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Your inventory and shipments are always up to date, your customers are happy to receive just what they ordered with impeccable speed and errors are conspicuous by their absence. That can happen in the Ideal World, but in the real world there is more than one thing to consider when we talk about efficiency and avoiding errors that, however small they seem, trigger a series of extra costs for the operation of your E-commerce.
El Pick and Pack It is one of the core parts of your sales process, without that your product will practically never reach your customers. If you are starting to make pick and pack or if you already have time doing it but you want to fine-tune your processes, this article will show you the most common errors, confirm your basics and we will also share best practices for your online store
What is Pick and Pack?
This is what you call an inventory management process that consists of 3 steps within a supply chain. Literally as it sounds - Pick - Pack, without forgetting the first step, which is to receive the order in your system. Below we share the definition of these processes:
1. You receive the order: With an inventory management system, you control your warehouse with your store, so your inventory “is alive” and connected to your store. Thus, when a customer places an order, the inventory system in the warehouse is notified and generates a list for picking
2. Picking: It's When You pick up the items in your inventory, a person from your team takes the list with the order and searches the items in the warehouse to process the order
3. Packing: It refers to the process of Pack the product, the collected items are taken to the packing station in the warehouse. We recommend that you confirm that the items are correct and then proceed to carry out the packaging and, once completed, have the package ready for the package that will deliver the package.
Remember that your warehouse and process often depend on how much you sell and the stock you have, but this process is key in any store.
How does the Pick of your products work?
It depends a lot on the distribution of your inventory, for example, if it is of high volume, it is from your physical store, you are starting out, among other factors. According to these points, the pick can be done in different ways, which is why we will explain the types to you and based on this you can choose the one that matches your logistics operation:
Picking by piece:
If your E-commerce is growing or you have an average volume of shipments, picking by piece is ideal for your business. Because of its strategic role, in this process you select the order and pick the necessary items from the inventory, the key is to select one order at a time!
Block picking:
Maybe it's already a headache to do it one by one, if so, it's time to use block picking. The items in more than one order are selected together, either because of their location in the warehouse or because they must be packaged in a certain way.
💡 #CubboTip The ideal is to use it when you already have a high volume of orders and the best thing to use this way of picking is to have software to help you or with a Fulfillment logistics partner
🚀 #CubboHack Using the Block Picking You Can Optimize Collection Times for Each Order And you take advantage of the arrangement of your inventory, and your team will have a better idea of where to go and what to pick up with an ordered picking list
Already having these basic notions, you will surely wonder which option is the best for your E-commerce and for your current process, but in order to decide it, let's understand the main mistakes that can happen to you.
Picking Errors
It's not just the economic cost, it's the prestige of your E-commerce that's at stake, so we list the bad practices that can affect your operations and of course your sales:
- Cost of sale: Instead of retaining and potentially adding another product, you'll have to work harder to get sales
- Warehouse costs: Your team has already invested hours in the process and you will have to invest it again in the inventory count to correct the error
- Returns: In case of return, DYou must document and return each order. This reverse logistics process involves cost Extra shipping due to the return slip
- Customer Support: Not only will they have a hard time on your customer service team, the time spent costs you
- Lost sales: As if it were not enough for them to abandon the cart, with these experiences, they are surely looking for another brand
It hurts to read it and if it has happened to you you know how complicated it is to deal with this situation, especially when they are things that could surely have been avoided. So, the question here is: What led your pick and pack team to have these errors?
In these cases, the human factor is latent and it is not something that stops happening, but there are other factors that complement and explain the error, for example:
1. Don't prioritize and plan the picking session
2. By having many people and locations, you will lose process efficiency
3. Pick an element with a different identifier/code than the one marked
4. Selecting the wrong product in the right location, meaning you may have a mess in the warehouse
5. Skip order details
6. End the picking session leaving incomplete orders
Don't be overwhelmed if you saw a couple that happened in your store, even the best of them happen to them. The important thing here is to take action on the matter and that in your daily life you take advantage of each order to make it a super experience for your customers.
🚀 Remember that the first purchase is just the beginning of a long relationship between your buyers and your brand.
Best Practices in the Picking Process
We share these #CubboTips so that you can implement them in order to improve your processes and stand out in the shopping experience of your customers:
- Use an inventory management system that allows you to keep your inventory always in sync
- Add padlocks to confirm the picking session... psst in Cubbo We Have 4 Logical Insurance
- Organize your inventory to avoid human errors, work on the nomenclature and code of your products to avoid confusion with your team
- Remember that the Unboxing It's quite an experience, if you can include this for your customers
- Don't miss an opportunity and add an advertising graft. La Rebuy It's key and these details make the difference
- It offers same-day deliveries, your customer wants it and if your pick and pack process is efficient, this will be a piece of cake
Don't forget it! If your operational capacity has been exceeded by the number of shipments and you need a hand, it's probably time to think about having a logistics partner like Cubbo Which will help you with logistics processes so that you can be more efficient throughout the Fulfillment process
