins. This setup saves steps and reduces complexity at the packing station while speeding up the pick-pack-ship process.
What are the other options to print shipping labels?
What is Click N Ship for USPS shipping labels?
Click-N-Ship® is a web-based application designed for residential and small business users to create USPS shipping labels online. You can print labels for domestic Priority Mail Express®, Priority Mail®, and USPS Ground Advantage™ shipments.
In just a few clicks, you can set your shipping preferences and print USPS labels from your home or office. To use Click-N-Ship®, you need a free USPS.com residential or business account, a computer, and a standard printer. (Source)
Best for: Residential or low-volume small business shippers with less than ten shipments per day who prefer to use an office setup for printing labels.
Price: Free
What is FedEx Ship Manager® for FedEx shipping labels?
FedEx Ship Manager is an easy-to-use online business tool for creating and managing shipping labels. You can ship small packages or freight, both domestically and internationally. It also helps with customs paperwork.
You can set your shipping preferences, track packages, and set up recurring shipments for FedEx. You only need a free account and a printer to use FedEx Ship Manager. There’s no need to download any software; you can start printing labels immediately. (Source)
Best for: Businesses of all sizes looking for advanced shipping options across the FedEx service range, especially those using their own negotiated FedEx rates.
Price: Free to use with a FedEx account
What is UPS WorldShip® for UPS shipping labels?
UPS WorldShip® is a desktop shipping software for Windows®, used in over 100 countries and available in various languages. It provides access to the entire range of UPS small package and freight services so you can print shipping labels.
WorldShip can enhance your business operations by integrating with your existing systems. Through ODBC and XML integrations, it can import data from and export shipping information to your essential business systems and databases. (Source)
Best for: High-volume shippers with 10+ daily shipments that need access to the full suite of UPS® services and do not ship with other carriers.
Price: Free (Source)
Key Takeaways
- Multi-channel ecommerce shipping doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming.
- It’s easy and cost-effective to print shipping labels in bulk with shipping software.
- You can print shipping labels faster by integrating all your sales channels and carrier accounts in one place with a multi-carrier shipping solution.
- You’re not alone in figuring this out—Descartes is here to help.
About the Author
Mikel Richardson is a General Manager at Descartes, the global leader in providing on-demand, software-as-a-service solutions focused on improving the productivity, performance and security of logistics-intensive businesses. As GM of the ecommerce division, Mikel helps ecommerce brands grow wherever they are in their journey, whether shipping their first order or scaling internationally.
