Reading a Flipkart shipping label
Four blocks, and only one of them is load-bearing.
The AWB barcode
The Air Waybill number, as a barcode with the digits underneath. This is the label. Everything else is human convenience — the AWB is what the courier scans at pickup, at every hub, and at delivery, and it is what a tracking query resolves against. If it does not scan, the parcel stops.
Courier and routing code
Which partner is carrying it and the destination hub code. Useful when a parcel is misrouted and you are trying to work out where it went, and otherwise ignorable.
Delivery address
Read by a human at the last mile. Worth checking it is fully inside your crop — a clipped pincode is a returned parcel.
Order and SKU details
Your reference for packing the right thing. This is where a readable SKU code earns its keep: a packer reading MEERA-KRT-RED-L off the label knows what to put in the box without opening a spreadsheet.
Downloading labels from the seller panel
Labels are generated once an order is ready to dispatch, and downloaded per batch rather than one at a time.
Select the orders you are packing, download their labels, and you get a single PDF with one page per order. That batch shape is what makes the cropping worth automating — forty orders is one file, and cropping it by hand in a PDF reader is forty separate operations.
Print before you pack, not after
A practical habit rather than a rule. Print the batch first, lay the labels out, then pack against them. Packing first and labelling afterwards is how the wrong SKU ends up in the right box, and a mis-shipped order costs both legs of the freight plus the rating.
Do not photocopy or reprint from a photo
Each generation loses contrast and the AWB barcode is the first thing to degrade. If a label is damaged, regenerate it from the panel rather than copying the one you have.
Printing so the parcel actually scans
A label that looks fine on screen and fails at the courier hub costs you the delivery and usually the customer. Five things cause almost all of it.
| Do this | Because |
|---|---|
| Print at 100%, never "fit to page" | Scaling shrinks the barcode modules below what the hub scanner resolves. This is the single most common cause of a rejected parcel. |
| Thermal, not inkjet, if you can | Inkjet smudges in transit and in humidity. A thermal print survives a monsoon delivery; an inkjet one often does not. |
| Check the barcode is fully inside the crop | A barcode clipped at the edge scans as nothing. The preview shows the exact window before you commit a batch. |
| Keep the quiet zone | Barcodes need clear space either side. Cropping tight to the bars is the same as damaging them. |
| Do not photocopy labels | Each generation loses contrast, and the AWB barcode is the first thing to become unreadable. |
The first one is worth repeating because it accounts for most failures on its own. Print at 100%. Every PDF reader defaults to “fit to page”, which shrinks the label a few per cent — invisible to you, and enough to push the barcode’s narrow bars below what a hub scanner resolves. This tool outputs at true label size precisely so that setting is the only thing left to get wrong.
Why this runs in your browser
A shipping label is not a neutral document. It carries your customer’s full name, complete address and phone number — for every order on the sheet.
Uploading a morning’s labels to a free online cropper hands a stranger a list of your customers, with contact details, in a format built for direct marketing. Most of those sites are ad-funded and none of them tell you what happens to the file.
This one does the work on your own machine. The PDF is read into the browser tab, cropped there and written back out. Nothing is uploaded, so there is nothing to retain, leak or sell. That is worth more than any feature on this page, and it is the reason to be wary of the alternatives rather than a marketing line.
Related free seller tools
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do I download the Flipkart shipping label?
From the seller panel, once an order is marked ready to dispatch. You select the orders you are packing and download their labels as one PDF, with a page per order — which is why cropping a batch in one pass is worth doing.
What is the AWB number on a Flipkart label?
The Air Waybill number — the courier’s tracking reference for that parcel, printed as a barcode with the digits underneath. It is scanned at pickup, at every hub and at delivery, and it is what a tracking query resolves against. If the barcode does not scan, the parcel stops moving.
Can I reprint a Flipkart shipping label?
Regenerate it from the seller panel rather than photocopying the one you have. Each copy loses contrast and the AWB barcode degrades first, so a photocopied label is the most likely to fail at the hub.
Should the tax invoice go on the outside of the parcel?
No. The invoice belongs inside the parcel or in your records. Putting it on the exterior displays the order value to everyone who handles the box, which is particularly unwise on a COD shipment.
Is this label cropper free?
Yes, with no signup and no watermark. It runs in your browser using a client-side PDF library, so there is no upload queue and no per-label cost.
Do you see my customers’ addresses?
No. The PDF is opened, cropped and saved inside your browser tab — it is never sent anywhere. That matters more here than on most tools, because a shipping label carries a customer’s full name, address and phone number.
Why does my printed label not scan?
Almost always because it printed at less than 100%. Every PDF reader defaults to "fit to page", which shrinks the barcode enough that a hub scanner cannot resolve the narrow bars. Set scaling to 100% or Actual Size. The other common cause is a crop that clipped the barcode or its quiet zone.
Can I crop a whole batch at once?
Yes. Every page in the PDF gets the same crop window, so a forty-label sheet from your panel becomes forty cropped labels in one pass. Check the preview on page one before running a large batch.
What size should I print shipping labels on?
Four by six inches is the standard thermal roll and what most Indian courier partners expect. The metric 100 × 150 mm equivalent is marginally shorter and works identically. A5 is the fallback if you are printing on a normal office printer rather than a thermal one.
Do I need a thermal printer?
No, but it pays for itself quickly if you dispatch daily — no ink, and the print survives humidity and handling in a way inkjet does not. Until then, print on A5 or on plain paper and tape it to the parcel in a clear pouch.
The AWB barcode is the whole label. Everything else on it is for humans. Crop so the barcode has clear space around it, print at 100%, and never work from a photocopy.