You may have already heard of pick and pack services, and you may even know of some businesses in your niche or industry which have already taken advantage of such a service themselves. But if you are still in the dark about what a picking and packing service can really do for your business, you should know that it can help your business in many different ways. Pick and pack services can, for instance, allow you to benefit from a more streamlined and more efficient order fulfilment system, and it can also give you the benefit of storage for your inventory and items, faster delivery to your customers, and more. Here are quick facts you should know about pick and pack services – and why it works.
What it really is
A pick and pack service is a type of service focusing on order fulfilment which many ecommerce businesses have made use of to ship their orders to different parts of the globe. Instead of preparing as well as shipping pallets and cases of items, the retailer or ecommerce business can depend on the workers and staff of a pick and pack service who will be responsible for pulling (or picking) individual products or items from a warehouse and then placing them in containers or boxes (packing) for delivery to specific consumers or customers. The entire process gives workers easy and convenient access to different items, and when the process is well organised, it can save you a lot of time, money, and resources.
Why it works
Picking and packing services will run and operate smoothly if there is a high degree of organisation, coordination, and meticulous attention to detail. When the order fulfilment of your business is streamlined through a pick and pack service, you can fill the highest number of customer orders in the shortest period of time, and this allows you to have happier customers as well. One sure way to make pick and pack services work for you is to choose a good pick and pack partner – one which is efficient, has the proper strategy for picking and packing based on your needs, and has the proper warehouse space and size for your goods and the volume of your orders.
A look at some picking and packing strategies
There are different strategies available for a picking and packing service to work. The key, therefore, is for you to utilise the best picking and packing strategy for your needs, based on the recommendation of the pick and pack partner you choose. One standard picking and packing strategy is piece picking, which is ideal for beginners in order fulfilment because it is a straightforward process. The workers will simply pick an order as it comes, and they will take this order to the warehouse where they will fill it by getting (picking) items from the shelves to complete the order. It’s worth noting, though, that this process or strategy is best used for small warehouses and small orders; it can be inefficient if you have a large volume of orders.
Another strategy for picking and packing is batch picking, which is often used by warehouses that have more traffic. Batch picking is more efficient than piece picking, and it involves the picking of items for individual customer orders. The difference between batch picking and piece picking is that more than one order is fulfilled at a specific time.
There are other strategies you can take advantage of, such as zone picking, wave picking, and more; it’s best to consult with your pick and pack partner, so you know which strategy works best for you.
