It’s highly imperative to understand the value of a smooth and efficient picking process at the warehouse as it can have a deep impact on the bottom line. Therefore picking optimization should be considered one of the most crucial aspects to improve the customer experience and keep a check on the picker efficiency at the same time. 

Let’s decode the basics of the pick list, the challenges in the row, and finally, the right ways to increase picking efficiency in the long run.

What’s a Pick List? 

A pick lists can be defined as an all-inclusive document sent to the warehouse pickers for order fulfillment. The list consists of the items that are required to be retrieved from storage. Why is it required? Exactly how you need the right planning before execution, a pick list is the part of the plan which makes the picking process organized. Pick list optimization facilitates faster and more efficient order fulfillment along with a significant reduction in SLA breaches. 

Importance of Pick List

Pick list are crucial in e-commerce warehouse management, streamlining the order fulfillment process and enhancing overall efficiency. Here are five key points highlighting their importance:

• Order Accuracy and Fulfillment Efficiency: Pick list ensure the right products are selected and packed for each order.
• Optimized Warehouse Operations: Pick list help organize and optimize the picking process within the warehouse. This efficiency translates to higher productivity and cost savings.
• Batch Picking and Grouping: It helps expedite the picking process by enabling workers to pick multiple orders simultaneously, increasing productivity and reducing fulfillment times.
• Inventory Management and Stock Replenishment: Pick list are essential for real-time inventory tracking, providing valuable insights into stock levels, enabling timely restocking, and preventing stockouts or overstocks, ultimately improving supply chain efficiency.
• Data Analysis and Performance Tracking: Utilizing pick list allows data collection to identify bottlenecks, improve picking strategies, and enhance overall warehouse performance. It provides valuable insights for continuous process optimization and decision-making.

What are the Challenges of Pick List?

When the pick list is assigned to the warehouse picker, the process requires edge to edge tracking to gather picker insights and check the efficiency at the same time, however, a manual process lacks tracking which can lead to delays, errors and a messed up delivery. To optimize the pick list management, it’s advisable to have a warehouse management system recording your data, saving product images, adding in additional information required to ensure the pick list, having the right idea for quality control, and most importantly ensuring accurate picker activity from assigning the list, procuring the product, allocating it at the right place and ultimately delivering on time. 

Ways to Increase Warehouse Efficiency with Pick List

Optimizing warehouse operations is beyond necessity and for doing it right, it’s important to have a system that not only lets you manage the stocks but provides picker staff tracking as well. As efficient picking leads to delivery accuracy and a thorough streamlined process. 

Read: Essential WMS Features that let you Attain Operational Capabilities

As a business owner, if you’re in splits over declining growth rates or waning productivity, there are surely some adjustments that can help in making the picking process effective – 

1. Assigning Pick List to the Agent 

Once a pick list is ready to be assigned, consider assigning it to the right agent. When the picker is assigned manually, there can be more errors & delays as you can never track picker efficiency accurately, but, through incorporating a warehouse management solution, picker is assigned automatically through analyzing their regular activity logs and tracking the efficiency as well. Alongside,  the pick list can be assigned based on the order location or can be filtered based on the marketplace as well, for instance, you can assign picker location wise – Picker A for Delhi, Picker B for Bangalore etc. This will save time and get the deliveries done quickly and accurately. Also, if the picker is assigned based on the marketplaces such as Flipkart, Amazon etc., this again helps in quick deliveries and lesser SLA breach, and streamlined operations. This can further facilitate knowing where the process lacks and finding the reason for delivery delay loopholes, helping a business to streamline the order delivery process.

Read: Enhance the Operations of the Warehouse with Order Picking: Process and Methods

2. Consider Right Placement

Larger warehouses might have tons of products stored in and the placement of the products might be the prime reason for delays. Why? If the highest selling SKUs are kept at the extreme ends of a single warehouse, it might eat up heaps of time for the picking staff. Be wise in organizing your inventory in such a way that picking can be done faster. While in most cases inventory organization is done by SKU number, it’s always better to have it organized based on the probability of being bought together. This can save your time and ultimately get deliveries quicker.

3. Give a Thought to Storage Racks 

This might seem an underrated idea but can actually save you a lot of time! Picking up the right racks for your warehouse is another good option to consider. It’s also good to have elevated racks that are easy for the conveyor belts but, in case manual picking is your go-to, trust the floor racks which are easier and faster to access for the pickers. 

Final Thoughts

Pick list optimization is an integral part of every ecommerce business, though there’s a dire need to automate or digitize the warehouse processes to make order management, inventory management, and returns management more streamlined. Incorporating a warehouse management system (WMS) in your business can effectively help in making the supply chain run smooth and error free. A few adjustments in the way your warehouse is being operated can help in fewer errors and promote faster & more accurate deliveries.

Related read:

• What is a Warehouse Management System (WMS)?
• What are the challenges in Order Management?
• Healthcare Industry Challenges, Opportunities & Solutions in India

The post Pick List in E-commerce Warehouse Management – Importance, Challenges & Solutions appeared first on unicommerce.com.

Tracking the status of orders received via marketplaces and (D2C) websites is crucial for any business. The inability to easily track order status can lead to confusion, delays, and unhappy customers. Don’t let this happen to your e-commerce business.

In this guide, we’ll dive deep into the world of order management and processing and provide you with a step-by-step guide that covers everything from tracking orders to handling returns. So let’s get started!

E-commerce Order Management: A Brief Overview

Order management refers to the process of tracking, managing, and fulfilling customer orders, from the time they are placed until they are delivered. This includes tracking inventory, processing payments, shipping, tracking orders, handling returns and refunds, and providing customer service.

A robust e-commerce order management system (OMS) is essential for any e-commerce business. It ensures that orders are processed efficiently, inventory levels are accurately maintained, and customers are kept informed about every step of their order journey. By streamlining order processing, e-commerce businesses can improve customer satisfaction, reduce costs and improve overall efficiency, leading to a better bottom line.

Order Management Process Flow: Key Steps

• Step 1: Order Received on Marketplace or D2C Website
• Step 2: Order Details Received via APIs Sent to WMS
• Step 3: Creating the Picklist
• Step 4: Order Picking and Packing
• Step 5: Shipping the Order
• Step 6: The Post-Sales Follow-Up Process

The order management process starts with receiving an order and ends with ensuring the customer is happy with their purchase. Here are the key steps in this process:

Step 1: Order Received on Marketplace or D2C Website

The “Order Received” step marks the start of the order management process when a customer places an order on a marketplace or D2C website. At this point, it’s important to verify that all the necessary information is captured correctly, like customer details, item details, quantity, etc., and that the payment mode should be confirmed. This helps ensure that the order can be efficiently and effectively processed at the warehouse.

Read: How Honasa Consumer, the parent company of Mamaearth, attained a 99.99%+ Order Fulfillment rate for its D2C operations?

Step 2: Order Details Received via APIs Sent to WMS

Using APIs in order management helps businesses automate processes, improve accuracy, and streamline operations. For example, when an order is placed on a D2C website, the order details, such as customer information, item details, and shipping details, are sent via API to the warehouse.

This allows for real-time updates on inventory and order status and enables warehouse staff to quickly and efficiently pick, pack and ship the order.

Step 3: Creating the Picklist

Now that the order details are received, they can be passed on to warehouse staff through an automated process known as a picklist. This step typically takes place in the warehouse after an order has been received and the inventory has been updated in the warehouse management system (WMS).

The picklist is a document that includes all the information required to pick, pack and ship the order, such as product codes, quantities, and the precise location of the products in the warehouse, such as shelf details and batch numbers. Once this picklist is created, warehouse staff can use it to go to the relevant locations and physically pick the items required to fulfill the order.

Step 4: Order Picking and Packing

It’s time for warehouse staff to physically locate the items on the picklist and retrieve them from their storage location. Using a handheld scanner or a mobile device to scan each item’s barcode to ensure that the right products are picked and to update the WMS system.

Once the items have been picked, they are moved to the packing area, where they are inspected, packaged, and labeled for shipping. This process involves wrapping and packing the items securely in a box or a shipping envelope, adding any necessary padding or packaging materials, and attaching any required shipping labels or documentation.

Step 5: Shipping the Order

The order is picked and packed; it’s time to ship the order. There are typically three primary stages to the order shipment process:

• Stage 1: Order to Be Picked By Delivery Agent
• Stage 2: Order Picked and On the Way
• Stage 3: Order Delivered

Order to Be Picked By Delivery Agent: In this stage, the order is prepared for shipment, and the delivery agent is notified to pick up the package from the warehouse or fulfillment center.

Order Picked and On the Way: Now, the order has been picked up by the delivery agent and is on its way to the customer. The delivery agent tracks and monitors the order, and updates are sent to the OMS and the customer.

Order Delivered: The last phase of order fulfillment is the actual delivery of the package to the customer and updating the OMS with delivery details.

Read: How XYXX, One of the Leading Men’s Innerwear D2C brand Streamlined its Inventory and Order Management across 17+ marketplaces?

Step 6: The Post-Sales Follow-Up Process

The post-sales process is the final step in order management and is crucial in building and maintaining customer loyalty. This typically includes thanking the customer for their order and ensuring they are satisfied with the product.

In case of a return, several steps are taken to ensure the return process goes smoothly:

• Step 1: Return Initiated
• Step 2: Return Picked
• Step3: Return Received
• Step4: Return Processed

Return Initiated: The customer initiates the return process by contacting the customer service team, either through the marketplace or D2C website or by phone, to request a return. The customer has to provide the order number and a reason for the return.

Return Picked: Once the customer service team authorizes the return, a return pick-up is scheduled, and a delivery agent is dispatched to collect the returned item from the customer.

Return Received: When the order is picked up, it is received and inspected by the warehouse to ensure that it is in the same condition as when it was shipped. The return information is also updated in the warehouse management system (WMS).

Return Processed: After the item is received and checked, it is processed, and a refund, replacement, or credit note is issued to the customer based on the return policy and the condition of the item.
By having a well-defined and efficient post-sales follow-up process in place for returns, e-commerce businesses can ensure that customers can easily initiate and process returns.

Watch how Order Management System (OMS) helps in timely order fulfillment –

Wrapping Up!

Optimizing order management process flow is important for every e-commerce business. Only a fully integrated OMS can automate processes and provide real-time updates on inventory and order status.

When choosing your order management system, it’s essential to check if it provides ready integrations with your shipping providers and marketplaces, as this will help you focus on growing your business rather than worrying about order processing and fulfillment.

Choose wisely and use technology to keep your e-commerce business moving forward!

Explore our platforms:

1. Integrated logistics management system
2. Automated payment reconciliation system

Related read:

• What is Order Management?
• How to Reduce Warehouse Cost with Right Automation
• Top 6 Multichannel Order Management System Trends
• How to Pick the Best Order Management System (OMS) for Your E-commerce Business?
• Why is an Order Management System Important For Your E-commerce Business?
• Top 10 Key Benefits of an E-commerce Order Management System
• Top 7 Challenges of Order Management System in E-commerce

The post What is Order Management and Processing? A Step-by-Step Guide appeared first on unicommerce.com.