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How To Use A Label Printer For Your E-commerce Business

Spending Too Much Time Writing Labels? These Label Printers Will Help

Need to print labels for your online business? Keen to learn how you should print labels that portray your e-commerce brand in a professional manner?

You will probably need a good label printer to keep things running efficiently if you run an e-commerce store and ship more than two to three orders a day.

Whether your store is on Amazon, Lazada, Shopee, or Etsy, you will need a way to easily keep track of inventory and be able to ship the right items out on time. A label printer can help you do just that.

In this article, we cover some of the benefits of having a label printer and the types of label printers best suited to your small business needs.

Why You Need a Label Printer for Your E-commerce Business

Here are some of the main benefits of having a label printer for your online store.

1. They help you to manage your store inventory and shipping

Label printers help small businesses to easily keep track of stock and access key product information. With a scan of a barcode, you will be able to access the relevant product information such as stock quantity, price, dimension, colour, and other variables. Poor quality labels could result in negative customer experiences and even impact your bottom line. If the addresses on your shipping labels are not printed correctly, or if the barcodes are not legible, your carrier may face a problem in processing your order. The end result is that your customer’s goods may not get shipped and delivered, resulting in delays and customer complaints.

2. They are more professional compared to manual labels

Like many small home-based businesses, you may have started out your business by manually writing your labels. While this may be possible for a small start-up, it can get time consuming when your business starts to scale-up.

That’s not all. While charming, your handwritten labels may get smudged during transit. This prevents you from getting your product to your customer on time—or worse, gives your customer a poor impression of your brand!

Compared to handwritten labels, professionally printed shipping labels look more credible and are less likely to tear during transit.

3. They keep your small office or stockroom organised

Do you enjoy having an organised stockroom or spending hours on end looking for items? A properly organised and clearly labelled stockroom could translate to greater efficiency and time savings, especially if you are thinking of hiring help in the near future!

Keeping things organised can also be a major time-saver, especially when your small business starts to expand and your number of Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) start multiplying.

How To Print Shipping Labels?

There are two main options when it comes to printing your shipping labels: printing them with a standard laser or inkjet printer, or a thermal label printer.

Let us look at the pros and cons of both printing options.

Printing labels using a laser or inkjet printer

Laser and inkjet printers can produce high quality labels if you buy the right label sheets. They also allow you to print labels of many different sizes and dimensions.

However, this may be costly if you need to mass produce labels on a regular basis due to the higher cost of label sheets and cartridges relative to other options.

Printing labels using specialised label printers

Professional label printers, on the other hand, are specially designed for label printing. The beauty of using such label printers is that you don’t need to worry about extra supplies like ink or toner.

Some of these labellers also come in nifty, portable versions which can help greatly when you need to move about and print shipping labels on-the-go. These come in really useful when your SKUs increase, and you need to process your goods and ship them Just-In-Time. Some of these label printers also allow you to print directly from your phone or other mobile devices.

Types of Label Printer

When it comes to specialised label printers for small businesses, Brother offers both thermal label printers and laminated label printers. What are the main differences between these printing technologies and which would suit your business better?

1. Direct Thermal Label Maker

If your online business requires labels for barcodes, address labels, shipping labels, and food packaging, the direct thermal label maker may be your best bet.

Thermal printing uses heat-sensitive label stock and directly burns text and shapes onto the label itself.

The main advantage of using thermal printed labels is that they are easy to use and are more accurate. However, do note that they should not be exposed for long periods of time to heat or direct sunlight as the material will darken over time.

The Brother QL-1110NWB Label Printer is a popular label printer in the Philippines that utilises thermal printing technology. It has a fast printing speed of 4.3”/second or 110mm/second, and also offers a high print resolution of 300 x 600dpi.

2. Laminated Label Printer

If you carry a significant amount of stock and need to pay attention to your backend assets such as labelling your shelves, office equipment and files, the laminated label printer may be more suitable.

Laminated labels are water and fade-resistant and can withstand a harsher environment such as abrasion, heat or cold.

The Brother PT-D600 Label Printer is ideal for clear and durable workplace labelling up to 24 mm wide. Its compact and sleek design ensures that it fits at any office workstation. It is perfect for the organisation of workspaces, clear identification of equipment, assets and filing, as well as creation of basic instructional or warning notices.

Conclusion

Getting the best label printer for your e-commerce business could be the best solution to achieving a smooth-running logistics and delivery process. Creating a reliable end-to-end system would make a world of difference — for your customers and yourself.

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How To Choose The Best Label Printer For Your Small Business

label printer for small business

Looking for the best label printer for your small business can be quite a challenge for first time users. 

There are all sorts of label makers ranging in size, cost, and print speed—but which features should you consider to find the perfect label printer for your small business? 

Here are some of the top factors to consider:

  1. Types of Label Printers
  2. Price
  3. Printing Speed
  4. Volume of Printing
  5. Print Quality
  6. Portability
  7. Water Resistance
  8. Versatility
  9. Connectivity
  10. Usability and Comfort

With so many choices of label printers in the market, it’s easy to get lost as you weigh the different criteria while selecting the perfect label maker for your small business. In this article, you will learn what the most important attributes are in a label printer.

1. Types of Label Printer

Which type of label printer—thermal label printer or laminated label printer— best suits your business needs? 

There are pros and cons to each label printing technology so read on to find out more.

  1. Direct Thermal Label Maker

If your business requires labels used for barcodes, address labels, shipping labels, receipts, tickets or food packaging, the direct thermal label maker is a good fit for you. Thermal printing uses heat-sensitive label stock and burns text onto the label itself, without reaching dangerously high temperatures. 

Most thermal printed labels last a long time. However, they are not well suited for environments that expose them to heat, long periods of direct sunlight, or abrasion as the material will darken, making the text illegible or the barcode invalid. Hence, do keep in mind that direct thermal printing is not the best option for long-life products and applications. 

Brother’s QL-800 Label Printer, which bagged the PC Mag Editors’ Choice 2020, is one of the most popular label makers in Singapore utilising thermal printing technology. Brother’s DK-22251 series offers black and red printing, and is popularly used for address labels, shipping labels and food packaging as you can highlight important information such as use-by dates and allergens. Such label printers have a speed of 93 labels per minute, which makes labeling very efficient.

Developed for busy workplaces, you will be happy to know that this advanced label printer is easy to set-up and use. Simply connect the printer to your PC or Mac via USB, and run the built-in software—with P-touch Editor Lite, you need not install printer drivers.

  1. Laminated Label Printer

For businesses that focus on backend assets where labels are needed for shelves, office equipment, name badges, cabinets, and files, the laminated label printer may be your best bet. Laminated labels can withstand the test of time (fade resistant) and elements (heat/cold/water) better as the ink is printed onto the laminated labels.
For such uses, the Brother PT-D450 Label Printer might be the label printer of choice. The PT-D450 allows you to quickly generate labels up to 18mm wide, either using the printer’s own keyboard and high resolution backlit display to create them directly, or by sending your designs through your PC or Mac via P-touch Editor software. It is also one of the few label makers designed with a QWERTY keyboard, making it extremely user-friendly.

lady working at desk with rows of files
Happy Young Businesswoman Using Calculator At Workplace

2. Price

Cost is the next factor that you should consider—but don’t just focus on the cost of the label printer itself; also consider the cost of its consumables—ink cartridges, toners, print head, label tape, stickers, rolls, etc. You may be shocked by how quickly the costs of the consumables add up after snagging a cheap label printer. 

To avoid such surprises, it is wise to do the math and get a clearer picture of what your costs will be like in a year. You might be better off with a competitively priced label printer, with more affordable consumables that help keep the long-term running costs low.

3. Printing Speed

The printing speed of the label maker can make or break your business—especially if your print volume is high or you operate in a time-sensitive environment. Having a label printer that can produce more labels at a faster speed will definitely streamline your business processes. The number of labels per minute or the inches per second are specifications that you have to look out for when choosing the ideal label maker. 

4. Volume of Printing

Similarly, the print volume of a label maker can affect your business. If you need to print a huge volume of labels, a more efficient label printer that has an auto cut function can help you save time spent on constantly changing cartridges or label rolls. This function aids in continuous printing by cutting your label to the precise length, for up to one metre.

5. Print Quality

Do you need to print high quality labels or would an above-average quality suffice? Do you need your label prints to be smudge-free and fade-proof? 

These are some questions to ponder upon, especially since print quality is typically correlated to its price. If print resolution is important to you, you may want to look out for a label printer that offers higher dpi (dots-per-inch).

Rolls of labels with barcodes

6. Portability

Another factor to consider is the portability of the label printer. Do you need to constantly be on-the-go with your label printer, moving from product to product, shelf to shelf, warehouse to warehouse? With a portable label printer that has a built-in rechargeable Li-ion battery, you will be able to continue labeling for a longer period of time, keeping an efficient workflow. 

This is where you may have to decide between lightweight and portable label printers and the heavy-duty ones.

7. Water Resistance

The environment your business is in will also affect the type of labels you choose. Water-resistant labels would be extremely important if your business operates in high-humidity conditions or if there is a possibility of condensation at any point of the logistics process. 

8. Versatility

The versatility of a label printer provides you with multiple ways to send a print job from—standalone, PC, mobile device, network systems, etc. It is important to consider this attribute if your business taps on these diverse needs. For a more comprehensive read on these multiple ways of printing, click here!

9. Connectivity

In the digital and mobile age, you may need to consider how easy it is to connect your label printer to a computer for direct printing from common applications such as Microsoft Word or Excel. Most label printers can be connected to a computer via USB. Other more advanced models may come with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connectivity. If you need your labeller to link up with other devices frequently, your ideal label printer will need to check this box.   

10. Usability and Comfort

Finally, the most important factor that trumps it all is the labeller’s ease of use. Is the screen big enough for you to preview the labels comfortably? Is the label printer intuitive to use? The overall user-friendliness of a label printer could be a deal maker (or breaker) so do try it out before you make the leap!

Conclusion

Choosing the best label printer for your small business can be a daunting task. We hope that the above tips are helpful in enabling you to decide on the best label printer for your business.