Pick and pack is a warehousing term. It describes how warehouses gather and package inventory in preparation for shipping after an order has been placed from an online store.
Picking uses a designated pick list to find the appropriate quantities of each product from its respective locations in a warehouse. Packing, on the other hand, involves placing items into the proper box, along with the necessary packing materials and packing slip. All of this must happen before the package is labeled and shipped to the end customer.
While there are a number of factors that affect how viable pick and pack will be for your ecommerce platform, there are plenty of advantages to this particular fulfillment process. More specifically, pick and pack offers benefits like improved speed, greater efficiency, better warehouse organization, and exceptional accuracy throughout your supply chain.
Although your warehouse workers will need to be trained on the pick and pack process, once they’re familiar with this method, you’re sure to see greater packing and shipping speed. That’s because pick and pack enhances your order management in no time at all. Once employees know exactly what to look for to fulfill an order (and where to find it), they’ll be quick to attach shipping labels and move packages on to the next phase of fulfillment.
Simply put, the more often your warehouse team uses the pick and pack system, the more comfortable they’ll become with this technique. So in conjunction with improved speed, your warehouse will also enjoy greater efficiency (without sacrificing quality). And when you can expect high-quality results with every order, customer satisfaction won’t be far behind.
An organized warehousing facility or fulfillment center is really the foundation for a successful pick and pack system. When all inventory items in the master cartons are clearly labeled (or collected in similar groups), it makes light work of order fulfillment. While organization of the pick and pack system itself can’t necessarily be attributed to your warehouse team, it’s still crucial to the functionality and profitability of your ecommerce business.
Pick and pack services offer exceptional order accuracy, which is great news considering retailers can’t afford to ship the wrong items. If a customer orders Product X, then Product Y isn’t a suitable alternative. If you run out of Product X, packers should wait to ship orders (or send a partial order) instead of choosing a random replacement. Fortunately, with an organized warehouse and a well-trained team, you can ensure that’s how pack operations are handled.