Table of Contents
- Introduction
- What a Shipping Label Template Is
2.1 Why Not Type Every Label Fresh? - What Belongs on the Label
3.1 Sender and Receiver Details
3.2 Weight, Size and Piece Count
3.3 Barcode and Order Reference
3.4 Handling Notes - Setting One Up in Word or Excel
4.1 Start With the Size
4.2 Add Your Boxes
4.3 Keep the Font Plain
4.4 Test One First
4.5 Printing for a Long Customer List - Where Labels Usually Go Wrong
- Shipping Abroad: What Changes
6.1 Extra Lines for International Parcels
6.2 Air or Sea? - FAQs
7.1 Which label sizes are common?
7.2 Is special software needed for a shipping label template?
7.3 Is the barcode optional for small parcels?
7.4 What should I write on cartons from China? - Keeping Your Template Organised
- Conclusion
1. Introduction
Last year a carton of ours sat in a depot for three days, all because of a missing phone number. Then a parcel landed in the wrong barangay because somebody typed the postal code from memory. Both slips happened around label forty, when everyone just wanted to go home.
So we started using a shipping label template, and the errors dropped fast. At Yiwa Logistics we handle air freight parcels all day, so we know what poor labelling costs.
2. What a Shipping Label Template Is
Picture a label with nothing written on it but all the boxes already drawn. For each new order you write over the last customer’s details and print.
2.1 Why Not Type Every Label Fresh?
Plenty of small sellers do, and it works until about the twentieth parcel, when a postal code gets skipped without anyone noticing.
3. What Belongs on the Label
Every carrier has a layout of its own, yet the details they need hardly vary.
3.1 Sender and Receiver Details
Each side gets a full name and a proper address, meaning street, city, postal code and country. In the Philippines, add the barangay and province too. Don’t skip the phone number either, because a rider who can’t find the building will ring it before doing anything else.
3.2 Weight, Size and Piece Count
Sending eight cartons together? Mark them “1 of 8”, “2 of 8” and so on, so a missing box gets noticed the same day. Our warehouse team at Yiwa Logistics does this on every consolidated shipment.
3.3 Barcode and Order Reference
Barcodes get scanned at almost every stage, so print yours crisp and keep tape off it. The order reference helps you find one box without hunting through old emails.
3.4 Handling Notes
A quick “Fragile” or “Keep Dry” on the carton takes seconds. Not every handler pays attention, but a fair few do, and the box is better off for it.
4. Setting One Up in Word or Excel
Word or Excel will cover it, and there’s nothing to buy. Our own shipping label template took about an hour to build, and the same file still gets used every single week.
4.1 Start With the Size
With a thermal printer, 4 x 6 inches is the size to go for. Without one, an A4 sheet cut in half works for most cartons.
4.2 Add Your Boxes
Draw a box for each field above. Make the recipient’s box the biggest, because that’s what drivers read first.
4.3 Keep the Font Plain
Pick a boring font like Arial, black on white, twelve points at the smallest. We’ve seen curly fonts turn into smudges on cheap printers.
4.4 Test One First
Run off a single copy first and hold your phone camera over the barcode. Doesn’t read? Fix the layout now, before fifty labels are stuck on boxes.
4.5 Printing for a Long Customer List
Got a big customer list? Word’s mail merge reads it straight from your spreadsheet and gives you one label per row, which beats retyping by a mile.
5. Where Labels Usually Go Wrong
Nine times out of ten the address is the culprit, and it’s usually something small: no unit number, a postal code that’s one digit off, or a barangay that never got written down.
Where the label sits on the carton counts too. The widest flat side of the box is safest, since a label bent round a corner or buried under tape won’t scan. We’d also put a second label inside the carton, because outside labels get torn or wet more than you’d expect, and the team at Yiwa Logistics often identifies a box from that inside copy.
6. Shipping Abroad: What Changes
A local delivery can survive a small mistake. An international one usually can’t, because nobody down the route can call you and customs officers don’t guess.
6.1 Extra Lines for International Parcels
International parcels need a bit more on the label. Put down who the buyer is and which country they’re in, what the goods are, where they were made, and your own shipment number. Hold off on the tape for a moment. First, put the invoice and packing list next to the cartons and tick off each line against the actual contents. We do exactly this at Yiwa Logistics before anything ships, since a single wrong letter can get the whole consignment held at customs, and the storage fees land on you.
6.2 Air or Sea?
Air shipments get a label on each carton, and that label carries the box weight along with the airway bill information. Things look a bit different by sea freight. Cartons there tend to show a shipping mark, a carton number, and a booking or container reference. We run both at Yiwa Logistics, so one template does the job for either route, provided somebody edits a field or two.
7. FAQs
7.1 Which label sizes are common?
Most thermal printers are set up for 4 x 6 inch labels. If you’re stuck with an ordinary office printer, an A4 sheet cut in half does the trick, and you can go down to quarters for tiny parcels.
7.2 Is special software needed for a shipping label template?
Not really. Word or Excel is enough for this. Word is handy if you only want one layout, but Excel with mail merge is better once your customers’ addresses are sitting in a spreadsheet.
7.3 Is the barcode optional for small parcels?
Anything going through a courier or forwarder needs one, since it gets scanned along the way. Giving a box to a friend or neighbour is another matter, though you can’t track it afterwards.
7.4 What should I write on cartons from China?
Open with the consignee’s full name, address and phone number. After that comes the carton number (for example 3/20), the shipping mark from your invoice, and the carton’s gross weight. Still not sure what the destination country wants? Message your forwarder, Yiwa Logistics for example, before you print and save yourself a lot of grief.
8. Keeping Your Template Organised
Keep a single master file and don’t touch it. Every order gets its own copy, and it helps to name the local, air and sea versions clearly. Store a backup of the master somewhere safe too.
9. Conclusion
Plan on roughly an hour for the setup. Once it’s done, a lot of those small mistakes that eat into your money stop turning up. Print one test label, fill in every box, and read the label against your invoice and packing list. That’s really all a reliable shipping label template needs from you.
Bringing goods in from China and would rather skip the labelling and packing yourself? Get in touch with Yiwa Logistics. Our team at Yiwa Logistics will handle it properly before anything leaves the warehouse, with factory visits done on your behalf.