The Items panel on an order: Start picking!, the Location dropdown for each item, and the Verify button.
Once your sales channels are connected and your catalog and inventory are set up, you are ready to pick and ship orders with SKULabs. There are several ways to fulfill orders. Each workflow fits different business needs, so compare them with your warehouse team.
Picking order items
Before you pack and ship an order, you pick its items from your inventory. The main thing to weigh when you choose a picking method is speed versus accuracy.
With barcode scanning
Scanning an item barcode during picking checks off the item.
To pick an order with barcode scanning:
Open the order from the Processing tab on the Orders page.
Click Start picking!
For each item, select the location you are picking from in its Location dropdown.
Scan the items' barcodes.
If an item is in more than one location, select the location before you scan the item. This makes sure stock is deducted from the right location when the order ships. If an item has no barcode, click Verify next to the item. This clears the item without a scan.
When all items are cleared, the order is marked as cleared. You can then ship the order or move on to the next order in the processing list.
With paper lists
A printed pick list combines the items of the selected orders.
Sometimes scanning items is not possible or not wanted. For those cases, SKULabs offers paper picking documents.
For one order, open the order and use its Print menu to print a packing slip, invoice or pick list to pick from.
For several orders, check the orders in the orders table, open the Actions menu, and choose a document:
Print packing slips: order details such as the customer's address and shipping method, plus each item's name, SKU, quantity ordered and quantity shipped. Often packed in the box for the customer.
Print pick list: all items and quantities for the selected orders in one list. Your team picks in bulk, then splits the items into their orders.
Print individual pick lists: one short pick list per order, with item names, SKUs, picking locations and quantities.
Shipping orders
Scanning items while picking is recommended for accuracy, but SKULabs does not require it. You can skip picking and go straight to creating a shipment and printing a label.
When an order ships, SKULabs marks it as shipped on its sales channel (with tracking, if the channel supports it) and deducts the shipped items from inventory. Other settings can print packing slips automatically and email customers a shipping confirmation.
Single orders
To create a shipping label for one order, open the order from the processing list and click Ship. The Add shipment window opens.
The Add shipment window shows the shipping address, the address type (residential, commercial or international), the requested shipping method, the amount the customer paid for shipping, and the shipment details you can change. Every shipment needs dimensions, weight and a shipping method. Optional features include signature confirmation, carrier insurance, Saturday delivery and more.
SKULabs fills in dimensions and weight automatically, in this order:
Memorized shipment: if the same item or combination of items shipped before with the memorize option on, SKULabs uses the memorized dimensions and weight.
Item values: if one item ships alone, SKULabs uses its dimensions and weight. If several items ship together, SKULabs adds up their weights.
Store defaults: if neither of the above applies, SKULabs uses the default shipment values in the store's settings.
Shipping rules can then change these values. For the full details, see Advanced shipping configuration.
Check the values before you buy the label, and fix any that are missing or wrong. To skip typing dimensions, pick one of your saved boxes from the menu next to the dimension fields. To read the weight from a connected USB scale, click the button next to the weight fields. When everything is correct, click Ship!
Multiple orders
To create labels for several orders, check the orders in the orders table, open the Actions menu and click Bulk ship orders. The window lists each order with its shipment settings.
If a shipment has missing or wrong values, click the orange pencil (Edit) button next to it to fix them. When every shipment is set up, click Ship & Notify Channel. SKULabs marks the orders as shipped, sends tracking to their sales channels, and prints all the labels at once.
Batch fulfillment
Batches are an alternative to the standard pick and ship workflow. A batch lets you pick, pack and ship several orders at once. This removes repeated steps and shortens your path through the warehouse, so each order takes less time.
A batch is a set of similar orders you fulfill together. The orders often share items, or their items are in the same picking locations. Each order in the batch is assigned to a bin on a picking cart, which you take through the warehouse in one path.
Batch picking uses your inventory locations to guide you through the warehouse in the best order. When all batch items are picked, you can print the shipping labels right away.
Batch picking on a phone: the screen shows the item to scan and the bin to place it in.
Batch hardware and settings
To get the most out of batches, give your pickers mobile devices paired with Bluetooth barcode scanners. They can then scan and verify items as they walk, without going back to a picking station. See our hardware recommendations.
Also set up each user's batch settings. These control which orders go into new batches, how many orders are added, whether packing slips print at the start, and more.
Batch picking and shipping
Connect your barcode scanner to your picking device (desktop, tablet or phone). Open a batch from the batches list, or check orders and choose Actions > Start batch.
Unlike single-order picking, batch picking guides you step by step. The page highlights one barcode at a time. Scan it once per unit until the item is cleared, then move on to the next highlighted item.
The guide moves you between orders, so watch which bin you place each item in. Scan the bin after the item to confirm you used the right bin. Set up bins on the Batches page, and print bin labels on the Printing page.