Streamline Shipping With Pick, Pack, and Ship

No one wants to wait months for their package to arrive, and you want to ship as many products as possible to maximize profits. Both you and your customers benefit from an efficient, streamlined order fulfillment process. That’s why it’s important to follow pick, pack, and ship best practices.

If you’re not familiar with the pick-pack-ship process, it’s simply the three-step procedure that occurs after a customer orders from an eCommerce platform. The retailer finds the item in their warehouse inventory (pick), packs it for shipment (pack), and sends it to the customer (ship).

The definition seems simple enough, but there’s a lot that goes into each step. So, we created this beginner’s guide to thepick, pack, and ship process to help you get more familiar with best practices.

1. Pick

Once a customer orders an item from your store, your warehouse workers need to find what your customer purchased. This process is tougher when you’re working with a large inventory. So, many warehouses use a warehouse management software (WMS) tool to help them find items fast.

Effective picking techniques are crucial in saving time, money, and labor. On average, order picking accounts for 55% of a warehouse worker’s labor time. By decreasing the amount of time a worker spends picking every single order, you can decrease that 55% and give them more time for other duties.

Whether you use a WMS or not, you should follow these tips to streamline the “pick” stage. Help your “pickers” by giving them:

• Handheld barcode scanners that help them pinpoint the exact product.
• A detailed map of the warehouse that shows where you store different item types (e.g. shoes are in this section, pants in another section, etc.)
• Strategically organized items, for example, put your most popular items in an easy-to-find location.
• Picking routes that decrease the amount of time workers spend wandering your warehouse. You can mark them on the warehouse map.
• Easy access to a sufficient number of pallets or containers so pickers can retrieve more items in less time.
• Picking strategies that boost productivity in each scenario.

Now, let’s dig a bit deeper into picking strategies. Choosing the wrong strategy for an order is one of the most common culprits behind warehouse inefficiency. Consider how to use the following strategies.

Credit: Pexels

Piece Picking

Piece picking is the most common and straightforward method. It’s when your picker travels to the item’s location, pulls it off the shelf, and carries it out. Similar to how you might find something at the grocery store. This works for small orders, but it can be inefficient for larger batches. 

Discrete Picking

Discrete picking is a lot like piece picking. A piece picker picks one item at a time and may work on multiple orders. Whereas, a discrete picker picks one item for one order at a time. This is time-consuming but very accurate. It’s good for high-value items that need perfect accuracy.

Batch Picking

Batch picking reduces the amount of time your picker spends locating items. Batch pickers collect items for multiple orders at the same time. It’s a good choice for items located near the back of your warehouse. Batch pickers typically use hand carts or pallets to carry items.

Wave Picking

Also known as cluster picking, wave picking occurs when pickers are scheduled to collect orders in intervals. These intervals are your “waves.” Typically, pickers collect items for 3-12 orders per interval. It’s good for suppliers that get several high volume orders per day.

Zone Picking

Zone picking is also referred to as the “pick and pass” method. It’s when you divide your warehouse into specific zones and assign pickers to each zone. You can train your pickers to become specialists in their assigned zone. This helps reduce time spent locating items.