Buying Shipping Labels (Online Store Builder)

Please Note: This article refers to customers with the Online Store Builder plan. If you are using the eCommerce product, please refer to the eCommerce: Manage Shipping Options article.

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's Orders section (available for the US, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands), or get shipping labels from your carrier.

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.

Please Note: Postal workers scan shipping label barcodes at each carrier facility, which allows customers to track the parcel’s whereabouts at the carrier’s site.

Buying Shipping Labels

Merchants located in the US, Germany, Belgium, or Netherlands can pay for the postage and get shipping labels directly from the Orders section.  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.

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.

If your business is located in the United States, you can buy and print shipping labels for USPS domestic and international shipments right from your store admin. To buy a shipping label for an order:

  • Hover over the left sidebar of the Site Editor, and click Store:

  • Select Orders:

  • Click on an order to access the Orders pop-up and select the order that you want to buy a shipping label for:

  • In the Shipping Details section, click Buy Shipping Label:

  • Check the shipping address or addresses if you ship abroad. You can change any of the addresses by clicking the Edit Address or Edit Info.
  • In the Parcel Weight and Size section, select the type of packaging for this order and specify the weight of the package and its dimensions. Click Continue.
  • This step is for international shipping. Skip it if you ship within the US. Fill in the Customs Declaration:
    • In the Sender Credentials, enter the sender's name and phone number. Your number is required in case customs will need to clarify any details.
    • In the Items To Declare, add a brief description about the shipping goods. For example, coffee beans. Select the country of origin for each item — you can look it up on the product’s label or on its package. The declared value for each item, its quantity, and net weight is filled in automatically based on order details. Taxes for declared item value are paid by a receiver.
    • If a total declared value of the order is over $2,500, you will see the ITN Code field. You need to add the International transaction number (ITN) since your shipment is over $2,500. To get the ITN, you need to apply for the Automated commercial environment (ACE) account. Once you have an account, you can register your parcel and get the unique ITN code.
    • If the shipment value is $2,500 or less, you don’t have to enter ITN.
    • You can add information for Customs by clicking Do you have any additional info to provide to Customs? and filling in an invoice, certificate or license numbers, or any other note. This information is optional and will not affect label price.
    • Click Next Step.
  • If you want to update the order status to Shipped and send an email to a customer immediately after buying the shipping label, tick the Mark order as shipped and notify the customer by email checkbox on the right-hand side. If you want to change the order status to Shipped manually after you’ve actually shipped the product, untick the checkbox.
  • Select a shipping service. Prices for shipping labels differ from the USPS retail prices. Some services are discounted, and others are not.
  • In the Printer settings section, select your printer type to print a shipping label of the appropriate size: Regular laser (label size is 8.5 x 11 inches) or Label printer (label size is 4 x 6 inches).
  • Click Buy Shipping Label. If you don’t have a credit card connected to your store, you will be able to add one to buy shipping labels. Once the purchase is complete, you will see the shipping label details and a tracking number.

  • Click Print Shipping Label.

What’s Next:

  • Place the printed shipping label on the box with the order and affix it securely with tape. Try not to tape above the barcode as it could make it harder to scan at the post office.

For International Shipment:

If you chose the First class mail as your shipping service, all required customs information is already included in the label.

If you chose the Priority mail as your shipping service, there might be from 1 to 4 pages in the file depending on shipment details. First page is the shipping label containing customs information. Remaining pages have to be submitted to customs. Attach remaining documents to the side of the box, so that they can be detached and studied by customs personnel.

  • Request a pickup or find the nearby post office to hand over the package to the carrier. You can click Schedule a pickup or Find a post office on the shipping label details page to be redirected to the USPS website to finalize shipping.
  • Ship the order.

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.