Pick waves are groups of shipments whose items can be gathered (“picked”) by fulfillers or store associates at the same time, usually based on similar product type or location. Using a wave will update the status of all shipments in the wave once picking is complete. This allows fulfillers to efficiently gather items, validate stock, and prepare orders.
Pick lists are internal documents generated by the Fulfiller UI for either individual pickup orders or pick waves that store associates can use as a reference when collecting items to prepare for a customer. Pickup (BOPIS) shipments have Print Pick List as a necessary step in their fulfillment flow, while Ship to Home (STH) shipments can be added to the lists of pick waves during wave generation.
Packing slips are a page of printed order information that is included in a shipment package when it is shipped to a customer, and thus are only used in Ship to Home fulfillment.
For additional information about the overall fulfillment process and comprehensive flow charts, including what to do in the event of out-of-stock items, see the Fulfillment Method Types guide.
STH vs. BOPIS Picking
In STH fulfillment, the fulfiller can pick items in bulk as part of a wave or as a single shipment. There is no specific step in the standard business process manager flow that is dedicated to picking; this occurs as part of the Validate Stock step. Once the fulfiller confirms stock and has the items in hand, the packing slip can be printed and added to the package. Pick waves are most common at larger fulfillers with a higher concentration of shipment. A pick sheet can be printed or viewed digitally, then merchandise is picked for all shipments and the items are sorted into their packages.
On the other hand, a BOPIS shipment has a “Print Pick List” step that requires the pick list to be viewed before stock can be validated by the fulfiller. This shipment can be added to a wave or have its own pick sheet printed to be collected by itself.
See the process flows below for a visual depiction of these differences.
Enable Pick and Pack
Before using picking and packing in the Fulfiller UI, those features must be enabled for a location group. This configuration is located in the Admin UI at Orders > Location Groups.
Select the appropriate location group to open its details and then click Config Settings. The picking and packing configurations are listed at the bottom under Other Settings, which allow these features to be enabled for the STH or BOPIS flows.
Note that if you intend to split packing slips, as explained later in this guide, then "Auto generate packing list" must be disabled. If enabled, then it will trigger packing slips to print automatically and so you will not be able to create multiple slips for different packages in one shipment.
