What each red badge is counting, and how to clear it.
The small red counters around Artmire all mean one thing: something is waiting for you to do it.
The badge on your picture in the top bar is the sum of every red badge inside your menu. If it shows 3, there are exactly three things waiting, and opening the menu shows you where.
It follows that a clean avatar means a clean account. If the avatar shows nothing, there is nothing hidden inside waiting for you — that is the whole point of the total.
Parcels still on their way are not counted. A red badge means something you can act on, and there is nothing to do about a parcel in the carrier’s hands — it is on the In progress tab of your Deliveries whenever you want to look.
Dashboard, Favourites, Account, Delivery Addresses and Account Credit never carry a badge. They hold things you own, not things that need doing.
Your shop picture carries its own total, summing the badges in the seller menu:
Buying and selling are counted separately, so a busy shop never buries a message about something you bought.
By doing the thing, not by dismissing it. Read the message, answer the offer, pay the order, add the tracking number, write the review — the counter goes down on its own.
There is no way to mark a badge as seen without acting on it. That is deliberate: a counter you can wave away stops meaning anything within a week.
Reload the page. The counters update live while you work, but a tab left open for a long time can drift from what has happened since.
If it still looks wrong after a reload, tell us what the badge said and what you found when you opened it — that is exactly the detail we need.