5 Shipping Label Mistakes That Are Causing You Unnecessary Headaches

Shipping can be a time-consuming and complicated task for many companies. You need to simplify and optimize your shipping processes as much as possible to maximize productivity and minimize headaches.

Shipping labels are one of the most important tools you use to handle your shipping needs. You need to make sure you're avoiding the following five mistakes to optimize shipping processes for your company.

1. Not taking advantage of the convenience of having your own scale

Having your own scale could make your shipping and label printing processes much more convenient.

A postage scale will ensure that you can calculate shipping costs exactly and print your own labels if you have a printer. It will also ensure that you don't waste any money by trying to guess on weights and overestimating so that your shipping charges are higher than they should be. 

2. Failing to confirm the address and other details

For some orders, you may want to verify the shipping address by double checking it with the customer. This is especially important for particularly large orders or orders that are particularly expensive to ship.

Shipping problems can cost you a lot of money. You can minimize or completely avoid having to reship an item if you are careful to make sure that shipping labels are printed out properly the first time. 

3. Not having your own label printer

If you have to ship a large quantity of product on a regular basis, you absolutely need to invest in a good label printer. Printing your own shipping labels can save you both on shipping charges and on the amount of time your staff has to put into shipping tasks.

Make sure you consider the costs of labels as well as the maintenance needs of the label printer model you choose. 

4. Purchasing your shipping labels in a store rather than online

If you're shipping a lot of items, you're going to need to buy more labels frequently. This means that it's probably a good idea to find a place where you can buy labels online. Purchasing shipping labels online can be done in only a few minutes while driving out to a physical location can take much longer. 

5. Neglecting to pay attention to tracking numbers after labeling and shipping 

It's important to keep track of your packages so that you know where they are and when they'll be arriving for your customers.

Recording tracking numbers from labels will increase customer satisfaction because it will allow you to tell customers where packages are and even let them track packages themselves. For more information on pre-printed shipping labels, contact your local shipping label service.