A lost or delayed package is stressful enough on its own; discovering you also cannot quickly find the original label, tracking number, or order details makes resolving it with the courier or marketplace considerably harder. A simple, consistent habit of archiving shipping labels and their related paperwork turns a potential scramble into a quick lookup.
What is worth keeping for every shipment
- The original, uncropped label PDF, which includes the tracking number and the tax invoice details together.
- The cropped, print-ready version, in case you need to reprint the exact label that was used.
- The order confirmation or reference from the marketplace, tying the shipment back to the specific customer order.
A simple filing structure that makes lookups fast
- Create a dated folder for each day or week you ship orders.
- Save the uncropped label, cropped label, and order reference for each shipment together, named consistently — including the order or tracking number in the filename makes searching for a specific one later much faster.
- Keep this folder structure consistent across marketplaces if you sell on more than one, ideally with a marketplace name as part of the folder or file naming.
Why keeping the cropped label specifically matters
If a courier loses a package and asks for the label to be reprinted or resubmitted, having the exact cropped, thermal-ready version already prepared saves you from redoing the cropping step under time pressure, following the same process covered in our guides on choosing the right label crop tool. A quick reprint from an already-processed file is considerably faster than starting from the original download again.
How long to keep this archive
Most lost-package claims and disputes are raised within a matter of weeks of the original shipment, but keeping records for a longer period — several months at minimum — provides a safety margin for the occasional claim raised later, and aligns well with general accounting record-keeping practices most sellers already need to follow for other reasons.
What to do the moment you learn a package is lost
- Locate the shipment's folder using the order or tracking number.
- Retrieve the tracking number and original label details to reference in your communication with the courier or marketplace.
- If a reprinted label is needed for a replacement shipment, use your already-cropped version rather than reprocessing from scratch.
Building this into your existing order workflow, not as a separate task
This archiving does not need to be a separate chore — it fits naturally into the same order-processing sequence covered in our guide to the full order-to-shipping-label workflow, simply by saving each file to its dated folder as part of that existing process, rather than adding an entirely new step afterwards.
What this looks like at higher shipping volumes
For a seller shipping many orders daily, a consistent, disciplined filing habit becomes more valuable, not less, since the number of shipments where something might eventually go wrong scales with volume. At higher volume, it is worth periodically checking that the filing habit is actually being followed consistently, rather than assuming it is happening correctly simply because it was set up once.
What to say to the courier or marketplace once you have the records ready
Having the tracking number, original label and order reference on hand means you can raise a lost-package query with specific, verifiable details from the outset, rather than a vague description that invites back-and-forth requests for information you have to go and find. Leading with the tracking number and a clear summary of the order typically gets a faster, more useful response than an initial query that forces the courier or marketplace to ask you for basic details before they can even begin looking into it.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to keep records for every single shipment, or just problematic ones?
Keep records for every shipment as a matter of habit, since you cannot know in advance which ones might later have an issue.
Should I keep physical copies as well as digital ones?
Digital copies are generally sufficient and easier to search; a physical copy is not usually necessary unless your specific record-keeping requirements call for it.
What if I need to reprint a label weeks after the original shipment?
As long as you have archived the cropped file, reprinting is as simple as opening and printing it again; there is no need to redownload or recrop.
Does this apply the same way across Meesho, Flipkart and Amazon?
Yes, the same archiving principle applies regardless of marketplace, though keep each marketplace's files clearly separated given their different label formats.
How should I organise records if I ship a very high volume of orders?
Consider organising by week rather than by day if daily folders become too numerous to navigate quickly, while still keeping each individual shipment's files clearly named and searchable.
Is there a risk in keeping too much archived data?
Storage is generally inexpensive relative to the value of having records available when needed; the main risk is disorganisation, not excess volume, which a consistent naming and folder system addresses directly.
Are the label cropping tools free to use again if I need to reprocess something?
Yes. No sign-up, no watermark, and files are removed from the server automatically about an hour after processing.