What is pick and pack?
Pick and pack is the two-part method warehouses use to fulfill an order: workers locate and gather the exact items requested, then box and label them for delivery. It exists because most orders contain a specific mix of products that must be assembled from many storage locations before they can ship.
The process shows up wherever goods move to a buyer, including e-commerce, retail replenishment, wholesale distribution, and manufacturing shipments. Demand keeps climbing, which is why the method matters. U.S. retail e-commerce sales reached $340.2 billion in the second quarter of 2026, accounting for 17.1% of total retail sales (U.S. retail e-commerce sales, U.S. Census Bureau, seasonally adjusted).
Getting orders out the door correctly starts with clean warehouse inventory management.
Key characteristics
- Two linked steps: picking locates and retrieves the right items and quantities, and packing boxes them with protective materials, a packing slip, and a shipping label.
- Multiple picking methods: the approach scales with order volume across piece, batch, zone, and wave picking. Teams choose based on how many orders and line items they handle. See how the warehouse picking and packing methods compare.
- Accuracy is the core metric: order accuracy is the key performance indicator (KPI) that separates strong operations from weak ones. Best-in-class distribution centers pick more than 99.68% of their orders correctly, according to the WERC 2025 DC Measures Report.
- A large, growing workforce: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation most closely tied to warehouse order picking, stockers and order fillers, numbered about 2.8 million U.S. workers in 2025 and is projected to grow 9% through 2035.
- Technology support: barcode scanning, route planning in a warehouse management system (WMS), and automation reduce errors and travel time. In a 2025 MHI and Deloitte survey of more than 700 supply chain leaders, 83% expected to adopt robotics and automation within five years.
Example
Picture a direct-to-consumer coffee roaster that sells single-origin beans online. When a shipment of green coffee arrives, the receiving team counts it, logs it, and stocks it in labeled bins.
A customer then orders two 12-ounce bags of a Colombian roast and one bag of an Ethiopian roast. A picker follows a scan-guided route, pulls the three bags from their bins, and confirms each barcode to verify the right items and quantities.
At the packing station, a worker boxes the bags, adds protective filler, drops in a packing slip, and applies the shipping label. The order moves to the carrier, and the roaster can hand overflow volume to a third-party logistics (3PL) fulfillment partner during peak season.
Related terms
FAQ
What are the four main pick and pack methods?
The four main methods are piece picking, batch picking, zone picking, and wave picking, and each one fits a different order volume and warehouse layout.
What is the difference between picking and packing?
Picking is retrieving the ordered items from their storage locations, while packing is preparing those items for shipment with boxing, protective materials, and labeling.
Is pick and pack only for e-commerce?
No, pick and pack is also used in retail replenishment, wholesale distribution, and manufacturing and business-to-business (B2B) logistics.