What is Better for Order Fulfillment: The Bagel or Steak Solution?

by Chelsea Camper | Last Updated September 14, 2023

We recently received an email questioning us about our preferences in food between a bagel and a steak. It soon dawned on us that this was more than a question about food; it had a deeper meaning relating to our shipping label sheet product line. Which did we think was better: An order fulfillment solution that filled us up, but provided little nutritious value (the bagel), or a solution that not only filled us up but had more substance and nutritious value than the other method (the steak).

You might have guessed that we would pick the more nutritious value, but you might not completely understand why. So, let us explain!

The Bagel Solution

Not Very Nutritious

You can just use a plain piece of paper (bagel) to get a shipping label onto your package. You have to add more things to the recipe (paper, scissors, tape) in order to affix the shipping label.

In order to get the shipping label onto the package you’re sending out you have to cut the shipping label out of the plain piece of paper, then carefully tape it onto the package.

Yes, it fills the order and gets it out the door, but think about all the time you had to spend on cutting the label out and taping it on! Using just a regular piece of paper to ship your packages isn’t very nutritious and you should seriously consider moving to a label sheet.

Bagels Are Easy To Make

Why do people use plain sheets of paper that they have to cut out and tape on? Because there’s little to no preparation time. You just print the label and your prep time is done. While this might sound great, it can cost you a lot of time and money later on.

It will still take you a lot of time to carefully cut the label out of the paper and tape it onto the package. You’ll need to make sure the bar code will still be readable and that it won’t get damaged in transit.

Another reason people still use regular paper is that, like bagels, regular paper is everywhere. You can buy it in just about any store that you can buy tape in. Which, again sounds great, except you’ll have to constantly be buying at not-bulk price; that can really start adding up when you think about how many packages you send out on a regular basis.

The Steak Solution

More Nutritious Than Bagels

The Steak Fulfillment Solution introduces the shipping label sheet. These sheets are plain pieces of paper with labels built into them. When you print your shipping label onto the label sheet, you just need to peel out the label and place it onto the package.

No scissors, no tape.

Unlike a bagel, the steak can fill the same roll with a couple added benefits; it doesn’t require anything more to fill you up.

However, you will need to be careful about how you prepare your steak! You can lose a lot of nutritional value if you prepare a steak incorrectly.

Preparing a label sheet incorrectly can also cause you a few problems. The one main concern when printing your shipping labels is that you don’t auto-duplex your label sheets in a laser printer. Because of the heat generated by laser printers, the second pass through the printer when duplexing can cause the labels to begin to peel prematurely.

If you need static wording on the back of all your label sheets, you can order the label sheets to be pre-printed for you so that they’re ready to go as soon as they arrive.

Steaks Are Fancy

The first time you cook a steak, it takes a lot of prep time. You need to figure out what recipe you’ll use, where you’ll get the steak, and gather the supplies you’ll need to cook it. This is similar to label sheets. The first time you order label sheets you’ll need to figure out what design will work best for your company, where you’ll get the sheets from, and figure out which printer and software you’ll use to print the shipping labels.

This sounds like a lot of work, and it can be for large companies, but once you’ve figured out all of the basics, all you’ll need to do is re-order and make minute changes when your company requires it.

Taking a little bit of preparation time in the beginning will help you down the road. You won’t have to cut and tape your shipping labels on, you won’t have to worry about your packages getting returned due to the tape, and your order fulfillment can become quicker and more accurate.

Not to mention having a label on the package instead of a piece of paper taped on makes your company look more professional.

Why Choose The Steak?

If you’ve read this far I can’t imagine why any of you would still want the bagel, but just in case let’s recap why the steak is the better option here.

Preparation is a Good Thing

As you learned in the boy scouts or girl scouts, “Always be prepared.” The first round of preparation for shipping labels might take a fair amount of work, but it will be worth it in the end when you can speed up your order fulfillment and increase its accuracy.

Once the initial preparation is done, the rest will be a cake walk.

Compare Bagel and Steak Nutrition

When you compare the nutrition facts for a bagel and nutrition facts for steak, you can see that the steak has a lot more to offer. Let’s also compare a plain piece of paper and a label sheet:

Plain Piece of Paper

Need other tools in order to affix to package
Common in stores, but hard to find in bulk
Doesn’t look professional

Label Sheet

Doesn’t need other tools to affix to a package
Not common in physical stores, but available online (in bulk)
Makes package look professional

Steak is Good for Small Businesses Too

If you’re a small business, you may be thinking that shipping labels will be too expensive or too much work to bother switching from cutting and taping your boxes. However, that assumption is false. Only send out five or six packages a week? Then don’t buy a large amount of labels, just buy 250 sheets of a stock form for $29 (not including shipping and handling). That will keep you going for a while and it’ll still save you time!

Final Words On Steak

Using shipping label sheets helps accelerate order fulfillment and reduce errors by keeping all the shipping information on one page. When you’re shipping products in a timely manner and the products are correct, your customers are going to be happy. When your customers are happy, your bank account is happy.

Label sheets, like steak, will also help your company seem a little more professional. Imagine you’re going to meet an important business person who will help your business fulfill orders. Do you think he would seem more professional if he took you to lunch and bought you a bagel or a steak?

Want to learn more about how to streamline your order fulfillment? Check out our series on it!

Image: UggBoy