At TradeGecko, no founder gets left behind. Introducing the Founder Plan at  $39/month. Try it free!
At TradeGecko, no founder gets left behind. Introducing the Founder Plan at  $39/month. Try it free!
Support Contact us Log in
TradeGecko - inventory management software TradeGecko
  • Product
    • Core Features
    • Quick Overview
    • In Depth Features
    • Inventory Control
    • Order Management
    • Purchasing
    • Warehouse Management
    • Reporting
    • Manufacturing
    • SECONDARY_LEVEL
      • Powerful Tools
      • B2B eCommerce Platform
      • Mobile Sales App
      • TradeGecko Payments
      • TradeGecko Connect
  • Integrations
    • Connect With The Best Apps
    • View All Integrations
    • Shopify
    • Xero
    • QuickBooks
    • WooCommerce
    • Amazon
    • FBA
    • ShipStation
  • Pricing
  • Customers
    • Customer Case Studies
    • View All Case Studies
    • Health, Wellness & Cosmetics
    • Fashion & Accessories
    • Sports & Recreation
    • Food & Beverage
    • Gifts, Toys & Games
    • Electronics
  • Resources
    • Free Resources
    • Learning Center
    • Free Tools
    • Free eBooks
    • Free Webinars
    • Videos
    • FAQs
  • Blog
Support Contact us Log in
Book a demo
Start a free TradeGecko trial for 14 days

Further reading

  • Guide to Inventory Management
  • What is inventory forecasting?
  • What is multichannel retailing?
  • What is consignment?
  • What is backordering?
  • What is safety stock and how do you calculate it?
  • Small business inventory management
  • Reorder Point (ROP) Calculator - Know When to Reorder
  • Introduction to Carrying Costs
  • What does dead stock mean?
  • What is vendor managed inventory
  • Pick, Pack, and Ship
  • What is the difference between 3PL and 4PL?
  • What is inventory kitting?
  • What is ERP inventory management?
  • What is Just in Time inventory management?
  • ABC inventory management
  • What is a perpetual inventory system?
  • The bullwhip effect
  • Inventory cycle count
  • Days Inventory Outstanding
  • Inventory valuation methods
  • Pipeline vs decoupling inventory
  • Order Management 101

Download your free eBook on Introduction to Inventory Management

Pick, Pack, and Ship - Making Order Fulfillment Easy

Order fulfillment is like shopping for groceries. You find yourself wandering the supermarket from one end to the other, eyes skimming over the contents of every aisle as you look for items on your shopping list.

pick pack ship supermarket

The next thing you know, a planned 15-minute grocery run has taken you an hour because you keep circling back to the pick up items you’re missing. 

But the horror’s not over yet. Once you get home, you find out you missed out on buying food for your cat… and you’ve got to make another trip to the store to feed your pet.

If that sounds like your warehouse situation, it might be time to look into establishing an efficient pick, pack, and ship system.

Get your information right

When it comes to picking, packing, and shipping, the aim is to provide your warehouse pickers with the information they need for maximum efficiency. After all, they’re the crucial first step to successful order fulfillment.

When compiling a pick list, include information of exactly where every product is (aisle, shelf, row, bin). This will make it easy for your pickers to find the right item for every order.

If you’re already using an inventory management solution, it’ll be able to pull all your orders from across all channels, and generate a pick list for you.

If you’re looking to further improve the efficiency of your warehouse pickers, consider doing away with paper picking slips, if you’re still using these. Going digital will let you incorporate other advantages like intelligent picking routes that’ll provide your pickers with the shortest, most efficient route to take as they go about their work.

To ensure you always have the right information on hand, you’ll want to take a leaf from Amazon’s playbook and key in the location of every product as soon as stockers place it on the shelves.

Even then, you want to have the right items in the right place. That means you want to put your top-selling items in easy-to-reach places so your warehouse pickers will be able to fill those orders quickly.

Also, if you have items that tend to sell well together, keep them near each other so your staff will be able to grab them at the same time. In fact, if they’re selling so well as a pair, combining them under a new SKU may speed things up even further.

Shipping integrations - say goodbye to post office lines

If you’re a small business, you may be operating out of a garage or a home office, writing addresses by hand on packages to be shipped out.

Getting a shipping integration means you won’t have strained and ink-stained fingers anymore, since you’ll be able to print out your shipping labels and stick them on your packages.

By printing out your own shipping labels, you’re saving yourself the trouble of having to stand in line at the post office. You’ll be able to select the carrier you want, arrange a pick up, and leave everything in the hands of the courier.

Plus, by printing your own shipping labels, you’ll be able to document the shipping process. With a paper trail behind you that covers everything from orders to shipments, you’ll be well equipped to field questions from customers with missing packages, or while dealing with taxes.

Read next: What Is Inventory Management?

Need a Smarter Way to Manage Your Inventory?

Related resources:

  • Gain inventory control with multiple warehouse management software and tactics
  • IKEA’s inventory management strategy: how does IKEA do it?
  • 7 inventory management wins to give thanks for this year

Inventory Management Software for your growing business

All your products, customers, orders and transactions synced and secure in the cloud.

Get started
We're hiring!

Subscribe to our Masters of Commerce newsletter for expert insights

Company

  • About Us
  • Meet the Team
  • Careers
  • Press Kit

Contact

  • Contact Details
  • Email Us

Learn More

  • Support documents
  • Inventory Management
  • B2B eCommerce
  • Multichannel Sales
  • Status
  • FAQs

Partners

  • Become a Partner
  • Refer a Business
  • Partner Portal
  • Find a Partner
  • Email the Team
  • Developers & API

  • Site Map
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • SLA
  • GDPR
© 2019 TradeGecko Pte. Ltd.

Feedback

Questions? Comments? We’d love to hear from you...