Packing and shipping orders

Overview

Packing turns picked stock into a ready-to-ship parcel. The packing workflow in WMS:

• Confirms the correct items are present (scan verification)
• Captures serial or batch information that must be verified at pack time
• Creates a shipment and prints a label via your Starshipit account
• Finalises stock movements and marks the order as shipped

Packing happens at a Packing Bench location — either after items have been picked and staged, or immediately after an expedited flow (Pack Now / Batch Pack Now).

The packing dashboard

The Packing dashboard shows orders and pack jobs that are ready to be packed. You will typically see:

• Orders with completed pick jobs, with items staged at a packing bench
• Expedited orders sent directly to a bench via Pack Now or Batch Pack Now

From the packing dashboard, select an order or batch to open the packing screen.

Packing a single order

1. Select an order from the Packing dashboard.
2. Review the items and quantities that should be present.
3. Scan the product barcode for each item as you place it in the carton:
   • For serial-tracked items: scan or enter each serial number.
   • For batch-tracked items: confirm the batch/lot and expiry date if required.
4. Repeat until all items are confirmed.
5. Select a packaging type (box, satchel, etc.) if required.
6. Click Pack & Print Label to create a shipment in Starshipit and print the shipping label.

WMS validates that:

• The correct SKUs are packed (wrong items will be flagged).
• The correct quantities are packed.
• All required tracking (serial/batch) has been captured.

If a discrepancy is found during packing

If an item is missing or wrong:

• Adjust the pick if it was a mis-pick.
• Update the order in Starshipit for substitutions or changes.
• Investigate stock levels via the inventory dashboard or movement logs.

Partial packing

If you need to ship part of an order now and the rest later:

1. Pack and confirm the items you have.
2. Select Partially Pack & Print Label.
3. WMS prints a label for the packed quantity and keeps the remaining items open.
4. The order moves to PARTIALLY_SHIPPED status.

The remaining items can be packed and shipped once the stock is available.

Pack screen customisation

The packing screen can be tailored to your workflow:

• Column layout — choose which columns appear in the items table, so packers see the fields most relevant to their process.
• Custom packaging — create packaging records directly from the pack screen when standard templates are not suitable.

When selecting packaging, WMS uses package dimensions from Starshipit. If dimensions look wrong, check the package configuration in your Starshipit account.

Packing summaries

A packing summary is a document listing items to be packed. You can generate:

• Order-level summaries — for a single order.
• Batch-level summaries — a consolidated list for multiple orders in a batch (commonly used with Batch Pack Now).

For Batch Pack Now workflows, WMS requires you to generate a packing summary before finalising. This acts as a consolidated pick/pack list — staff retrieve all items in one warehouse pass and sort them per order at the bench.

How labels are generated

Once packing is complete, WMS creates a shipment via Starshipit:

1. WMS calls Starshipit's API using your existing carrier rules and services.
2. Starshipit generates the shipping label and tracking number.
3. The label is sent to your label printer.
4. Starshipit fires an order_shipped webhook back to WMS.

WMS then:

• Marks the order as SHIPPED (or PARTIALLY_SHIPPED for partial packs).
• Finalises pick and pack jobs.
• Writes SHIPMENT stock movements to reduce on-hand inventory.

If a label fails to print due to a validation issue in Starshipit (such as a missing address or invalid service), WMS surfaces a clear, actionable error rather than a generic failure — so you know exactly what to fix before retrying.

Mobile packing

Mobile devices are automatically detected and redirected to a mobile-optimised packing experience. The mobile packing view supports:

• At-bench mode — load packing jobs assigned to a specific packing bench.
• By order number — look up and start a pack job by scanning or entering an order number.

Best practices

• Scan at packing to catch mis-picks. Barcode verification at the pack step is your last chance to catch the wrong item before it ships to a customer.
• Use partial packing rather than holding orders. If one item is out of stock, ship what you have rather than blocking the whole order.
• Use batch packing summaries for high-volume runs. For Batch Pack Now or large batch picks, consolidated summaries reduce sorting errors at the bench.
• Keep packing benches tidy. Staging clears the equipment location and moves stock to the bench — a tidy bench reduces mix-ups between orders.

Related guides

• Picking orders
• Expedited fulfilment (Pack Now & Batch Pack Now)
• Orders and allocation