Does any of this describe your operation?
- The same pick error types recur regularly — wrong SKU, wrong quantity, wrong location
- Packing mistakes are discovered by customers after delivery, not by the warehouse team before despatch
- Despatch is confirmed as a manual system update after the physical shipment — sometimes hours later
- Error rates increase noticeably during peak periods or when temporary staff are working
- Customer service handles a consistent volume of contacts about wrong items, missing items or duplicate shipments
- Investigating and correcting fulfilment errors takes more team time than preventing them would
- You don’t know who is making the mistakes
If any of these are true, the warehouse fulfilment process has preventable failure modes at pick, pack and despatch — that barcode scanning guided confirmation would eliminate.
“What we need is speed and accuracy, what we have is a system that breaks under pressure and is driven by local knowledge.”
Warehouse Manager, B2B fulfilment business
Root cause: Pick, pack and despatch errors occur at each step in the process where the action is confirmed by attention rather than by scan.
Attention is finite and declines under pressure.
A scan confirmation cannot be bypassed and does not decline under pressure. The error rate in an attention-based process will always increase when volume increases or when less experienced staff are working.
The error rate in a scan-confirmed process is stable because the guidance is consistent.
Stok.ly’s warehouse app can be set to require scan confirmation at every critical step.
The pick cannot be completed without scanning the correct SKU barcode. The pack cannot be confirmed without scanning every item against the order.
The despatch cannot be closed without the carrier label generated and the tracking number recorded.
Errors are caught at the moment they would occur, not by the customer three days later.
Trust your stock. Transfer with confidence. Control orders. Fulfill every day like clockwork.
Scan-confirmed picking — wrong items caught at the moment of selection
The most common pick error is the wrong SKU: a picker selects an adjacent item, a similar-looking product or a variant of the correct item.
In a memory-based process, this error leaves the warehouse in a sealed carton for a customer to discover.
In a scan-guided process, it is caught the moment the wrong barcode is scanned.
In Stok.ly, the pick step requires scanning the item barcode at the pick location.
The system compares the scan to the expected SKU. If they match, the pick is confirmed and the next step is presented.
If they do not match, the pick is rejected immediately on the device, a red error message shows and an error sound is heard.
The picker resolves the mismatch before proceeding. The error never makes it into the carton.
Pack verification — every item confirmed before the carton is sealed
A wrong or missing item discovered by the customer at delivery creates a return, a replacement despatch, a customer service contact and a damaged relationship.
The same discovery made in the warehouse before the carton is sealed takes thirty seconds to correct.
The difference is whether pack contents are verified by scan before the carton is confirmed closed.
In Stok.ly, the packing step can be set to require every item to be scanned against the order manifest.
When all items are confirmed, the carton can be sealed.
If an item is scanned that is not on the order, the system flags it immediately.
If a required item has not been scanned, the system prevents the carton from being closed.
Wrong-item and missing-item packing errors are caught in the warehouse.
“I like that the program is very fast. The stock app is easy to use in the warehouse, and it makes our work much quicker.”
Verified G2 review, 5 stars
Despatch confirmation — at the point of shipment, not after it
A despatch confirmed manually hours after the physical shipment creates a window during which the order record is out of date, tracking information is unavailable and customer service cannot answer shipment queries.
The delay is not an operational necessity — it is a consequence of the despatch step being disconnected from the physical act of handing the parcel to the carrier.
In Stok.ly, despatch is confirmed from the warehouse app at the point of physical shipment.
The box is packed, the label is generated and printed and despatch is confirmed with one click.
The tracking number is linked to the order record immediately.
Your ecommerce channel is updated to dispatched status, the tracking code is sent to your customer.
There is no separate manual update required after the event.
See also: Courier, Despatch and Tracking Updates Keep Creating Customer Service Issues.
How Stok.ly eliminates pick, pack and despatch errors
| Capability | What it controls | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Scan-confirmed picking | Item barcode scanned at pick location; wrong SKU rejected immediately on device | Wrong-SKU and wrong-quantity pick errors eliminated at point of selection, not discovered at packing or by the customer |
| Pack verification by scan | Every item scanned against order manifest; carton cannot be confirmed sealed until all items match | Wrong-item and missing-item packing errors caught in the warehouse before despatch |
| Despatch from warehouse app | Carrier assigned, label generated and tracking number recorded from the device at point of shipment | Despatch confirmed at point of physical shipment; order record updated immediately; no separate manual step |
| Immediate error flagging | Incorrect scans, quantity mismatches and order discrepancies flagged on the handheld device immediately | Errors are caught and resolved in the warehouse; no downstream customer service contact required to identify them |
| Audit trail per action | Every pick, pack and despatch timestamped with team member identity and scan event | Error investigation is a lookup; root cause analysis is accurate; training interventions are targeted |
| Real-time order and inventory update | Every confirmed warehouse action updates the order record and inventory immediately | Order status, tracking information and stock counts always reflect the current warehouse state |
Current approach versus Stok.ly
| Current approach | What tends to break | Stok.ly |
|---|---|---|
| Picking by location memory or printed list without scan confirmation | Wrong SKU and wrong quantity errors occur; rate increases under volume pressure | Scan confirmation at pick: wrong item rejected immediately; picker cannot proceed without correct scan |
| Pack contents checked by visual inspection or packer attention | Wrong and missing items sealed into cartons; error discovered by customer at delivery | Pack verification by scan: every item confirmed against order before carton can be closed |
| Despatch confirmed manually after the physical shipment | Hours between shipment and system confirmation; tracking not available to customer service | Despatch confirmed from warehouse app at point of shipment; tracking linked to order immediately |
| Error rate accepted as a normal operational cost | Customer service, returns and re-despatch cost more than preventing errors would | Scan-guided process eliminates the failure modes that produce errors; error rate falls structurally |
| Error investigation requires reconstructing the fulfilment event | Root cause of repeated errors unknown; training interventions untargeted | Audit trail identifies error type, timing and team member immediately; targeted response possible |
| Temporary staff produce more errors than experienced staff | Peak periods produce higher error rates regardless of effort | Guided process works at the same accuracy regardless of experience; peak periods produce same error rate as off-peak |
“We have gone from a pen and paper warehouse to a completely digital system that has streamlined our business immensely.”
Verified G2 review, 5 stars — Read on G2
Who this is for
- Warehouse teams whose pick error rate is a known operational cost rather than an eliminated failure mode
- Operations managers who investigate packing complaints from customers as a regular activity
- Growing fulfilment businesses where peak period error rates are materially higher than off-peak error rates
- Businesses with temporary or new warehouse staff where the guided process is needed to maintain accuracy independent of experience
- Businesses where customer service contacts about wrong, missing or duplicate items represent a measurable proportion of total contacts
Who this is not for
Very low-volume warehouses with a single picker and packer handling a small number of daily orders where visual verification is practical and the scan-confirmation overhead exceeds the error-prevention benefit. Stok.ly’s guided pick, pack and despatch adds the most value where volume, SKU count, staff variation or peak pressure makes attention-based accuracy unreliable.
G2 Customer Reviews
What do you like best about Stok.ly – Inventory-Centric Cloud ERP?
“we have been a user for the last 4 years and we cannot think of life without it for our retail business. it makes listing to shopify and other marketplaces easy, keeps inventory accurate online and the POS is easy to use. accurate inventory across all sales channels is the big win for us.”
Order management and inventory ERP software for growing retail, wholesale and distribution businesses.
Frequently asked questions
Why do pick and pack errors increase as order volume grows?
Pick and pack errors increase with volume because the processes that prevent them rely on human attention, and attention per order decreases as orders per hour increases. A picker selecting by memory will occasionally select the wrong SKU — but the probability rises as pressure to move faster increases. Scan-guided confirmation removes the attention dependency: the system requires a correct scan before each step proceeds, regardless of volume or pace.
What is scan-guided picking and how does it prevent pick errors?
Scan-guided picking requires the picker to scan the barcode of each item at the point of selection. The system compares the scanned barcode to the expected SKU. If they match, the pick is confirmed. If they do not, the pick is rejected immediately on the handheld device. The picker cannot move to the next step without resolving the mismatch. The wrong-SKU error is eliminated at the moment of selection.
How does Stok.ly verify pack contents before a carton is sealed?
Stok.ly’s pack verification step requires the packer to scan every item against the order manifest. Each scan matches the item to an order line. When all lines are confirmed, the packing step closes. If an item not on the order is scanned, the system flags it immediately. If a required item has not been scanned, the system prevents the carton from being confirmed closed until the discrepancy is resolved.
How does Stok.ly handle despatch confirmation?
Despatch in Stok.ly is confirmed from the warehouse handheld app at the point of physical shipment. The team selects the carrier, generates the shipping label, and confirms despatch on the device. The tracking number is linked to the order record immediately. The order status updates to despatched. Shipping notifications are triggered automatically. No manual update is required after the physical despatch.
What pick error rate does Stok.ly achieve?
Customers using Stok.ly’s scan-guided warehouse execution report pick error rates below 1%. The scan-confirmation process eliminates wrong-SKU and wrong-quantity errors at the point of selection. Errors that do occur are typically procedural — damaged barcodes, misidentified multi-pack items — rather than the attention-related errors that dominate manual processes.
How does Stok.ly maintain accuracy with temporary or new warehouse staff?
The scan-guided process provides the same direction to a new starter as to an experienced picker. Staff do not need product knowledge, location familiarity or warehouse experience to pick, pack and despatch accurately. Accuracy depends on following the guided process, not on the individual’s experience. Peak periods and new staff produce the same error rate as off-peak experienced staff.
How does Stok.ly’s warehouse app audit trail support error investigation?
Every warehouse action in Stok.ly is recorded with a timestamp, the team member’s identity and the specific scan event. When an error is reported, the audit trail identifies the specific pick, pack or despatch event, when it occurred and who performed it. Error investigation is a lookup, not a reconstruction. Training interventions can be targeted accurately rather than applied to the whole team.
How does Stok.ly compare to Orderwise for warehouse pick, pack and despatch?
Orderwise’s warehouse functionality is built on a Windows-based PDA system many customers describe as technically dated. The guided pick and pack capability exists but the platform’s broader limitations make it unsustainable long-term for growing businesses. Stok.ly provides modern Android-based guided pick, pack, despatch and goods-in as part of a unified platform connected to live inventory and order management.
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Contact Information
All our sales, support and development team are located in Hereford and Cheltenham in the U.K. Please submit the contact form and we will contact you within the same business day.