What’s the best thermal label printer for automated shipping?
Hey everyone, I’m trying to improve my shipping workflow and was wondering how others are handling this. Right now I create UPS labels through the UPS eCommerce portal after an order comes in from Shopify. What I’d like is for the process to be as hands-off…
Hey everyone, I’m trying to improve my shipping workflow and was wondering how others are handling this. Right now I create UPS labels through the UPS eCommerce portal after an order comes in from Shopify. What I’d like is for the process to be as hands-off as possible. My ideal workflow would be: - Create the label in the UPS portal. - The shipping label prints automatically to a label printer. - If a commercial invoice is generated, that prints automatically to a regular A4 printer or the same printer would be great! - No extra clicks, no opening PDFs and hitting Print every time. We’re a small business, so we’re only shipping around 1–5 packages a day. (But growing) Because of that I’m not looking for an expensive warehouse setup or enterprise hardware. Budget max of around 400-500$ I’m mostly wondering: - What label printer are you using? (Rollo, Munbyn, Brother, something else?) - Has anyone automated printing from the UPS eCommerce portal? - Did you use UPS APIs, browser automation, PDF watching, or another approach? - If you were starting from scratch today, what would you buy and how would you build it? I’m a Python developer, so I’m happy to write some automation if that’s the best route. I’m just trying to avoid buying the wrong hardware or overengineering it. Would love to hear what setups are actually working for people.
Collected discussion
Your comment in r/ecommerce was automatically removed as your account is too new (accounts must be at least 30 days old). Try again a little later. I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
We use ship station for all our stores( Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, eBay, Etsy, etc) all orders come into there, create shipments and then send through ship connect or whatever it’s called directly to thermal printer. We have Zebra 450/550 that have millions of prints on them. Use for shipping and packing list combo. Very easy, we’ve shipped as much as 800 orders in a day on a single unit. We have a generic rollo that I got off eBay for $50 that works surprisingly well. We use that in our returns department. But I always keep an extra Zebra on standby, never bought a new one either always used. They are amazing workhorses but I will warn you their software sucks, and is confusing to know what you have to install. I think anything like the Rollo ones and you can’t go wrong, the one we have is so lightweight though we had to duct tape it down on the sides to keep it on the desk. We feed all our printers with the cheapest fan fold 4x6 labels we can get. You can get free labels from UPS but last time I tried they would only send one roll for a single request but might be fine for you. We also use them for printing other labels such as barcodes, warnings or case pack. Very easy to change label sizes.
Where do you usually buy your labels from?
We shop around but actually most of the time it’s eBay that has the best prices
Your comment in r/ecommerce was automatically removed as your account is too new (accounts must be at least 30 days old). Try again a little later. I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Shopify → ShipStation → Zebra ZD421 is an ideal workflow. It gives you all the automation and integration features most small businesses will ever need. I strongly recommend investing in a Zebra printer over cheaper options like Dymo. Zebra hardware is far more reliable long‑term.
i got a brother since ql-1100 since five year happy with it , but if i have to replace i will take a chinese one like munbyn or similar , since brother use a specific termal paper that cost way more at usage than a chinese one that you can use with free printing material from dhl/ups/fedex
I’ve had the same little Rollo thermal printer for 6 years and works like a champ.
Dymo but get it used on marketplace and only the 4XL or 450 so you can use other types of labels and not just Dymo. The new ones won’t use anything but Dymo which are so expensive
Zebra thermal with fanfold label case
Had a zebra (450) for years which was good, but when it died I bought a cheap one off amazon (arkscan 2054a) that has been great with no problems for 6 years
Shopify and shipstation rates are the same so just stay in Shopify and print from there. And the printers recommend above are all good.
This comment was deleted.
This comment was deleted.