Home › Blog › How Many Custom Shipping Labels Should You Order?
OrderingHow Many Custom Shipping Labels Should You Order?
Ordering custom shipping labels for the first time, most operations either wildly overestimate a launch or badly underestimate a peak season — and both mistakes cost money. Overordering ties up budget and warehouse space in labels that sit on a shelf; underordering means a rushed reorder at a worse per-label price right when your volume is highest.
The good news is the math is simpler than it looks once you tie the number to your actual shipping volume, because a daily pack line, a seasonal spike, and a slow-moving specialty label all follow different logic.
Start with your daily shipping volume
Before picking a quantity, look at how many parcels you ship per day and per month across your channels. A shop shipping 100 orders a day burns roughly 2,000 address labels a month; add handling, return, and barcode labels and the total climbs. Base your order on that real throughput, not a round number that feels safe, and you’ll size close on the first pass.
Build in a buffer for misprints and peaks
Add 10–15% to your run for printer misfeeds, damaged labels, void-and-reprints, and the inevitable demand bump. If you ship 20,000 parcels a quarter, order closer to 22,500 labels. Because our minimum is 250 and per-label cost drops as volume grows, rounding up to the next tier is often cheaper per unit than ordering exactly what you counted.
Plan seasonal peaks separately
If your business has a Q4 or promotional spike, forecast that window on its own and order for it ahead of time. Label lead time is 5–7 business days, but printers and stock tighten industry-wide before peak, so ordering your holiday labels in early fall avoids both a rush fee and a stockout at the worst possible moment.
Recurring programs: order a quarter or year at once
For a steady operation, ordering a full quarter or year of labels at once usually beats ordering in small batches on price and keeps you from ever running dry mid-week. Split the order by facestock — a large run of 4×6 direct-thermal for the pack line, smaller runs of BOPP or Kraft for specialty parcels — and combine the volume for better pricing.
| Program type | How to size it | Typical order |
|---|---|---|
| Daily fulfillment | Monthly parcel count + 10–15% | 2,500–25,000 / month |
| Seasonal / Q4 peak | Forecast the window, order early | 10,000–100,000+ |
| Specialty (BOPP, Kraft) | Lower volume, order by quarter | 250–5,000 per run |
| Multi-warehouse | Combine volume for pricing | 50,000–millions |
The fastest way to get this right is to tell us your monthly shipping volume and facestock mix when you request a quote — we’ll ask the right follow-up questions and recommend a quantity that fits your budget and your calendar instead of leaving you to guess.
More posts
Win Free Stuff
Enter below for a chance to win plus receive 10% off your first order.
🎉 You are in!
Check your email for your 10% off code. Good luck!