Carton Labels

In the world of supply chain, data and accuracy leads to success. The carton label is critical.

Carton labeling is important to the fashion industry.  Putting a proper label on a carton helps assure that it arrives to the proper location and has the proper information for a retailer or warehouse to know what product is being received.  Most carton labeling application are straight forward. Shipping cartons can be applied with a printed or pre-printed label to the side of the box. They can be directly printed or added by stickering.

Clothing retailers such as Walmart, Target, T.J Maxx, Macy's, etc., all have different requirements.  It is important to read the vendor manuals from each company to determine what is required when shipping to each specific retailer.

Here are a few common examples, but again you must check vendor manuals for each retailer for their requirements.

• Information must be printed on a label, then affixed to the carton or screen printed directly on the carton.
• All labels or print area must be a minimum of 20% or larger of the surface size of carton
• All labels must be on at least two adjacent sides of the carton.

Cartons must be marked with the following info (examples only):

• Vendor name
• Distribution Center name, number & address
• Purchase order number (with DC prefix)
• Department number
• Vendor style number (as it appears on the purchase order)
• Color (if applicable)
• Size/size ratio (if applicable)
• Total units (within the carton)
• Bar Code
• Pre-ticketed; Yes or No
• Country of origin
• Carton # of #

A barcode is an optical, machine-readable, representation of data; the data usually describes something about the object that carries the barcode.  Originally barcodes systematically represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or one-dimensional. Later two-dimensional codes were developed, using rectangles, dots, hexagons and other geometric patterns in two dimensions, usually called barcodes although they do not use bars as such. Barcodes were initially scanned by special optical scanners called barcode readers. Later applications software became available for devices that could read images, such as smartphones with cameras.

Bar Code Labels

Global Trade Item Number (GTIN)

Learn more about cartons for shipping clothing.

The easier it is to obtain accurate data, the smoother the operation will flow. Being able to quickly identify products is vital in every touch point in your supply chain. Be careful to use well formatted shipping carton labels.

Thank you for visiting Apparel Search to learn about carton labels.

What Goes on the Label, and Where Cartons Go Wrong

A retail carton label is a small data record, and every field on it feeds a different system: the barcode feeds the warehouse scanner, the purchase order number feeds the retailer's accounts payable matching, the style, color and size breakdown feeds inventory, and the ship-to address feeds the carrier. That is why vendor manuals specify the label down to its size, its position on the carton — usually a defined spot on a side panel, readable when cartons are stacked — and the exact barcode format required. A label placed under strapping, wrapped around a corner, or printed too faintly to scan fails in a building designed to move cartons at conveyor speed.

The common failure modes are mundane, which is what makes them expensive: case packs that do not match the label's stated assortment, labels reused from a previous purchase order, mixed cartons labeled as single-style, and shipments sent before the retailer's routing guide window. Each one converts a data error into a physical problem at a receiving dock hundreds of miles away, and the cost lands on the supplier as a deduction. The carton label term sits in this directory next to chargebacks for good reason: in apparel logistics, the label is where compliance starts.