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What are Rubber Stamps and how do I use them?
What are Rubber Stamps and how do I use them?

Learn how you can use Rubber Stamps to print custom information like Order ID or Order Items on the corner of each label

Updated over 2 months ago

Rubber Stamps are a way to print non-address information on a label for reference. They are commonly used to double-check check you're putting a label onto the right package.

A gif showing the Create a Shipping Label form. When the checkbox next to 'Rubber Stamps,' is checked, some boxes appear below where you can enter information that will appear at the bottom of the physical label below the barcode.

How to create Rubber Stamps

Where are Rubber Stamps printed?

  • Printing Location: Rubber Stamps are printed on the bottom box of a label. You can have up to four Rubber Stamps with USPS labels, but they have strict character-length restrictions of 25 characters per line.

  • Rubber Stamps with UPS vs. USPS: Rubber Stamps are different for UPS than for USPS. UPS only allows for two Rubber Stamps instead of four like USPS does, and you can include up to 35 characters each for each line.

Rubber Stamps don't have much room!

  • Text Gets Cut Off With Spreadsheets or Integrations: When importing addresses from spreadsheets or one of our eCommerce integrations, Pirate Ship will "cut off" the text in your Rubber Stamp lines if there are too many characters. When this happens, Pirate Ship will force a line break onto the next line... but once all the lines are filled, then the rest of the data will be cut off.

    • Due to this, if the data you're using is very long, it's recommended to ONLY assign it to Rubber Stamp 1, and leave the other rubber stamps unused, so that it can flow into those lines.

  • Limits for Single Labels: Rubber stamps work differently when manually creating a single label. If you attempt to enter more than 34 characters per Rubber Stamps line when making a single label, you'll run into an error.

  • Remember Maximum Character Limits: Don't forget that USPS gives you up to four lines of 25 characters for Rubber Stamps, while UPS gives you up to two lines of 35 characters!

Common uses for Rubber Stamps

Here are some of the most common uses for Rubber Stamps on your labels:

  • Order ID: You can display the order ID in the Rubber Stamps section so you can match the label to a packing list generated by another system (but...have you thought about using Pirate Ship's packing lists instead?)

  • Order Items: Displaying your order items works if your order item names are very short, and if you don't get orders with many different items. Note that the order items brought over are in SKU format only (SKUs are one of the line items automatically included in packing lists, as an alternative to rubber stamps).

  • Batch Name: You can use Rubber Stamps to give a custom name to a batch when you're creating it in Pirate Ship. This gives you the freedom to come up with unique ways to group & reference orders.

Services that don't support Rubber Stamps

  • Service Exclusions: Rubber Stamps aren't available for all services on Pirate Ship. Here are some things to keep in mind:

    • UPS® Ground Saver: UPS Ground Saver doesn't support Rubber Stamps.

    • USPS International Labels: If you’re shipping with USPS® or Simple Export Rate®, Rubber Stamps can't be applied to international labels.

International UPS labels include Rubber Stamps

  • UPS International Labels: Rubber Stamps appear on all UPS® international labels 😉

Let us know how we can help!

Any questions about Rubber Stamps, Cap'n? Hit the chat button on the bottom right and we'll get you sailing in the right direction in no time ⛵

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