What should I check before choosing a barcode label app?

Can it print from a purchase order CSV or a native transfer, or only from products? Can you set a custom label size, or only pick from presets that may not match your stock? If you use a roll printer, does it output ZPL, or only PDF?

Printing barcode labels after Stocky shuts down

Q: Do I need an app at all to print a few barcode labels?

If you only print a handful of labels a month, you may not need an app at all. Shopify can produce barcodes for products, and a small run can be handled with a template in a word processor.

If you sticker products when stock arrives, this is the step of the Stocky migration that actually breaks, and it is the one people discover last. Shopify's native purchase orders cannot batch print barcode labels. Transfers and purchase orders both arrive without a print path, so the workflow has to be rebuilt somewhere else.

Published by Aislekit, who make a Shopify label printing app. We name it where it is relevant and say plainly when you do not need it. Every fact here was checked against Shopify's own transition documentation.

Why this one bites late

Exports and reports fail loudly. Label printing fails quietly and then expensively, because a template that looks right on screen can still be wrong at the printer: a barcode too small to scan, a quiet zone eaten by the margin, a label size that does not match the sheet you actually buy. You do not find out at your desk. You find out when someone is holding a scanner over a box of stock on a Tuesday afternoon.

Print a real test sheet on your real printer before mid August. Not a PDF preview. Paper, from the printer you use, and scan a few labels with the scanner you use. This single step is the difference between a migration that is finished and one that only looks finished.

What you actually have to rebuild

The template. Your label at the exact physical size you buy, with the fields you print now (usually barcode, product name, variant and price).
The source of the list. Previously the Stocky purchase order. Now it is either a native transfer, a CSV of what arrived, or a product selection.
The printer path. Label sheets through a normal printer, or a roll printer like a Zebra, which needs a different output format entirely.

Choosing an app for it

Several apps in the Shopify App Store print barcode labels, and more than one of them can do this job properly. Three questions worth asking before you commit, because they are the ones that separate them:

Can it print from a purchase order CSV or a native transfer, or only from products?
Can you set a custom label size, or only pick from presets that may not match your stock?
If you use a roll printer, does it output ZPL, or only PDF?

Ours is one of them, and you should know that before you read the next sentence. Aislekit Label Print prints from purchase order CSVs, native inventory transfers or any product selection, on label sheets or Zebra roll printers, with custom sizes and a free tier that covers small runs. It is live on the Shopify App Store at apps.shopify.com/aislekit-label-print.

And the honest version: if you only print a handful of labels a month, you may not need an app at all. Shopify can produce barcodes for products, and a small run can be handled with a template in a word processor. The case for an app is volume and repetition, not the deadline.

For a one off run, use our free generator. Paste your SKUs or barcodes into the free barcode label generator, pick your label sheet, and download a print ready PDF. No account, no store connection, nothing stored. It is the same renderer the app uses, so it is also the cheapest way to check your printer and your label stock before you commit to any app at all.

If you would rather not do it yourself

We do this migration for stores as a fixed price job. Same people who wrote this page. You pay when the work is delivered and you have checked it, never up front.

History and supplier rescue, $49. Every report exported and organised, plus the supplier records typed into a clean spreadsheet, which is the part with no export button.
Label template rebuild, $150. Your label rebuilt at the exact size you actually use, with a test sheet you print on your own printer before you trust it.
The whole move, $300. Both of the above, your receiving flow rebuilt on native purchase orders and transfers and tested end to end, and a one page instruction sheet for whoever receives stock.

Most jobs come back inside two working days. Tell us your store size and which step you are stuck on and you get a straight yes or no, with a firm price, the same day: aislekit@gmail.com.

This page is one part of the complete Stocky exit checklist, which covers all six steps in order.