Can light items be shipped with just a stamp instead of a label?

[Ashillustration]

Do I need to use the Shopify label or can items be sent out with just a stamp if they are light enough?

[Lilith]

Hi, @Ashillustration! The answer to this depends on a few things. Among those 4 questions are important to consider:

• Do you have your shipping settings set up to be accurate based on weight?
• Are you charging your customers the rate for a shipping label at checkout?
• What kinds of products do you sell?
• Does your customer want tracking?

Setting up shipping properly for your specific products

The first thing you want to make sure you are doing is to have accurate and correct shipping rates set up. Please be sure to follow the help center guides for this, specifically our shipping settings guide. This will make sure that when your customers are buying the products, the system will have an accurate cost associated with the weight and size of the order.

Setting that up will depend on the products you're selling. Keep this in mind when setting things up using the guide above. If you sell light products, you'll want the system to not overcharge customers. If you sell heavy items with some light ones, you'll want the system to know when a package label will be needed.

Charging customers

If your customers have checked out based on your current shipping settings and you've charged them for a shipping label, you will need to use that label and ship the product appropriately. Be sure to maintain a high trust level with your customers by delivering what they paid for and not cutting corners.

If you accidentally overcharged the customer, get a hold of them and offer them a partial refund for the overcharged amount. Make sure that you keep a written record of your conversation with the customer via email preferably. you can also offer them a free shipping option, but let them know it will not include tracking.

Tracking

Remember that shipping labels that cost more usually include tracking. Most customers will want the ability to track their orders. This is also an important part of the evidence required in the event you are confronted with a chargeback

If you offer a less expensive shipping option like a stamped envelope, be sure to include a section in your Shipping terms page that it will not include tracking. This is also a good thing to add to your shipping settings, letting the customer know that the lower-cost shipping will not have trackable information.

The short answer

No, you shouldn't be sending a stamped envelope in any case if the customer has paid for the higher cost of a trackable shipping label.

However, you can send a stamped envelope if you've set things up properly to not charge the customer for a shipping label.

Tip

Since you're working on the shipping side of things right now, I thought it might be a great time to mention that you can increase your sales with strategic shipping settings.

Offering free shipping for specific total purchases or perhaps a promotional shipping offer for specific products over the holiday season might be ideal. This is a smart and proven way to increase your average order value and maintain consistent growth in sales long term. We have a great guide here on how to implement that!