Do you run your own warehouse? Then you're going to love today's article. If you don't, forward this to your 3PL.

Because today I'm going to show you how to optimize your warehouse for maximum pick'n'pack speed.

Studies show that pick and pack is between 50-75% of your total warehousing costs. So it's a BIG cost driver.

I spent my weekend obsessing over optimizing our warehouse: reading scientific papers about layout, storage, picking routes, and batching orders.

Here is how to make your pick'n'pack up to 70% faster (according to science):

How to store

It's best to store your products by the "within-aisle" principle.

It means storing your products ranked by sales, with your best-selling products on the aisles closest to the area where you pack. It’s represented by the small D, for depot, in the bottom-left of the images. The result is the same if your packing area is in the middle of your warehouse.

Our warehouse is designed like the "diagonal", which I would have guessed to be best. But "within-aisle" is marginally better.

How to select what to pick

You should pick orders in batches, not one at a time.

But never batch your orders by when they were placed— first come, first served (FCFS). It's REALLY slow.

Instead, batch orders by location or something else that makes the orders in the batch closer to each other when picking.

(Google seed algorithms if you want to go technical)

And the more orders you can pick in a batch, the better (obviously).

How to walk when picking a batch

The within-aisle principle is only best if you also walk around your aisles in an "S". It's called the "traversal" pattern.

Technically, there's a much faster route. But it requires a lot of computational power, an IT system that supports it, and a GPS for each picker. So traversal pattern is best for most.

(Google the lkh heuristic if you want to go the optimal, but very techinical, route).

Learn How To Design a Top-Selling Online Store

Your site is the final destination for all your marketing traffic. So optimizing your site makes all your other marketing sell more.

In my Online Store Blueprint, you learn 81 guidelines for designing a top-selling online store. Each guideline teaches you how to design a specific part of your store to sell the most.

“It's easy to digest and straight to the point with no bullshit theories and generic talk.”
- Martin Palsovic - Owner, Peqne

If you're new, you can start with the easy-to-implement guidelines and work your way up. If you're more experienced, dive into the more technical guidelines.

The Online Store Blueprint also includes guides on how to set up Google Analytics with Shopify and how to A/B test with Google Optimize.